Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. Yes, I read it! I’m on vacation! (And if you don’t know what exactly “it” is that I’m referring to… maybe that’s better.) More to come next week.

Anyway, Sarah Shapiro is in the driver’s seat today, with the retail news you need up top and a look at the state of teen-girl fashion. When I was growing up, the trashy teen mall brands—where you’d buy the too-short skirts—included Rave, 5-7-9, and Contempo Casuals (although Contempo possessed a touch of class). Prom dresses were sourced at Macy’s and Jessica McClintock, and vintage was reserved for only the most alternative. Fast fashion, starting here in the States with Forever 21, disrupted the whole system.

Today, there is a proliferation of (mostly) quick-turnaround producers that you’ve probably never heard of—including Edikted, Peppermayo, and KatieJNYC—that are serving the TikTok generation with teeny dresses to wear with their Sambas. As a mom of a preteen daughter, Sarah has firsthand experience with this parallel fashion industry and is here to tell the tale.

Mentioned in this issue: Macy’s, Nordstrom, Abercrombie, KatieJNYC, LoveShackFancy, RushTok, Babyboo Fashion, Peppermayo, Lulus, Cider, Princess Polly, Target, Brian Cornell, Michael Fiddelke, and many more…

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Sarah Shapiro

Three Things You Should Know…

Target’s executive shuffle: Target C.E.O. Brian Cornell will soon step into the role of executive chairman, and C.O.O. Michael Fiddelke—who started at Target as an intern back in 2003—will take the big chair beginning in February of next year. The stock fell 10 percent on the announcement, but is slowly climbing back up. Investors had their fingers crossed for an outsider C.E.O.—someone to bring a fresh outlook to the big box retailer.
Abercrombie Kids wholesale: This week, Abercrombie officially launched wholesale for their kids division, with more than 1,000 retail partner locations in major department stores: Macy’s, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, etcetera. The brand has a foothold in the youth market and has proven that it can sell, but it will be interesting to see whether strong sales continue with expanded distribution and more availability. Abercrombie will share their Q2 earnings next Wednesday.
New store openings: It was a busy week for new store announcements. Ganni is expanding to the Midwest with a Chicago store. … Austin, Texas–based Tecovas opened a 4,500-square-foot flagship in SoHo. … British dress and work-appropriate brand Me+Em is continuing its U.S. expansion with new stores in Greenwich, Connecticut, and L.A.’s North Beverly Drive. … Ann Mashburn opened at Brentwood Country Mart next to Sid Mashburn. … And Marfa Stance is opening a three-month pop-up at Marin Country Mart.

And now, the main event…

The Week in Shopping: The RushTok Economy

As rush winds down and homecoming season kicks off, the season’s viral sorority aesthetic has shifted from college campus to high schools and the tween set. A few brands have nailed this corner of the market—but the real challenge is staying ahead of the algorithm.

Sarah Shapiro

RushTok, the annual TikTok event in which SEC freshmen run the sorority gauntlet, has become something of a niche national pastime, as reliable as late-summer heat waves and out-of-office emails. It also happens to present a gold mine of information on the latest youth fashion trends. This season, of course, RushTok is all about silky or satin-blended minidresses, with details like an appliqué flower or bow. A Babyboo Fashion bow dress and several Revolve looks are also trend staples, along with LoveShackFancy’s flouncy minidresses. (LSF has become so embedded in the “culture” that sororities now dedicate entire theme days to it—often in partnership with the brand.)

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Now, as rush winds down and homecoming season kicks off, the season’s sorority aesthetic appears to be trickling down from college campuses to high schools and the tween set. Of the brands that have nailed this corner of the tween market, KatieJNYC has distinguished itself with its scaled-down versions of adult partywear, which arrive at your doorstep in a bright pink box. It’s the brand that moms text to one another for near-guaranteed daughter placation: Their ruched minidresses have effectively become the uniform for tween formal events, especially in the b’nai mitzvah circuit, which these days can amount to two dozen Saturday night parties a school year.

KatieJNYC’s business model is straightforward: Launch one viral silhouette in a few colors, then, if demand surges, expand into multiple shades—basically every color in the Crayola universe, including neons—and/or tweak the cut. In doing so, they’ve cracked a tough merchandising code: winning over parents, who pay the bills, and kids, who need their party outfits. Their prices fall somewhere between cheap mall staples and pricey department-store items in the $120 to $180 range. It’s also notable that for b’nai mitzvahs, sweet 16s, and many high-school dances, all the girls wear sneakers like Nike Air Force 1s and Adidas Sambas. (Prom remains a high-heel sandal event though.)

Algorithmic Fashion

Retailers like Cider have built proprietary tools to keep up with these trends, tracking hashtags and TikToks so they can anticipate demand, and then race products to market. But that’s only half the equation: The bigger challenge is in managing inventory, and exiting before consumer interest fades.

Traditional retail still runs on seasonal cycles, in which a buyer views a line, selects items, places a purchase order, and then waits for them to ship. Sometimes, it can take up to eight months before an item arrives on the sales floor. But with the rise of algorithmic fashion, brands can spot a viral moment and have similar styles available in as little as six days. That’s why younger generations have gravitated toward buying directly from brands: A Pymnts survey found that 43 percent of Gen Z shoppers prefer to do so, compared with 32 percent of Millennials.

In this late-summer cycle, the dominant brands include Peppermayo, Lulus, Cider, Princess Polly, and Babyboo Fashion. Edikted, which has a limited store count, has also been hosting influencer events in cities like Miami and Nashville to court teens, and other brands are moving into direct marketing with sororities and campus bookstores. But even though the presence of more brands gives the illusion of choice, everyone is essentially chasing the same dominant trends circulating on social media. After all, each generation gets its own defining look—this one just happens to be defined by algorithmic herding. The question I really want answered, though, is how on earth these brands are coming up with their names.

Have a great weekend,
Lauren

P.S.: We use affiliate links because we are a business. We may make a couple bucks off them.

Puck fashion correspondent Lauren Sherman and a rotating cast of industry insiders take you deep behind the scenes of this multitrillion-dollar biz, from creative director switcheroos to M&A drama, D.T.C. downfalls, and magazine mishaps. Fashion People is an extension of Line Sheet, Lauren’s private email for Puck, where she tracks what’s happening beyond the press releases in fashion, beauty, and media. New episodes publish every Tuesday and Friday.

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