Sunday Scoop - Fashion News & Accessories Trends

Discover the latest in fashion collaborations, brands to have on your radar and Gen Alpha beauty trends. Explore paracord accessories and get insights on the retail landscape.

The latest fashion news, brand review, paracord fashion accessories and tween beauty chat.

Fashion News to Know

• The Gap x American Girl collaboration is a smart move for back-to-school. While it may not be as exciting to the fashion set as the Dôen collab, it's well-timed and well-designed. It appeals to nostalgic parents and targets the Kindergarten thru 5th grade crowd perfectly. The doll accessory kit is a great touch. This collab might fly under the radar but hits the mark for its audience.

• Venette Ho (Managing Director at Raymond James) is the name to know in the beauty M&A world. She spoke with Business of Fashion on the beauty landscape at the moment. Great podcast listen.

• Sherri McMullen, expert fashion curator and founder of the renowned Oakland boutique McMullen, is expanding her retail presence to San Francisco. This move is a welcome bright spot in the city's challenged retail landscape, opening doors for boutiques with unique perspectives to thrive. McMullen's arrival signals new opportunities in San Francisco's fashion scene.

• Shiona Turini’s styling is epic (Beyoncé, Insecure, Queen & Slim Costume Design) but I love that the NYTimes profiled her personal jewelry choices. Amelia Diamond wrote for the NYTimes “The Jewelry Shiona Turini Never Takes Off” (gift link to read behind paywall.)

• Meta partnered with Ray-Ban (owned by EssilorLuxottica) on their glasses and now that EssilorLuxottica has agreed to acquire Supreme, Meta is looking to get involved too. They are in talks to acquire 5% of the business. Read more in the WSJ (gift link to read behind paywall.)

• Substack writers are helping to bring awareness to fashion & beauty brands and they are seeing conversion on links significantly higher than on other platforms. Highlighted in this Glossy article, higher open rates on sends, in-depth content, trust and loyalty with the authors and an audience of 3 million (up 80% year-over-year) is helping to drive Substack as a place of discovery and engagement. Thrilled that I’ve seen this firsthand with Retail Diary too!

DESTREE - Brand on my radar

Destree is a Parisian Women’s RTW and accessory brand created in 2016 in by Géraldine Guyot and Laetitia Lumbroso. They bring in influence from contemporary art and their silhouettes are both unique and incredibly wearable. Guyot graduated from Central St. Martins (Phoebe Philo, Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen are few other well known graduates.) The use of bright color, interesting prints and geometric designs sets the brand apart.

You probably recognize these suit jackets that can be worn with the matching pants or as a shirt with denim. If you are looking for a matching set, Destree has you covered.

The dresses also have interesting geometric details. This short dress is perfect for a daytime event. An asymmetric midi in black and cream is my kind of dress - I love this look.

More inside fashion connections, Géraldine Guyot is married to Alexandre Arnault, Bernard Arnault’s son (Alexandre lead Rimowa and is now at Tiffany & Co.), and Destree has already raised investment from Sequoia Capital China.

Summer Trend: Paracord

Easy to care for “strings” and paracord evokes summer camp and friendship bracelets.

• Sandals trending:

  • These popular sporty chic sandals from Miu Miu were loved as soon as they hit the Spring 2024 runway.

  • Free People has an under $100 paracord version

  • The most minimal version is Xero sandals**

• Handbag details:

  • Clare V. nylon bag has a tiny paracord detail.

  • Topologie has a build your own aspect to the brand - reversible nylon bags and cords to add.

• Jewelry trending:

  • Chan Luu has a surf style necklace and a fun anklet (summer of the anklet!) Both have pearl details and charms.

  • Gorjana has a bright paracord bracelet with a cool carabiner style latch where you can add a charm or keep it simple.

  • Ariel Gordon x Honestly WTF DIY kit with many ways to add paracord accessories to your look.

  • Roxanne First initials in the fun new Bubblegum Charms on a cord.

  • A puffy heart and paracord to fall in love with. (Puffy hearts are having a moment too!)

  • This Miu Miu bracelet matches the sandals.

    

Tweens talk Beauty

My Gen Alpha daughter and I had so much fun listening to this podcast together on the way back from a roadtrip. Sara Spruch-Feiner interviewed a few tweens for the Glossy Beauty podcast and these girls are informed and well researched! My daughter was nodding along and also loves all the brands mentioned. I reached out to Spruch-Feiner and we started chatting about this topic. A few more thoughts:

• The tweens use this app, OnSkin. I’ve downloaded as a resource to use too. I am using the free version.

• The tweens and parents are being really careful about ingredients they are using to stay away from acids and retinols (same in our house.)

• Curating their own collection is fun for them and all about collecting (again, I’ve seen this too.) I also think the brand loyalty question is so intriguing here. Brand loyalty has been really difficult with Gen X and Millennials but I think this younger generation right now is pretty brand loyal but as Spruch-Feiner mentioned it is also more about what products they can get their hands on, which ones they are attracted to and who is targeting them. The colorful packaging means so so much here.

• Brands they are loving: Sol de Janeiro, Bubble, Drunk Elephant, Rare Beauty (which just launched this new talc-free finishing powder) and Byoma.

Fashion Finds

• Métier’s Ease is an elegant evening clutch that can easily transition to daytime or be worn cross-body for evening too. Available in 9 fabrications and shades from Linen, Suede and Buffalo Leather. The functionality and versatility of Métier’s accessories are pretty epic and not often found in high-end lines.

• Next shoe to be copied? Alaia fishnet mule is easy for summer. Business of Fashion wrote about dupe culture here. I wrote about dupes/knockoffs in May here and 44% of readers also find it problematic and 33% saying it depends. I agree that it really depends and sometimes they are merely two items taking inspiration from similar reference points.

• With the temps super hot if you want a handbag that is less heavy, the Cesta Collective bags have hand dyed raffia with leather details made in Rwanda and hand finished in Italy. They feel light and airy for summer heat vs heavier all leather handbags.

• This handbag from St. Agni is another beautiful summer bag in white open weave leather.

PSA

• Frame - Use code SARAH15 for 15% off non-sale + non-exclusions. I love Frame denim and currently have a couple pairs of Le High Straight (my favorite everyday denim), this and these Jetset crop in my closet rotation. I’m very interested in trying this silhouette and these too.

🛍️ Quick note: I write a lot (too much good stuff to share!) so if you’re reading via email only, you may need to click through to the web version or read on the Substack app. I promise it will be worth it. 🛍️

Substacks to Scroll

• I learn so much from

  Rachel Karten
  and love this interview with Away’s Director of Social and Community Alice Chen. Away is having such a strong moment right now between summer travel experiences and the launch of their new Softside.

• Thank you

  Hey Mrs. Solomon on Style
  for this piece “5 experts. 10 looks. How not to feel like sh*t when it's hot as f*ck.” What we all needed this week.

Enjoy your Sunday! I’m off to the pool to stay cool wearing my favorite swimsuit. The material is excellent and holds up so well.

Enjoy your Sunday Scoop. xx

Sarah Shapiro

What’s Next

Paris Olympics, Back to School and still more summer style because it is so hot! I’ll be posting a sporty-fashion Fashion 🌀 Spiral next week in addition to the Deep Dive. So many fun posts for August including a brand interview I’m super excited about, another Brand Crush on a brand I know y’all are crushing on too and the start of a Fall Fashion 🌀 Spiral.

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