Hi, and welcome to Line Sheet. I hope my blonde friends who were at the Baby2Baby Gala in Los Angeles on Saturday had fun. I went to see Anora (loved it!), had dinner at Bar Etoile (loved it!), and was in bed by 10.30 p.m. (A little late but still pretty good!)

In today’s issue, I’m taking a teensy break from the all-consuming LVMH and Kering storylines—more soon, I promise; meanwhile, subscribe to read all of the back issues here—in order to gather some other loose threads. I’ve got updates on what’s actually happening at Tomorrow (the showroom-cum-brand incubator), the latest on Pierpaolo and Fendi, and a closer look at those Versace results. For the main event, we’re back in San Francisco at the Gap Inc. headquarters with intel on how C.E.O. Richard Dickson is reshaping the business (and how it’s going with Zac Posen).

🚨🚨Programming note: Tomorrow on Fashion People, Kate Young is in the house! We’re talking gala-season dressing, the state of luxury, the state of the world, Taylor Swift, and a lot more. Listen here and here.

🛍️🛒🤑The Shoppies: Before we get started, I’d like to update you on the Gap black-and-skinny jeans I bought recently, first touted by denim excerpt Jane Herman in her excellent, always-fun-to-read newsletter. They fit well and are true to size for me, although your mileage may vary. Turns out, though, the “regular” length—which was purported to have a 27-inch inseam—is not actually cropped unless you are very tall. (I’m 5-foot-8 and they were not cropped.) They are closer to a 30-inch inseam. I bought them in brown as well. They are ridiculously cheap at the moment, which doesn’t bode well for Gap’s margins, but is great for us.

In other news, I’ve been thinking about plaid shirts. I had breakfast in New York a couple of weeks back with Steven Alan, who is selling his single-needle shirts in men’s sizes once again, inspiring me to pull out a favorite from one of his old collections. That same week, I saw my friend Alix wearing this checked shirt from Phoebe Philo. It’s perfect, like both Alix and Phoebe. Then, my friend Delphine, who is a talent manager but takes great pride each November in creating her holiday gift guide, which she only posts on her private Instagram account, recommended this shirt from the French label Marie Marot. (Somehow the shirts are under $200, which is very reasonable these days.) I also love this one, which reminds me of Angela Chase.

Mentioned in this issue: Behnaz Ghahramani, Gap, Old Navy, Zac Posen, Pierpaolo Piccioli, Richard Dickson, Miu Miu, Fabiola Torres, Donatella Versace, Martine Rose, Kim Jones, Amy Thompson, Abercrombie & Fitch, Taylor Swift, Donald Trump, the TikTok algorithm, Jacqueline Schnabel, and much more…

• Tomorr-woe: Remember when I mentioned that Tomorrow—the Stefano Martinetto-led showroom, which raised a bunch of money several years ago from Three Hills Capital Partners in order to incubate small, independent brands—was thinking of selling off at least one, if not all, of those brands? Well, I recently heard that much of the Tomorrow team in London was laid off last month, and Three Hills seized control of the day-to-day operations.

  I was told by another source that this was the plan all along—much of the back-of-house operations had been moved to Milan, after all, and Three Hills has been deeply involved since they invested almost a decade ago. They put roughly $20 million into the business at the end of 2015 to buy out previous partners, and then another $20 million in December 2019. Seems like they are seeking a liquidity event after a decade of work.

  And yet, this is hardly the outcome that Tomorrow’s actual operators—Martinetto and his co-founder, Giancarlo Simiri—were presumably hoping for. Tomorrow launched its brand accelerator with the intention of becoming the sort of value-extraction machine that would be appealing to, say, OTB or LVMH. Unfortunately, these conglomerates often have similar functions within their own walls, and they prefer to pick off the valuable parts of companies rather than the whole entity, itself, which almost always has too much baggage.

  A few months back, with many of the brands in flux, the plan was to sell A-Cold-Wall and keep together the other brands—Coperni, Martine Rose, and Charles Jeffrey Loverboy. Now, though, my sources tell me that probably won’t happen. There was briefly speculation that A-Cold-Wall—founded by Samuel Ross (who left ages ago), and the most valuable brand in the bundle—would be bought by Frasers Group. But now it looks like Four Marketing—the license holders/investors in C.P. Company—will snap it up instead. Expect the acquisition, regardless of the new owner, to be announced in the next few days. Meanwhile, the rest of Tomorrow’s portfolio companies will remain in limbo. A rep for Three Hills declined to comment.

• What happened with Pierpaolo?: You may have noticed that Fendi announced a new configuration for the upcoming February 2025 show in Milan: Silvia Venturini Fendi, the heiress who leads menswear and accessories, will stage a dual-gender show to celebrate the house’s centennial. This news, first reported by Miles on Friday, should quiet the Pierpaolo Piccioli speculation for a little while.

  Of course, many in the industry believed that Pierpaolo was next in line to design Fendi womenswear. (I originally heard that Piccioli would be announced on October 11, the day Kim Jones’s exit was made public.) Clearly, that didn’t happen. And after poking around the Roman brand’s headquarters, I learned that there are no plans to sign a creative director—to run womenswear or the whole thing—anytime soon.

  It seems like the LVMH executives took a beat to reflect and may utilize this 100th anniversary as an opportunity to reassess their strategy. As I’ve said before, it would make sense to finally buy out the Fendi family, who have remained minority shareholders in the business, after the anniversary. Offering Venturini Fendi an opportunity to design the whole thing one final time is both gracious and reasonable, especially given that the business is driven by accessories, not ready-to-wear. All those baguettes destined to be sold next year will bide them time, and they can figure it out afterward.

  Why did the Piccioli rumors get so crazy? We know he discussed the position with them, and my guess is that the powers that be in the executive hierarchy (perhaps the new C.E.O.) opted against bringing in yet another womenswear-only designer. Perhaps he’ll take it all over in a year, or perhaps someone else will. Fendi isn’t a big enough brand to have competing visions, and no matter how collaborative Venturini Fendi actually was with her counterparts (Karl Lagerfeld, then Jones), the setup limits how far one can take it. So, we wait.

• The Versace problem: Shares of Capri tumbled on Thursday after the company announced its latest earnings, but the bigger issue is that the stock has lost half its value since last month, after a judge sided with Lina Khan’s F.T.C. in killing the company’s merger with Tapestry. (The stock is down nearly 60 percent this year.) Sales at anchor brand Michael Kors deteriorated significantly year-over-year, too, dropping 16 percent. Most worrisome, however, is the performance of Versace, which has the greatest potential in the portfolio. Sales at the Italian luxury house were down more than 28 percent from a year earlier, to $201 million, and the brand lost $3 million.

  Group C.E.O. John Idol blamed the slowdown on broader global trends in the luxury market, but that excuse can only get you so far. Versace, which did about $1 billion in sales last year, should be a much bigger business given its brand awareness and affinity. And many brands with similar profiles—Dolce & Gabbana, Loewe, Chloé, etcetera—are performing really, really well right now.

  Eventually, something’s gotta give. Donatella Versace, the chief creative officer and artistic director of Versace, seems to understand that, at nearly 70, she will need to figure out a succession plan sooner than later. However, she remains a valuable asset and, like Michael Kors, her engagement will be key in selling the business at a premium, if Capri goes that route. I hope they figure it out! The merger agreement with Tapestry expires in February 2025.

Despite being a gifted clothing designer, Posen mostly focused on marketing in those early months. (He was heavily involved in the brand’s Jennifer Hudson 2024 holiday commercial, for instance.) And while people didn’t necessarily like Ghahramani, some folks at Gap Inc. insist that she made an impact, as evidenced by the managed transition through the holiday season.

Gap Inc. C.E.O. Richard Dickson may not have “fired them all,” as one former executive goaded him to do when he first arrived, but he has made an effort to pare back management layers within the business, both at individual brands and at the group level. Erin Herrera, a longtime recruiter at Gap Inc. who led the executive search for the past two years, recently left the business. She was the No. 2 to the head of people, Amy Thompson, whom Dickson poached from his old employer, Mattel, at the beginning of this year. Dickson seems to be setting up Gap as a matrixed organization, with a centralized group making key decisions and individual brands managing the daily operations. (This is very much how The Limited Brands—once the owner of Victoria’s Secret, Express, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Bath & Body Works—was organized for a long time.)

Dickson also recently hired Damon Berger, another Mattel alum, to manage “digital engagement” across the portfolio. The idea is to optimize media buys and reduce duplicative roles. While Dickson may be loath to characterize it as such, it feels like a group first, brands second approach. Posen, who already sits at the group level, has been busy recruiting folks at the brand level who would have a direct line to him.

This isn’t a vanity position—Posen is, admirably, putting in the hours—but there are people within the business who have questioned his spending and general understanding of the customer’s needs and desires across different segments. Remember, everyone has an agenda, but there is evidence to back this up. The most oft-cited example is Posen’s hiring of Jacqueline Schnabel—his muse, whose family he’s been intertwined with since he was a kid growing up in SoHo—to choose art for the Banana Republic stores. What does a Schnabel know about the Banana Republic customer? “Zac is not the hill that Richard is going to die on,” one executive said.

None of that, however, is going to make any of Gap’s brands pop the way Abercrombie & Fitch has soared in recent quarters. Fran Horowitz, the A&F C.E.O., has made the product the marketing, replacing nostalgia-driven messaging with clothes built to sway the TikTok algorithm. It’s a less sexy way to achieve success, but a more efficient one. Dickson, of course, has a much bigger mountain to climb than Horowitz ever did. Not long ago, a lot of people hated Abercrombie & Fitch and everything it stood for. The only thing people hate about the Gap is what it’s become.

On the Marc Jacobs-edited issue of Vogue: First time Anna Wintour has ever done something like this, I believe? How fab is that Grace Coddington-styled cover? I love the concept. I’ll give a more in-depth review once I have it in my hands and can properly analyze it, but my initial takeaway is: Yes! How fun! Let’s make beautiful magazines again! (Also, re: Chanel, what an endorsement.) [Vogue]

Oh, Taylor. The “Cheap Disney Princess” look, as my art-director friend called it, has once again gone too far. But honestly, I think I can forgive the Vivienne Westwood mixed-print dress. The face-framing tendrils, however, are what is really killing me here. I’m not suggesting Swift try to look like her dinner companion, the always-elegant Zoë Kravitz, but I am suggesting she look in the mirror and think about the message that she is sending to her devoted followers. “She’s like the Donald Trump of fashion,” one designer said. “Normalizing insanity and bad judgment. No competent team. Just enablers!” [People]

EPI Group, the private equity firm that owns Bonpoint, is reportedly looking to sell it to a Chinese buyer. (You might remember that Valérie Hermann, who has had stops at Ralph Lauren, YSL, and Reed Krakoff, runs EPI’s luxury division.) [La Lettre]

Jonathan Anderson is the obvious choice to design the costumes for Luca Guadagnino’s American Psycho update, but there was a write-in vote for Demna. (Also, we are all against the idea of this remake, okay?) [World of Reel]

Vuori got money from General Atlantic and is now valued at $5.5 billion. Sorry, Alo! [WWD]

Richemont also missed analyst estimates. Boo. [Reuters]

Jacob has the real scoop on the Our Legacy investment from LVMH Luxury Ventures and intel on Aaron Levine’s new line. [New York Times and New York Times]

Fashion-person favorite EN Japanese Brasserie is closing! [Instagram]

Wow, this Lemaire store in Ebisu. I gotta go. [Instagram]

Someone sent me this Matt Scanlan article about how Naadam is now sold at (overinventoried) Kohl’s, and how Thakoon is on “pause.” Is it time to revisit the Naadam Collective? [Glossy]

Bridget Foley on how The Thomas Crown Affair became one of the great fashion movies. (Two words: Michael Kors.) [Town & Country]

Until Wednesday,
Lauren