Hi, and welcome to Line Sheet, and the Jonathan Anderson era of Dior. Later this week, I’ll have more on what’s happening behind the scenes at LVMH’s second-largest fashion brand as Anderson prepares for his first men’s show. Today, though, we’re looking at the Kardashian business—and, in particular, the evolving relationship between the family and their closest collaborators, Jens and Emma Grede. Up top, you’ll find some hints of what’s to come from Michael Rider’s Celine, intel on a beloved designer’s new project, and a conversation about craft. In other news: Early this evening, I’m hopping on a plane to Europe to interview Veja co-founder Sébastien Kopp at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. (If you’re around, let me know.) I’m a big fan of Séb and admire what he’s built with Veja—both from a brand and infrastructure perspective—and look forward to having a no-B.S. catch-up with him. Programming note: Tomorrow on Fashion People, Gro Curtis joins me to discuss the news of the week (Dior, Celine, Kardashians) as well as his just-launched magazine, Icon America. Everyone loves Gro, and so will you. Listen here and here. For those of you with the Shoppies: At the recommendation of the beautiful and fit stylist Karolyn Pho (who also publishes a great recipe Substack), I ventured to the San Fernando Valley (Studio City, to be exact) to try Burn, a sculpting-HIIT-strength class that employs infrared heat and LED light therapy. If that sounds insane, it was—but also pretty great. Of course, I did a survey of what people in the class were wearing. They overindexed on Lululemon (this is the Valley, after all), but I’d venture to say that Los Angeles–based Set Active, founded in 2018, seems to have supplanted Alo as the go-to, well, set for those who really care about wearing a set. In particular, the Breathe triangle bra worn with the high-rise shorts. Mentioned in this issue: The Gredes, the Kardashians, Popular Culture, Skims, Celine, Hedi Slimane, Michael Rider, Bernard Arnault, Ralph Lauren, Sander Lak, the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, LVMH, Kunimasa Aoki, Delphine Arnault, Elliott Hill, Taylor Swift, and many more…

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Three Things You Should Know…

But will it be Celine or Céline?: Images of some of Celine’s Fall/Winter 2025 menswear collection leaked onto the internet last week. I don’t know if there’s a usable link to share, but let me describe what I’m seeing: standard, in-between designer fare, with turtlenecks layered under button-ups; preppy widish-shoulder blazers; pop-collar coats; relaxed jeans and trousers. In short, far less exacting than Hedi Slimane, but not totally divorced from him, either. As for whether this hints at what’s to come from Michael Rider in July…? Perhaps, although I suspect he will deliver a far more realized vision than what many anticipate. Rider, of course, worked for Phoebe Philo for years at Céline, and was one of the designers in the running to replace her before Bernard Arnault decided on the Hedi strategy. He then went to work for Ralph Lauren, where he successfully revived Polo with the support and blessing of Lauren himself. (This is not a company where change is easy to accomplish.) Now, he’s returning to a brand that is twice as big as when he left, and which required hundreds of millions of dollars in investment to reposition. Rider’s challenge is also considerable for other, more nuanced reasons. In short, he needs to serve as a uniting force by creating something that looks nothing like Hedi, and nothing like Phoebe, but honors the bourgeois spirit of the brand. In the process, he also needs to avoid alienating the Hedi customer—as Hedi, of course, did to many Phoebe customers when he took over.
A new day for Sander Lak?: I’m hearing that Sies Marjan designer Sander Lak is launching a new brand this week. Lak, who co-founded Sies Marjan with the backing of Nancy Marks (wife of Oaktree Capital co-founder Howard Marks), has remained in the designer-gig conversation mix since Sies Marjan closed at the beginning of the pandemic. It helped that he published a book in 2022; I also personally thought he’d be a good choice to succeed Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough at Proenza Schouler. Now, though, it seems that Lak is striking out on his own, and will launch something in the realm of menswear. I suspect more will be revealed in the coming days or weeks. (I reached out to Lak for comment, but have yet to hear back.)
We have reached Peak Craft?: Last week, LVMH announced the winner of its 2025 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, which was bestowed upon Japanese sculptor Kunimasa Aoki for his incredible 2024 piece, Realm of Living Things 19. It was chosen by a body of 30 judges, and he’ll receive €50,000 for the selection. The prize, launched in 2016 under the watch of then-creative director Jonathan Anderson, was integral in helping to position Loewe as a craft-led brand. It’s a common narrative these days, but was fairly novel back when everyone was talking about heritage and sustainability. Now, “craft” is the buzzword du jour: Last week’s fabulous Bottega Veneta campaign, shot by Jack Davison, ran with the tagline “Craft is our Language.” As I’ve said many times, the brands that people are willing to pony up for right now are rooted in materials and craft, not fashion, so I understand the desire to dig in further. The challenge here is to ensure the word doesn’t lose all of its meaning, which is usually what happens in these circumstances. By then, it’s likely that Loewe and Bottega will have moved on, but here’s hoping we don’t end up with an H&M advertisement featuring the C-word.

And now, on to the Kardashians…

Scenes From the Kardashians-Grede Marriage

Over the past decade, Emma and Jens Grede turbocharged the Kardashian/Jenner business empire—driving sales of denim and bodysuits and dish soap—while creating the mold for celebrity brands. But the Gredes also have businesses of their own, and their holdco, Popular Culture, and the Kardashian family businesses seem to be slowly but surely drifting apart.

Lauren Sherman

A few weeks back, I heard that Kris Jenner was exploring her options. In particular, the matriarch of the family that has played an outsize role in defining this age of celebrity—stretching the band of good taste and establishing new standards of beauty along the way—was considering alternatives to her current working relationship with Jens and Emma Grede, the European retail executives who have helped build many of her famous daughters’ most successful businesses. Looking back on the recent-ish history of fashion, there are less than a handful of executive-designer relationships that helped shape the trajectory of the industry: Calvin Klein and Barry Schwartz; Marc Jacobs and Robert Duffy; Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé; and Tom Ford and Domenico De Sole, among them. Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede, the C.E.O. of Skims, also belong in that category. Long before most celebrities were thinking about owning their own brands, Jens and his wife, Emma, identified that pairing the right famous person with the right product could create retail magic, but only with the right execution.

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Emma, who had worked with Kris Jenner in her previous life running an entertainment marketing company, originally pitched the momager on the denim line Good American. Denim was a category that the Gredes knew and understood, but they also pinpointed two other factors that would aid in its success: They offered a depth and breadth of sizing that no other pop denim line had back in 2016 (the word “inclusive” had barely entered the water), and they identified Khloé Kardashian as the right sister to deliver the message. After Good American came Skims with Kim (2019), Safely with Kris Jenner and family friend Chrissy Teigen (2021), and eventually Khy with Kylie Jenner (2023). The Kardashians have developed plenty of other product businesses along the way, including Kylie Cosmetics; Kourtney’s uber-popular gummies, Lemme; and Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila. Khloé sells protein popcorn. As Skims prepared for its near-inevitable initial public offering, it seemed like it would eventually serve as the crown jewel of a much larger strategic group—the role that Victoria’s Secret played for Les Wexner’s Limited Brands. And yet, from what I’m hearing, it seems that the dynamic between the Kardashians and the Gredes has changed. In fact, what the Gredes are building at Popular Culture, their holdco, is increasingly separate from the Kardashians. Yes, Good American is still in there, but Khloé was never more than a spokesperson. Now, the Gredes are investing in new categories (like luxury, with The Elder Statesman) and new people, like 49ers WAG Kristin Juszczyk, whose upscale spin on Starter jackets of yore, Off Season, was launched in partnership with Emma and Fanatics. Emma has also become something of a Girlboss 2.0, appearing on Shark Tank and launching a podcast where she interviews other entrepreneurs, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Rubin, and Karlie Kloss. Plus, they still have Frame, the denim line that started it all. It’s profitable, still growing (up 30 percent year over year, I hear), and presumably sellable. The Gredes seem to be focusing on their own company over other non-Skims Kardashian ventures, like Khy, which, as I reported last year, was searching for a new C.E.O. amid a recapitalization. (Of course there wasn’t a world in which Jens would also be able to run Khy if it took off, but it was made clear to me that the Gredes have only a minor stake in that business.) Safely, the “clean” house products, originally launched with Teigen in tow, has failed to impress. Skeptics are convinced it will close, and I’ve been told they have had trouble raising a new round of funding. (Defenders note that the brand recently debuted in Kroger, Amazon, and Bloomingdale’s. We’ll see.) Finally, sales at Good American, once a fast-growing category killer, have slowed significantly, probably due to a mix of overdistribution and lack of meaningful participation on Khloé’s part. The business, which went through a failed process a couple of years back, has entered a new distribution deal with Macy’s and brought in a chief product officer from Aritzia, so perhaps there is still hope of an exit. The brand generates well over $100 million a year and is profitable, despite the Kardashian sheen wearing off.

Kardashian Fatigue

For now, the likelihood of the Kardashians and Gredes building another business together seems slim. The one thing holding them together is Skims, which I’m told will remain in Jens’s oversight as the company navigates the tariff mess and an attempt to ramp up store openings on a path to an I.P.O., which may be further delayed. Many expected Skims to go public by the end of 2024. I’d be surprised if it happens before the end of 2026. Then there’s the NikeSkims launch, which was set to take place this spring, but has yet to materialize.

To me, though, the slow-motion conscious uncoupling is less about two families drifting apart than about the diminishing role of the Kardashians in popular culture—a double entendre for the Gredes’ company. We’ve seen, from the hundreds of copycats of their model, that a famous person alone cannot make a brand successful. But the Gredes are good at identifying tastemakers, and then using that influence to create a reputable product that reflects their taste and drives meaningful business results. And, after a decade in the business, it seems like they’ve found the ultimate arbiters in plain sight: themselves.

What I’m Reading…

Taylor Swift, who was recently able to buy back her early music catalog from a private equity firm, never lets the Fashion Police down. First, she styled a perfectly lovely, currently sold-out Dôen dress with a belt featuring… a chain? The dress doesn’t look right belted regardless, but the chain drooping down from the belt adds further confusion. Then, for dinner at Monkey Bar, she wore—I’m going to say it—a cute top and skirt from the Sabato De Sarno Gucci era. (It’s relative.) Of course, the hair, makeup, shoes, accessories, and fit of the garments were all wrong, each in their own way. If they were right, I might be worried. (P.S.: Selena Gomez looked great.) [Harper’s Bazaar and People] Nike’s new chief communications officer is Michael Gonda, who was most recently McDonald’s chief impact officer. In a staff note, Nike C.E.O. Elliott Hill, who frankly seems pretty awesome, said Gonda has “guided complex organizations through periods of internal transformation, always with a focus on building authentic relationships and strong, collaborative teams.” Gonda is replacing KeJuan Wilkins, who peaced out in March. [Me] I was reluctant to cover Anna Wintour and CFDA C.E.O. Steven Kolb’s visit to the White House to meet with Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, because these things tend to be incredibly well-meaning on the fashion people’s part but ultimately performative (even if Trump does listen to Wiles). That said, enough of my Puck colleagues reached out about this that I feel the need to say what I just said, and also: No, this doesn’t mean Melania is going to be on the cover of Vogue as some sort of trade for easing up on tariffs. But what a story that would be! [WWD] Delphine Arnault gave an incredibly opaque interview about Jonathan Anderson’s appointment at Dior. The only quote that betrayed anything real: “Jonathan is also very loyal. He stayed 11 years at Loewe, even though I’m sure that he had many [other] propositions.” [BoF] In the running for the best press trip of the year: Canada Goose’s Lake Powell, Utah, expedition featuring Haider Ackermann, Erin Wasson, Elizabeth von Guttman, Olivia Singer, and plenty more Line Sheet mentionables. [Olivia’s Instagram] Is this vintage Knicks jacket the best thing Kylie Jenner has ever worn? [Marie Claire] Last week, LVMH dipped more than 46 percent from its all-time high. (This is what investors call a drawdown.) Some people on the internet are saying that means it’s time to buy the stock; others are saying that it is going to dip further. As my Puck partner Bill Cohan says, this is not investment advice. You decide! Speaking of Bill, he further explains the Saks new money in his latest dispatch. [Puck]

Until tomorrow, Lauren P.S.: We are using affiliate links because we are a business. We may make a couple bucks off them.

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