The Rundown: It's All Prep
From quilted bags to Nantucket Influencer drama.
I’ve gotten requests for retail, fashion, and beauty job postings. I’ve been sharing a few in the chat but I’ll share more soon in the newsletter. If you are looking for talent (and my readers are so talented!) send me a quick note at sarah@privatelabel.ltd and I’ll compile and share.
Today’s Rundown
Fresh Receipts — I’m obsessing over new Valesque and everything else
Loving Hands of Luxury — Celine’s take on a quilted bag and how it all connects to a craft movement. Let’s 🌀 fashion spiral 🌀
Influencers vs a Shop in Nantucket — How did we get here and who has weighed in
Forecast — More Gift Guides in 2026
In My Feed — A podcast and show I really enjoyed
What’s Next
In this send: I love how today’s big stories are related to prep fashion. From a quilted bag trend spiral to Nantucket influencer drama. Plus: Rachel Strugatz, Gap’s Heaven, Emily Holt, Hero Shop, Valesque, crushed velvet, Uniqlo quarter-zip, Loewe pineapple jelly shoe, Hello Kitty, Hart Jewelry, Hill House Home, petite denim, Nour Hammour, Chellams, Vera Bradley, Pierre Deux, Liberty London, London College of Fashion, fat quarters, bug eyed sunglasses, Hunza G x Burberry, Needlepoint, That Crochet Guy, Lily Eve, fashion hoarder, Nantucket Friendship Basket, “No Influencers”, Paige Lorenze Paul, Julia Berolzheimer, Frances Valentine, Traackr, ShopMy, TikTok Shop, Heirlome, Laura Vinroot Poole and I can’t list everything so keep reading and subscribe.
Fresh Receipts
Heaven Scent: After much anticipation (seriously, Rachel Strugatz has been writing about Gap Beauty and the return of the scents since 2025) Gap announced that their 5 scents — Heaven, Dream, Grass, Om, and Harmony — that originally launched in 1994 would make a return on July 30th. I’m interested to see if the conversation is à la Hailey Bieber x Gap Denim or more Gap stripe sweater as a printed mesh tank top. [Gap] I’m also curious to see where the beauty category is put in the navigation. I’m writing on Monday July 27th and it is not up yet on the site.
A Fashion Candy Bowl: Valesque’s latest bags are hitting now. Do not wait! I immediately reached out to Emily Holt at Hero Shop at Marin Country Mart and she let me know they were receiving their delivery Monday. I’ve already placed my order and will be picking up this week. I have the Thea in slate (a light grey) but I’ve now added a red. On Net-a-Porter they have a large assortment too. The Thea in crushed velvet (hello yellow!), this lightweight tote (I love in Navy, but they have black too) and I plan to use when working and schlepping my kids around for activities, the spaghetti strap handbag is already sold out, but you can also order from Hero Shop and there is also a petite handbag in a crushed velvet. It’s like trick-or-treating without the cavities.
If you are more into new Pleats Please versus sourcing secondhand (pant suit here, love this color, a vest, and a cardigan with tags) there are so many great pieces. Like this green midi skirt, a matching top, straight leg pants in a bold color, and a Miró-like top.
More new at NAP that got my attention: The Row boots, and the mohair scarf, adding these great Proenza Schouler ballet flats go in the high vamp flats category I wrote about this weekend, but these Jil Sander flats with the vibram soul feel like a totally different category, I need to try this Agolde t-shirt because it looks like possibly the best grey t-shirt ever (this is my current all time favorite best grey t-shirt), and if you like Literary Sport I think you would be into the new delivery from Rier.
Clare Waight Keller’s latest delivery at Uniqlo, new sweats, have arrived. My personal favorite is this quarter-zip sweatshirt.
Our cool, fresh, modern QVC host Liana Satenstein is hosting a Free People Archival Collection live on Wednesday 7/29 at 6:45pm ET on Substack and Free People’s TikTok. Be there or be square.
Jelly fruit for your feet. Loewe’s Pineapple Paula’s Ibiza peep toe sandals.
Hitting another Nostalgia x Teen collaboration: Hello Kitty x MadHappy. This follows their collab with Roxy. The Hello Kitty collab is ideal for the teenager who loves back to school shopping for stationery in particular.
Launching on July 30th, Hill House Home x Hart Jewelry. The collection includes charms, playing off of both of their seaside collections with a mermaid and a special pink bezel. Cords are made from fabric in Hill House prints.
And find fresh receipts at the new Hill House Home that just opened in Georgetown.
L’agence launched petite denim.
Nour Hammour jackets have started arriving and assuming they will be as popular and in demand as LY (last year) you should make your decision soon. This suede is gorgeous and I’m expecting the funnel neck to make an impact this fall. My early Forecast.
Congrats Charu on the launch of Chellams. Read more here on her Substack. For someone who covers small brands from really cool female founders this launch makes so much sense! So proud of you.
Lola Blankets launches a bandana print on July 31st. My kids love Lola Blankets. At this point I’ve bought an XL for my parents that started the obsession. I’ve now influenced their friends to buy and my kids now each have their own blanket.
The Look Of Loving Hands At Home, But Luxury
The 🌀 Fashion Spiral 🌀 Prints, Patchwork, and Talking Crafts
This spiral started with a comment from a Private Label reader “why isn’t Vera Bradley capitalizing on this moment” Carrie Crecca Maitoza caught herself scrolling eBay for vintage Vera Bradley bags and wasn’t sure why and then she traced it back to Imani Randolph and her comment on Substack that Celine’s new quilted patchwork tote looks like Vera Bradley. We all had this collective moment but others might go a bit further back and remember Pierre Deux. The quilted bag with a Provençal print that launched in 1967 (before Vera Bradley’s debut in 1982) but filed for Chapter 7 in 2011. Fear not, Pierre Deux is also taking this quilted pattern moment to stage a comeback. Stay tuned. And for a great explainer on Vera Bradley check out Emma Apple Chozick’s breakdown on Instagram. I’ll likely write more later as to what is going on at Vera Bradley. That is a different story — audience and brand positioning versus product/merchandise.
As I had this little spiral in my head Gab Waller and Emily Sundberg both added to it. Waller posted over the weekend that the pre-orders on the exact Celine bag were through the roof and totally unrelated (most likely) Sundberg mentioned in Monday’s Feed Me with a stat about Liberty London’s fabric department. I remember this department from when I was studying abroad at the London College of Fashion. I would regularly channel check (I’ve been channel checking since birth) Liberty London and visit the fabric department and pick up Fat Quarters1 with my small student budget. It was what I could afford but I knew I had to sew something cool with it. I often made tiny handbags which is possibly why I love Valesque so much right now. All of this is how I ended up in a spiral connecting the Celine tote to sewing classes at a London department store. Bear with me, there’s a thru-line I promise.
Prints Charming
The Celine bag — quilted, patchwork, and in what I often refer to as a ditzy-print — is besides the Chanel and Hermès handbags, what people are excited by. I asked Gab Waller who sources in-demand products for what shoppers can’t locate on their own (and since this item is not sold online and a limited amount were made you will likely need the service of a sourcer to locate) and she told me that the moment Celine posted on their Instagram May 27th — and it was the second image in a carousel — she immediately received several requests for this tote. Currently Celine is Waller’s second best selling and most requested brand at the moment with the handbags and the oversized (what are being referred to as bug-eyed) sunglasses as the in-demand items. Since this bag was produced in such limited quantities and won’t launch online she isn’t surprised demand has been through the roof.
Other brands have also been leaning into print and pattern and collab. Think of Hunza G x Burberry at the beginning of the summer. I still think that was an excellent mash-up and well executed. To bring it back to other recognizable prints and a collab, Adidas x Liberty very recently had a high conversion of clicks when I wrote about it earlier this summer. (Ohhh! A Hunza G x Liberty collab would be very fun!)
Crafting the Story
This isn’t just a print story, it is a DIY and analog story too. From Emily Sundberg in Feed Me this week: “Fabric sales at Liberty London rose 11% YoY. In response, the department store doubled its fabrics department, and plans on hosting sewing classes this autumn.” The data shows us that it isn’t just Liberty London that is experiencing this. Needlepoint searches are up 251 percent and sewing is up 152 percent year-over-year per Michaels’ 2026 Creativity Trend Report.
I’ve been tracking and wrote about the crafting and repair trend earlier this summer. Fendi’s needlepoint baguette, FXRY’s repair services, the Nest partnership with Tory Burch and Dôen. The print revival and crafting boom are the same instinct and all the look of the crafters circle. My algorithm is also filled with other crafting moments. Will we see Longchamp or other brands take on bags like this or That Crochet Guy’s Birkins launch the next not-an-actual-Birkin-but-close?
Ending This Spiral
A little shoppies moment for what is on my mind as I pulled this together:
Celine’s Quilted Jacket seems to be almost as popular as the totes
Ralph Lauren’s Quilted Jacket, another prep staple
The Great has a great bandana print bomber jacket
Veronica Beard’s cropped jacket also has bandana vibes
A Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA based store — House of Cardoon — sells these one-of-a-kind quilted jackets.
Lily Eve’s repurposed Hermès blanket jackets bringing crafting and prep together again
Call It By Your Name now has apparel and of course all of their quilted bags fit in here too. And the Mini Coton stroller bags
Farm Rio on final sale and ba&sh has a quilted jacket on sale too.
I love Dôen’s quilted toiletry bags for travel
Vintage!!! eBay Vera Bradley Jacket, Etsy, Poshmark, or just look in your closet. Believe it or not I still have this and the matching garment bag similar to this. And I still use this (in a different pattern) for my flat iron. It has outlasted the 4 or so flat irons I’ve owned since high school. I am so not a print person, but I am a fashion hoarder and grew up in the suburbs with a mom who loved Vera Bradley.
🛍️ Quick note: I write a lot (too much good stuff to share!) 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. 🛍️
Influencers vs Shops in Nantucket
There has been a battle brewing on Instagram between Four Winds Craft Guild — which sells the $2,100 to $4,400 handmade baskets (Nantucket Friendship Baskets) that are made locally — and Influencers. The store has been around since 1948 but it is their “No Influencers” sign that has gotten them into the news lately.
