Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. I’m going to try on the Alaïa jeans shortly and will report back. In the meantime, I’ve got details on what’s really happening behind the scenes at Dolce & Gabbana, and Malique “Malique@puck.news” Morris is here with a fun scoop about Sporty & Rich’s exit prospects.

For the main event, Sarah “SShapiro@puck.news” Shapiro is back with the most popular items on powerhouse affiliate marketing platform ShopMy, from Chan Luu pants to Chloé mules. As always, the findings are illuminating. (Wide leg pants have become inescapable.)

Also mentioned in this issue: Domenico Dolce, Stefano Gabbana, Jonathan Anderson, Gen Z athleisure, Ronnie Fieg, Jerry Lorenzo, Emily Oberg, Stefano Cantino, Newport Beach, Alfonso Dolce, David Obadia, Tessa Tran, GLP-1 users, Alyssa Wasko, and more…

Two Things You Should Know…

Malique Morris

Sporty & Rich is in expansion mode: Emily Oberg has made Sporty & Rich into a Gen Z athleisure staple with its Ralph Lauren–tinged aspirational imagery and logo-heavy sweatshirts suited for the casual wellness crowd. Now I’m told she’s hired an industry advisor to help find an investor to expand the company’s D.T.C. business and retail footprint.

Earlier this month, the company opened a two-story, 5,200-square-foot store in West Hollywood complete with a workout studio and café. While Sporty & Rich has had a New York location since 2023, the L.A. flagship more clearly reflects the ambitions of Oberg, who still owns a majority stake in the company and has never raised outside money. Last December, Oberg took over the C.E.O. role, replacing David Obadia. Now, I hear, she’s open to selling a minority or even majority stake to the right strategic partner.

Sporty & Rich is the rare non-celebrity-fronted brand that has built a fervid following. I’m told it generated around $37 million in sales last year—with profit margins above 10 percent—and is on track to reach around $45 million in 2026. With the right investment, Sporty & Rich could chart a path to $100 million in annual sales, and perhaps a full exit thereafter. The challenge will be to hit nine figures without diluting what made Sporty & Rich special in the first place.

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Gabbana machinations: As a unit, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have a long history of fighting with the press. They frequently ban journalists from their shows, freak out over negative coverage, and have a tendency to speak out of turn in a way that gets them in trouble. So it’s no surprise that the company responded to reports that Gabbana is looking to sell his 40 percent stake by releasing a befuddling and defensive statement claiming that while he has quit, his resignation will not impact the “creative activities” he oversees. Meaning: He still plans to take a bow at the end of the runway.

We’ll see. As I reported Monday, the company has a lot of debt it needs to service—one of the primary tasks before new C.E.O. Stefano Cantino, the former Gucci exec who is replacing Alfonso Dolce. (Co-founder Domenico, Alfonso’s brother, apparently took over as chairman in January.) Also, I’ve heard that Gabbana has been spending more time in Dubai lately. According to multiple sources, he hasn’t been as active in the business for months, save for some work on the profitable beauty division.

Cantino’s experience in communications and marketing may be why he was ultimately chosen to lead the brand, which is in danger of becoming licensed up the wazoo if he can’t right the ship. And moving Gabbana out of the spotlight is a good first step. Of course, there was the whole culturally insensitive advertising campaign in 2018, which caused several retailers to pull the product. But Gabbana has also made some unforgettable comments that have haunted him. In 2017, he said he was “tired” of being called “gay,” and before that, called kids raised by gay parents “synthetic.” (He apologized.)

Anyway, as I laid out earlier this week, there’s a big opportunity here for the brand if this restructuring is managed properly. Right now, they are floating. You’re either buying Dolce because you’ve always bought Dolce, or you barely register Dolce. They need to be more in the conversation.

And now, the main event…

The Month in Shopping: The Sisterhood of the Unraveling Pants

Exhale, everyone—easy pants have quietly become the spring uniform for the GLP-1 era, paired with higher-end shoes, bags, and jackets to assert individuality and a hint of liquidity.

Sarah Shapiro

Ask any boutique owner, influencer, or shopper “what to wear when…” lately and the answer comes with near-comic (or A.I.-generated) consistency: “easy pants.” From New York to Los Angeles, Dallas, Newport Beach, San Francisco, and Marin, the verdict is the same. Seems like everyone’s being gravitationally pulled toward a looser waistband and a wider leg.

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The data, obligingly, agrees. ShopMy’s March top 10—as always, shared exclusively with Line Sheet—tracks what people are actually buying, not just admiring. The platform now counts 350,000 active shoppers, nearly 300,000 active creators, and close to 3,000 brands paying to participate, according to a company source. (Note that ShopMy’s monthly top 10 reflects the affiliate links that drove shoppers to retail sites where purchases were made—not necessarily the specific items they ultimately bought.)

If February hinted at the shift, with three styles of easy pants breaking through, March removed any doubt. This month, six pairs made the list. Ruti’s On the Loose work pants hold the top spot for a second straight month, and the La Ligne Colby pants return for a fourth month. Rag & Bone’s Miramar track pants also reappear.

Then there is Chan Luu, a brand once synonymous with wrap bracelets and beaded skinny scarves, entering the easy pants conversation with its Techno taffeta barrel pants ($275). C.E.O. Tessa Tran, niece of the namesake founder, bought the business back from a private equity firm in 2023 and relaunched ready-to-wear. Apparel landed on Moda Operandi this season and promptly sold out. FWRD is next. Tran said her advisors initially tried to steer her away from launching ready-to-wear with a passion project. “Now, look at the pants!” she said.

At Donni, the growth is brisk, double digits year over year, with more than half the business now driven by pants, according to an insider. Demand has outstripped supply, leading founder Alyssa Wasko to introduce made-to-order options for the taffeta drawstring cargo pants ($436) in shades like pistachio, blossom, and silver. Leset’s Kyoto carpenter pants, meanwhile, generated more than 200,000 clicks and nearly 4,000 ShopMy links in March, according to a source at the brand. They convert nearly as well as the brand’s core Margo t-shirts, despite the higher price point ($280). A buyer summed it up, shrugging, “No one can decide if they’re flattering, but they sure are comfortable and easy.” What unites these pants, beyond the wide leg, is the drawstring waist. Adjustable, forgiving, quietly revolutionary. For maternity, postpartum, or the fluctuating realities of GLP-1 users, the appeal is obvious.

The rest of the top 10 completes the uniform with almost dutiful efficiency. Varley’s Jeanie jacket supplies the sporty layer, echoing anoraks seen on the runway and in the collections of Loewe, Miu Miu, and Saint Laurent. Margaux’s Demi flat, most often in black or light tan suede, is the lone sub-$600 shoe to break through. The brand reports more than 150 percent year-over-year growth in flats sales, with the Demi accounting for 20 percent, according to a brand source. Denim in classic shapes holds the line, with the return of AYR’s Secret Sauce jeans and their vintage Levi’s sensibility, alongside Frame’s Le Sleek straight jeans.

The Higher End

If the ShopMy Top 10 x Line Sheet tells the story of volume, featuring price points that lead shoppers to purchase in multiples, the higher end tells the story of intention. This month, we’re introducing ShopMy’s top 10 items over $600. It’s the same customer, but looking more specifically at what she’s wearing with, say, taffeta easy pants.

Shoes dominate, with five of the top 10: Jamie Haller’s Kit slide, Khaite’s Jane, The Row’s MH slip-on sneaker (the Olsens’ version of Vans slip-ons), Miu Miu’s laminated fisherman sandal, and Chloé’s jelly mule. Bags follow suit. The Balenciaga Rodeo bag, seen everywhere during Fashion Week, converted many customers. So did simpler options like Savette’s Symmetry pochette and Liffner’s pushlock pouch, both conspicuously free of logos.

Bottega Veneta’s Drop Aviator sunglasses, at $760, were shared by more than 500 creators, their oversize aviator with teardrop extended earpieces teetering between chic and theatrical. And Nour Hammour returns with the spring-weight funnel-neck Park leather jacket, signaling serious but not trying too hard.

The Week in Feedback…

On the two-Devils cover: “OMG that Vogue cover is so lame. I never thought I’d live to see the day that Vogue would be vying for our attention and approval. Not chic at all!” —An ex-Vogue staffer who worked at the magazine during the early 2000s

On Banana’s semi-sorta-revival: “If Banana Republic would bring back the white t-shirts with the front pocket logo and the map on the back, I would buy every version. But alas, they are nowhere to be found in any of the nostalgia edits.” —A lawyer

On who should buy Armani: “I could see Ronnie Fieg making a play for Armani. He has the money, and this New York Knicks capsule is the third Armani–Kith collaboration. I had never thought about it, but maybe he turns Armani into a pop-culture-to-tailoring legitimizer. (In a way that Jerry Lorenzo never could.) The generation that cares about Kith has no comprehension of Armani. They know it, but know nothing of it, really, so Ronnie could remake the brand in his image. Kind of a gross thought, but also American enough of him to actually seem possible…” —An editor

On all the confusing changes at Fear of God: “[Founder] Jerry had a good thing going with his original direction. Elevated street. But he wanted something else.” —A brand consultant

Until Monday,
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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