Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. Glad to be back in Los Angeles, at my desk, in shorts, but sad I had to duck out of New York early because yesterday’s Lii show looked really good. (Get a load of this!) Rachel “Rachel@puck.news” Strugatz is here today with everything you need to know about Rhode’s Sephora launch but were afraid to ask. Up top, I’ve also got two scoops that will change the course of two American fashion businesses.

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Mentioned in this issue: Hailey Bieber, Rhode, Artemis Patrick, Sephora, Rihanna, Fenty, Selena Gomez, Rare, E.l.f., Saks Global, Will Cooper, Paolo Riva, Oscar de la Renta, Laura Kim, Fernando Garcia, Taylor Swift, Peter Copping, and many, many more…

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Two Things You Should Know…

A voluntary Saks exit: Will Cooper, a 20-year veteran of Saks Fifth Avenue, is leaving the business, I’m told. Cooper’s role was diminished somewhat in the integration with the arrival of Paolo Riva, the merged organization’s chief buying officer, who brought some of his own people with him from Neiman Marcus Group. For the past two years, Cooper had been the general merchandising manager of women’s ready-to-wear, shoes, and handbags. With the re-org, ready-to-wear was assigned to someone else, and he was essentially demoted back to handbags, shoes, and accessories. (As you can imagine, ready-to-wear is the plum job, even if shoes and handbags make the money.) The company has begun a search for this replacement, but in the meantime, Cooper’s team will report directly to Riva.

Where Cooper’s headed, I don’t know, but sources familiar with his exit said that it’s not another multibrand retailer. There aren’t that many left, after all. (Cooper could not be reached for comment.) In a statement, a spokesperson for Saks Global said, “Will has played an instrumental role as part of our Brand Partnerships & Buying leadership team, and we are grateful to Will for his many contributions over the years. The Saks Global Brand Partnerships & Buying team remains focused on curating distinct and inspiring luxury fashion assortments for Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.”
Another era ends at Oscar de la Renta: Big news out of Bryant Park: Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, Oscar de la Renta’s co-creative directors since 2016, are leaving the business to focus on their 10-year-old ready-to-wear label, Monse. Oscar de la Renta employees were notified of the change this afternoon. As part of the transition, Kim and Garcia, who are shareholders in the ODLR business, will be granted one seat on the company’s board of directors. Their final collection, Autumn/Winter 2026, will be released next February; they’ll also design a Pre-Fall collection for the brand’s 60th anniversary celebration in the Colonial City of Santo Domingo this December.

Yesterday, ODLR C.E.O. Alex Bolen called me up with Kim and Garcia in tow to discuss the change. In short, the pair wants to make a real go of it at Monse—they’re in the midst of raising money for the venture—and felt their time at Oscar de la Renta had run its course. And Bolen, who is also the son-in-law to the late designer, let them go with God. “I’ve been working at Oscar for 22 years,” Kim reminded me. (She is still a mere 43.) “I need a challenge, too—to do something I’m not comfortable with.” Garcia, who is 36, started at ODLR as an intern just a few years after Kim.

That’s essentially true. The only blip in their tenure was their brief, much-written-about stint at Carolina Herrera, in 2016, when Bolen named current Lanvin designer Peter Copping as de la Renta’s successor. The Copping arrangement was short-lived, and soon enough Bolen asked Kim and Garcia to return, and invested in their new label, Monse, as a form of reciprocity. They’ve been designing both ever since.

I asked Kim and Garcia why they thought it was a good idea to double down on Monse now. Sure, their 10th anniversary show on Sunday night, staged in an art and fashion storage garage in Long Island City, was one of their best ever: super clean, and reminiscent of the strong shirting and menswear-inspired silhouettes from their first show at the Norwood Club in 2015. Even then, Kim and Garcia’s special alchemy was undeniable: She’s masterful with a pattern, he’s skilled with V.I.P.s and V.I.C.s. (Both Amal Clooney and Sarah Jessica Parker wore Monse pieces before the collection even debuted.) And Kim and Garcia still have that magic touch—last summer, they instantly sold 800 units of a $1,690 jacket worn by Michelle Obama to the D.N.C.

But the fashion world has changed dramatically in the past decade, and young brands like Monse have even fewer options for distribution. Plus, Oscar de la Renta continues to perform as its reliance on department stores decreases. ODLR, which is controlled by the family and counts Gary Fuhrman’s GF Capital Management & Advisors as an outside investor, is on track to post a record sales year (more than $125 million) and plans to open five stores in 2026 and launch shoes. Earlier in 2025, Bolen hired the company’s first C.M.O., Chloe Popescu, from U.T.A.

This departure wasn’t part of the plan. Bolen made it clear to me that he had no interest in splitting with Kim and Garcia. They were an unorthodox choice to lead the brand after Copping left—they were not renowned on the global stage, whereas de la Renta was revered alongside the great European designers. But it turned out that their talent, and their understanding of the customer, offered a better path forward than choosing another big name. The brand became less and less about the runway, and more about the clothes.

In recent years, Bolen stopped staging shows at New York Fashion Week altogether, instead investing that budget into creating gowns for the red carpet. Garcia’s relationships with celebrities like Taylor Swift and stylists like Kate Young made it possible for Oscar de la Renta to show up prominently at awards ceremonies, despite not being able to contract celebrities the way the big European groups do. (Just this week, they dressed Miu Miu ambassador Sydney Sweeney for the Emmys.) They’re also great with clients. This evening, in fact, Bolen, Kim, and Garcia are hosting a 40-person, client-heavy dinner with Dominican chef Olivier Bur, partly in celebration of their spring collection. I suppose they’ll have plenty else to discuss.

While Bolen doesn’t seem desperate for an exit—this is a family-controlled business, after all, and the plan is for it to remain independent—there must be some expectation of a return on the GF Capital side. (Last year, the company entertained a process with the support of Rothschild, but nothing materialized.)

In short, it seems like an inopportune time for Kim and Garcia to leave ODLR. However, Bolen attributed the company’s current success—in part, the wealthy clientele who are still spending money—to the same reason that Kim and Garcia feel ready to leave the nest. There’s a rare chance right now for people who “know how to sell clothes,” to get ahead, as both Kim and Bolen put it.

Meanwhile, Bolen said he’s in no hurry to find their successor. Kim and Garcia will be around for the next few months, and the team in place is established. But in order to keep things moving, he’ll need a creative director to help open those five new stores, and further develop the messaging with Popescu, who repped Kim on the talent side when she was an agent. (I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an internal promotion, given how well this one went.)

Bolen will also need to find someone who is comfortable dressing across the aisle. ODLR has always been a brand for politicians and politicians’ wives, and Bolen made headlines when the team outfitted various people adjacent to the current administration—including Ivanka Trump and second lady Usha Vance—for the inauguration festivities. And then there’s the Taylor Swift wedding gown prospects. “It’s hard to solve exactly, but we’ve built a great machine, and in the near-term future, I’m not very worried about it,” Bolen said. “I got it wrong once before, and that looms large in my mind.”

And now, here’s Rachel…

The Hailey Bieber Blitzkrieg

Backed by a billion dollars from E.l.f., Hailey Bieber’s Rhode has finally arrived at Sephora and is taking the beauty business—and its many skincare competitors—by storm. Meanwhile, Sephora itself is pivoting to favor newer, TikTok-favored labels, showing that even legacy brands aren’t forever.

Rachel Strugatz

The Summer of Rhode is coming to an end, and it did not disappoint. In May, Hailey Bieber’s beauty juggernaut was acquired by E.l.f. Beauty in a deal that was valued at a cool billion, and shortly after Labor Day became Sephora’s most anticipated retail launch in years. Of course, Bieber’s “clean girl” skincare and makeup was always projected to put up huge numbers, but I’m told the first week—especially the first day—was a “blowout.” Frankly, I don’t think anyone expected the launch to be this successful.

In the end, Rhode’s debut was the largest in the retailer’s history, according to several sources—smashing records once held by Rihanna’s Fenty and Selena Gomez’s Rare. Two people with knowledge of the numbers confirmed that Rhode’s first day sales totaled approximately $15 million across Sephora’s North American stores and online. Bieber herself apparently quoted a figure slightly below that while ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange a day after launch. (Spokespeople for Sephora and Rhode declined to comment.)

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

JEWELRY AS HIGH ART

David Yurman High Jewelry is the pinnacle of the

House’s creative expression and artistry,

marrying form and color with exceptional

craftsmanship for modern collectors.

The Liberty collection evokes the spirit of New York

City’s iconic skyline. Bespoke-cut diamonds and

luminous emeralds are hand-set in white gold, radiating

icy perfection like the Statue of Liberty’s crown.

Book a private appointment: concierge@davidyurman.com

EXPLORE DAVID YURMAN

When I visited Sephora’s SoHo outpost on Thursday, the day of the launch, I witnessed crowds huddled around the brand’s shelves, so I circled back a few days later to see what was left. I was told by a person close to Sephora that all the makeup and some skincare in the highly trafficked SoHo store sold out “within hours” on launch day before a full restock the following Monday. This person compared the rollout to Fenty’s, which debuted in Sephora in September 2017 and is considered one of the retailer’s biggest launches of all time. “This blew Fenty out of the water,” they said.

Still, some were perplexed by Sephora’s lack of foresight. The end goal is always to sell through inventory, but to sell out of so many items within hours meant that Sephora’s purchase orders missed the mark. “So many stores are sold out. How could they have messed that up?” said a person with knowledge of the rollout. In some ways, it’s a testament to one of the most compelling––if not the most compelling––things about Rhode, which is the strength of its individual products. To wit, Rhode launched with 16 SKUs at Sephora, but there’s only really about 10, given that several are combo kits or mini versions of marquee products. To sell that much product, with so few items available, is pretty remarkable.

A Shorter Shelf Life

Rhode’s entrée into Sephora also marks the first real operational challenge for the brand, which was originally intended to be a lean, direct-to-consumer business with few employees and minimal overhead. After E.l.f. backed up the Brink’s truck, Rhode immediately staffed up and prepped for wholesale distribution. In my mind, the biggest question was whether Rhode could efficiently leverage E.l.f.’s wholesale expertise, hiring abilities, and technological backbone to service a retailer at scale. So far, the answer seems to be yes.

And yet, while Rhode’s early success at Sephora is a testament to the E.l.f. integration, the retailer gets a big share of the credit, too. Sephora has been on a tear lately. Over the past six weeks, it has launched a number of exclusive, personality-driven brands, from celebrity makeup artists and hairstylists to underage influencers and industry veterans: Hung Vanngo Beauty, M.ph by Mary Phillips, Chris McMillan’s hair products, Melanie Bender’s Lore, etcetera. And who could forget Sincerely Yours, the controversial skincare brand from 15-year-old influencer Salish Matter? (Casey Lewis identified a few red flags surrounding it here.) Still, earlier this month, a Sincerely Yours event at American Dream Mall reportedly drew a crowd of over 80,000.

But no brand on Sephora’s shelves can match Bieber’s selling power. According to a person close to Sephora, “Rhode’s sucking all the oxygen out of the room for every other brand—everyone’s showing up only for that.” In other words, at least for now, Rhode hasn’t given Sephora the “halo effect” many had hoped for. “There are only so many finite dollars, especially in this market when everything’s soft,” an insider said, adding that there’s a “full expectation” that Rhode’s closest competitors, including Glossier and Rare, are going to start feeling the effects.

Naturally, Sephora has been preparing for this exact scenario. The retailer is hyperfocused on churn and expecting shorter brand lifespans—not only because of Rhode, but also on account of the ruthless brand-turnover cycle that defines modern retail. Alas, what were once decades-long partnerships now last just three to five years. “I remember when Fenty was the Rhode, and then Rare was the Rhode,” said a high-profile founder. “And that’s okay––these brands don’t need to last forever.”

So far, Sephora’s done a decent job adapting to this new reality. Under Artemis Patrick, the extremely talented C.E.O. of Sephora North America, the retailer has reinvented how brands are merchandised and marketed, with a bias toward the short-term partnerships and new, exclusive-to-Sephora brands over legacy lines you can find in any department store. They recently launched creator platforms, where influencers can make shoppable Sephora storefronts à la Amazon, often featuring indie brands. “They’re in maximum benefit territory,” the insider said. “They can just hop onto the next hottest thing.”

No reading list today. I’ll be back with one tomorrow.

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.

Puck’s daily art market email, anchored by industry expert Marion Maneker, offers unparalleled access to the mega-auctions and galleries, elite buyers and sellers, and the power players who run this opaque world. Wall Power also features Julie Brener Davich, a veteran of Christie’s and Sotheby’s, who provides unique insights into how the business really works.

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