A MESSAGE FROM OUR PARTNER

Last week, Phoebe Philo released another series of looks from Collection C, her third articulation of what it means to be a fashion brand in 2025. Imagery of the 16 pieces was shared widely across social media: model Caitlin Soetendal smiling with her teeth, wearing a napkin-collar sweater in sculpted cashmere; Sun Mizrahi’s hair arranged in a deep wide part, framed to show off silvery earrings made from a burst of organic-looking resin pearls; etcetera. They make abundantly clear how this drop, which was previewed by images that were originally released in March 2025, has already influenced other designers during the intervening months. After all, Philo is the leading visionary of her generation—the last real authority. She dictates how people dress, and other designers follow her rules consciously or not.

Since its 2023 launch, Philo has developed the company along a far different path than the one she walked at Céline for LVMH or, previously, Chloé for Richemont. The process was fraught, and success was initially in doubt amid mounting losses and some uncertain early operational decisions—the natural order of things for a startup. But many of the early principles that Philo and her husband-business partner, Max Wigram, laid out are still being honored. The drip feed of the product, inspired by the drop model, provides the requisite newness throughout the year. The focus on the owned and operated platform—now amplified by proliferation in select physical retail—is still viewed as the way to do things in this post-multichannel world. The brand retains momentum as it gathers data, all while positioning Philo as a true artist sending white smoke signals from the maison.

Then there’s the way the imagery and clothes have inspired others, from the analog style of the photography to the silhouettes, materials, and concepts. (Philo’s fluo-red will be the defining color of the 2020s.) Meanwhile, her and Wigram’s entanglement with the art and hospitality worlds—the brand’s sponsorship of Peter Doig’s “intoxicating” show at the Serpentine Galleries in London; Wigram’s purchase of the Three Horseshoes pub in Batcombe, Somerset; etcetera—all contribute to the feeling that the brand is ground zero for a particular fragment of culture, real or contrived.

All of that is for naught if the product doesn’t sell. And therein lies the good news: From what I am told, it is moving. The swingy Gig bag, first introduced in a larger, commuter-friendly style, has been shrunk down for car culture cities, where there’s no need to lug so much stuff around. The tinier version retails for $2,700, and has become a go-to for those wanting to cycle out their Margauxs and Andiamos. “When you see people like [stylist] Lotta Volkova carrying, it’s the beginning of it,” one industry executive said. “It’s happening.”

Similarly, the zip-back pants have become a staple in urban wardrobes in Paris, Milan, and London. In fact, you’ll observe them all over these days, and not just on women. At many of its major physical retail spaces—including Bergdorf Goodman and Galeries Lafayette—some 40 percent of the customers are men. (A rep for the brand did not respond to a request for comment regarding this intel.)

A MESSAGE FROM OUR PARTNER

Phoebe Philo is a private company and shares figures only when it has to via the British registrar, which means the only available public financial information on the company is from 2023—a virtually prehistoric time, when it had been operating for just two months. But given the retail expansion (shop-in-shops in China, plus plans for a store on Mount Street in London) and the high-level distribution throughout Asia (not to mention the peak brand awareness among fashion consumers, and a robust private client business), I’d estimate (with help from industry sources with knowledge of these things) that the business is already generating $20 million-30 million in annual revenue. And I’d surmise that the business could double quickly, albeit less profitably, by scaling distribution and opening up stand-alone stores.

Think about it this way: It took Khaite nine years to get to $120 million a year in revenue, but a lot of that business has been concentrated in the U.S., with a chunk in Asia. Also, Khaite had zero name brand recognition or clientele when Cate Holstein founded the company. Philo had a running head start for all the aforementioned reasons, which facilitated a path to an investment from LVMH and the support of board member Delphine Arnault, providing a potential lever for scale and the wisdom to know how to deploy it.

Going forward, Phoebe Philo has two clear challenges it needs to rationalize. First, the company needs to sync its pricing in Europe with the U.S. market, where goods can cost nearly twice as much. Earlier this year, I bought a suit in Paris at Galeries Lafayette that cost roughly $3,000 total after I received my tax refund. If I had bought the same suit in New York at Bergdorf Goodman, it would have been close to $6,000. That’s easier said than done: Tariff hell and the rising cost of raw materials make it difficult for a brand like Phoebe Philo to harmonize prices across regions like Chanel or Hermès. But given the stressed-out retail environment stateside—the stores were dead this past weekend, and some brands are down 40 percent from last year at this time—offering value is increasingly important.

You can see Philo attempting to do this to a certain extent already—the small (better) version of the Gig comes in at $2,700, while most other “It” bags start at $4,200. There are also some downright good deals in this latest drop. I reckon that the cluster sequin dress—a liquidy knit paired with a chunky, matte-sequin cropped top—which retails in the U.S. for $3,900, could cost more like $10,000. But that same dress retails for €2,800, or $3,200 at current exchange, in Europe. Factor in the tax refund and you are saving more than $1,000 if you buy it when you’re abroad.

Second, and more broadly, Philo and Wigram will have to decide how much they want to integrate into the larger fashion system, which has long appropriated and profited off her ideas. So far, from a marketing perspective, Philo has essentially done the opposite of what she did at Céline, where there was no social media and no online commerce. It was a very traditional way of disseminating content: She hosted a small, exclusive fashion show, and those images would travel around the internet. Long before The Row was hosting no-photo shows, Philo staged a private viewing for her last collection at Céline.

But people tend to make different decisions when their own capital is at stake: Just as she has moved back into wholesale—perhaps more quickly than she had imagined—one can’t help but wonder if it is worth Philo getting back into the runway game. From what I know about her, she is a person who needs a deadline, and while the demand for seasonal collections is strong enough now that she is forced to produce something, a runway show would organize her creativity.

Yes, yes, Philo has gone to great lengths to demonstrate that she is developing the brand by creating sheer desire, void of all the tricks most peers have to employ in order to get people to buy stuff. On the other hand, her ideas are so seminal and important to the work of other designers that it would be fun to see them within the context of the Fashion Week conversation again. And, most of all, scaling to the level where the business must consider tactics it once forswore isn’t a bad thing. Some call it selling out, and yet that is also the goal.

One of my favorite colleagues, What I’m Hearing’s Matt Belloni, was the subject of a glowing profile in the paper of record this weekend, written by the one and only Irina Aleksander. He is an inspiration to us all (but especially me!) and the leading example of how to cover an incredibly powerful industry… especially one in decline. [New York Times]

Dev Hynes performing with Zadie Smith is, as one editor put it, “the chicest thing I have ever seen in my life.” [BBC]

Best dressed at the Governors Awards (What are they, anyway? We’ll never know): Jacob Elordi in Bottega Veneta, Celine Song in Thom Browne, Eva Victor in the first custom Loewe under Jack and Lazaro, Jennifer Lawrence in Dior and JAR (!!!!) jewelry, Emma Stone in Louis Vuitton, Mia Goth in Dior, Dakota Johnson in Valentino, Alexander Skarsgård in Saint Laurent (with red nail polish), Josh O’Connor in Dior (it’s getting better), Queen Latifah in Lanvin. [Vogue and Esquire]

Gift guide queen Kaitlin Phillips interviews New York mag staff about their impressive gift guide process. It’s not an easy thing. [Gift Guide]

I’m not sure I need to read the book but I am sure that I loved the profile. [New York Times]

Do we all need this Givenchy top? [Net-a-Porter]

These sketches of six New York chefs’ dream kitchens are… dreamy. [Magasin]

There were a lot of fun book launches last week in Paris, including the release of Duran Lantink and Mark Borthwick’s Wildness at the Broken Arm last Friday night. (Borthwick captured Lantink’s final runway show before taking over at Jean Paul Gaultier.) Also: They served madeleines covered in pink icing at the party for the Important Flowers pop-up at 7L in Paris. [Sofia Coppola’s Instagram]

And finally… “Tender” is the real word of 2025!

Until tomorrow,
Lauren

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