Hi — I’m in NYC for the quickest not even 24 hours. I’ll take any opportunity to come to my favorite city ever, but especially for the opportunity to sit with Substack and Balenciaga. This morning I'm on a panel at Advertising Week with Dan Robbins, Head of Brand Sponsorships at Substack and Drieke Leenknegt, Balenciaga's CMO. We will be talking about what makes brand and creator partnerships actually valuable, beyond reach and follower counts. Come say hi if you are attending. Tech Stage at 9:30am.
In this send: A merchant’s take on Danielle Bernstein’s We Wore What rebrand and what “inspired by” means in fashion. Plus: Victoria Beckham’s $75 lipstick, the jewelry case that reminds me of Trapper Keepers, Uniqlo returns to SF, art collaborations, Madelyn Somers Made Some track jackets, Liana Satenstein made a t-shirt, Chavie Lieber, the Chrysler Building’s upcoming glow up, summer camp jewelry, and ShopMy.
This Send in Numbers:
$1490: The Row’s buckle slide
$3 million: Victoria Beckham’s bet on daughter Harper’s beauty brand
1,200: people who signed up for Oner Active's NYC opening in the first 30 minutes
2.5 years: development time for Vintner’s Daughter’s new structural facial
Deep Dive
New Collabs — a slew of J.Crew
New Launches — more shearling shoes and the holiday beauty launches continue.
Wear Credit Is Due — a look at Danielle Bernstein’s We Wore What re-brand
New Store Openings & Pop-Ups — Chrysler Building getting a glow up and lots of California openings
People in the News — G-III puts Marc Jacobs brand in focus and Lululemon build their exec team
Job Board — think you could be a Super Chief of Staff?
In My Feed — A ShopMy profile and the jewelry that makes me happy
New Collabs
Maybe more of a true exclusive but there are also three styles that a collaboration. Barbour x J.Crew on a candy apple green coat, a waxed Black Watch plaid coat, and a super traditional Barbour style.
Another J.Crew collab, this time with ‘47 on a heritage inspired collegiate collection. This feels SO SO SO J.Crew. I’m always curious in these situations how the schools were selected. Was it by zip code data (seeing which universities order from J.Crew the most), an agreement with ‘47 on what the budget would allow, other agreements that ‘47 has in place???
Béis x Rare Beauty collab. Looks like the perfect holiday gift for a college student or a Gen Z-Alpha who needs a suitcase.
Art Collab Corner
Barrie, the knitwear house that is owned by Chanel and previously has collab’ed with Sofia Coppola, has a collaboration with Damien Hirst. More polka dot looks. The collection launches October 14th.
Gap x Whitney on a Roy Lichtenstein collection. I think the fleece looks fantastically fun.
New Launches
Tuesday I did a Forecast on how I would assort the trend of shearling shoes this season. It is a trend I’ve seen really taking off — a leather outer with a shearling liner. But the newest brand to launch at Mytheresa, Mou, is more of the casual and traditional shearling boots, booties, and mules. What I like about this brand, is if you want something interesting and looking for a brand other than the one we all think about when we imagine shearling boots, you have another option. Mini style out: The pair I’d wear, the traditional option, the cozy statement slip-on, and the real statement pair ready for Aprés Ski.
An item that should be on gift guides, I love this travel jewelry organizer and I told Ariel Gordon this feels way cooler than a trapper keeper and gives the same joy vibes.
I have one J.Crew sweater in my drawer, I believe it is about to enter its third winter with me. I consider it to be my coziest sweater — a black brushed cashmere crewneck. The cashmere brushed collection has launched but I’m surprised the solid crewnecks aren’t on the site. I’m assuming the basics are coming later??
Made Some Sportswear, the board shorts and board pants that were a huge hit and ShopMy top link this summer, just launched a cool new warm-up jacket and tote bag. I love that Madelyn Somers did the warm-up jacket as designer track jackets from YSL, Prada, and Miu Miu (and of course the Reformation x Umbro one quickly sold out) have been trending. Made Some’s version looks fantastic.
Liana Satenstein launched Oksana Worns, her own clasp t-shirt will be for sale on her Substack, NEVERWORNS, on October 14th. I love this approach. Have an idea for a thing, and just do it. Can be a single t-shirt. Maybe it becomes something more. But just do the thing. As she said in Feed Me:
ES: If your new shirt could talk, what would she say?
LS: Do it for yourself.
New Beauty Launches — Holiday Tracker Continues
I’ll keep updating the Private Label Holiday 2026 Tracker, I like having one spot to organize it all. What’s new this week:
Violette_fr has a whole slew of Holiday SKUs. I’d happily gift this set because I have the lipstick and love it. And this is the set I’d gift myself because I haven’t tried these products yet and it is an easy way to try (or great for travel).
Fara Homidi — if you have a friend to get a special small item for, the type of indulgence you might not buy for yourself, this is the one to get. The packaging on Fara Homidi feels like a real upgrade. There is also a set of 3 pencils. I like the product, but honestly feels like a lot of packaging for three pencils. I’d rather see a reusable pencil zip case (this is the designer version of what I’m thinking), tube, or a thick reusable rubber band with the FH logo.
New lipsticks from Victoria Beckham. Rouge Victoria. We need to talk about the price. It is $75 for a tube. I took a quick look at a few designer lipsticks for comparison. The VB Rouge Victoria is $11 under Hermès ($86 — but currently on sale for 15 percent off here). Dries Van Noten is $85 all in, also refillable, with $42 refills. Westman Atelier ($50) come in well below VB. WA is also refillable but it looks like the $34 refills on the WA site are all currently OOS1. From WA Je Rêve is my go-to shade.
For a quick comparison in how the brands position themselves, I also looked at complexion. VB's foundation is $110 for 30 mL versus Westman Atelier's* $69, about 60% more. (Note, I wear both of these foundations and love them both. I only wear foundation occasionally.) Victoria is charging a hefty price for the lipstick in a “keepsake” case, but currently it doesn’t appear to be refillable. Maybe the refills come later?
Also in the land of beauty launches and Victoria Beckham, she has invested $3 million in daughter Harper Beckham’s new beauty venture, Harlo by Harper.
I’m not considering this holiday, but I love Vintner’s Daughters for their slow growth and development. According to their marketing, the new Vintner’s Daughter Structural Facial took two and a half years to develop. You can get the facial at select spas, but they also released the Active Refining Mask which already appears to be out since they made a limited quantity. I still occasionally use their Active Botanical Serum and have for years. It feels so decadent.
Wear Credit Is Due
Chavie Lieber interviewed Danielle Bernstein, the Influencer and Entrepreneur behind the We Wore What blog and brand, for the WSJ. I read “She’s the Internet’s Most Polarizing Fashion Influencer — and She Knows It” (gift link) and had spiraling thoughts before I dug in, and of course they are still in my head spiraling even more after reading. In the article Bernstein explained that with her rebrand (more on that below) she will continue to take inspiration from other brands, but now it will be more luxury and designer labels like Khaite and The Row and she defends this by saying plenty of other brands do this too.
Yes, many brands do this, but the approach is still giving me pause.
What a $1,490 sandal from The Row and Steve Madden's Beatles defense tell us about WeWoreWhat's next move.
