June 2, 2026

Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. I’m fully reintegrated into Los Angeles life, clocking negative steps and desperately trying to wiggle my way into an overbooked Lagree class.

In today’s issue, Malique “Malique@puck.news” Morris pulls on the Quince thread. The San Francisco startup purports to be Everlane-meets-Costco: quality goods at a fraction of the price, across dozens of categories, from cashmere throws to sunscreen. Is that enough to make it a viable long-term business? Up top, I’ve got the scoop on Josh O’Connor’s stylist switcharoo from Harry Lambert to Jason Bolden, and some thoughts on how LVMH’s strategy has changed over the past six months. And holy moly, Victoria’s Secret is actually, truly back! Malique explains how C.E.O. Hillary Super and brand guru Adam Selman are getting it done.

By the way: No, I didn’t miss that Alexander McQueen has a new C.E.O.: former Prada C.E.O. Gianfranco D’Attis. I’ll have more later this week.

Also mentioned in this issue: Stéphane de La Faverie, Chloe Malle, Disclosure Day, Anne Hathaway, Shein, Phoebe Philo, Nicole Kidman, Pedro Pascal, Glamour, Emily Dawn Long, Brunello Cucinelli, Jamie Mizrahi, Steven Spielberg, Selena Gomez, Channing Tatum, Terrence Zhou, Riley Keough, J. Crew, Sid Gupta, Anna Wintour, Vinted, Sapna Maheshwari, Alfred Chang, Erin Walsh, Laufey, Zane Li, and more.

Three Things You Should Know…

Bolden moves: Recently, number one Josh O’Connor fan (okay, maybe not number one, but you get the point) Amanda Dobbins D.M.ed me a photo of the actor, who stars in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Disclosure Day, wearing a mix of Lemaire, Dior, and Cartier at a press junket in Paris. “This is powerful to me,” she said. Yes, O’Connor is still very cute, but what’s more interesting at the moment is that he is working with Jason Bolden, whose roster includes everyone from Cynthia Erivo and Nicole Kidman to Channing Tatum and LaKeith Stanfield.

How did this happen? Well, Jason has been styling Tatum, who is repped by Relevant, which also reps O’Connor. Coincidence? Maybe. But oftentimes, a P.R., manager, or agent will help guide a celeb’s styling choices as well, especially when they are embarking on a new stage of their career.

Perhaps Harry Lambert, O’Connor’s previous (and highly regarded) stylist, was simply too busy with Harry Styles’s tour or other projects to support the Disclosure Day press tour. Or maybe O’Connor is becoming a different type of star (he’s on the James Bond shortlist) and wants a different type of stylist. It could be a combo of those things.

Whatever the reason, it cemented an idea I’ve had for some time: Bolden may be the most underrated stylist working today. Brand P.R.s love him because he’s versatile, makes his own selects, pulls looks himself, is very precise, and very easy to work with. “No drama,” one said. He also doesn’t have too many clients. Anyway, I look forward to the rest of the tour, and watching Jason’s ascent, too.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

Agentic commerce isn’t a future concept. It’s already reshaping how people shop. Static storefronts are giving way to guided,

conversational experiences that don’t just surface products. They drive decisions and conversion in real time. Swap’s Agentic Commerce 101 breaks down what’s real and what it means for brands right now. Inside:

• What agentic commerce is and why most AI tools don’t qualify

• Why AI discovery platforms aren’t built to convert for your brand

• Why owning your AI experience and your data is becoming non-negotiable

👉 Download the full report

Shrink-to-grow mentality: Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had a lot of people say to me that the luxury market peaked in 2024, and the industry is entering its era of managed decline, etcetera, etcetera. I generally agree and have said as much. I also don’t think that’s a bad thing. Last year’s free fall has weirdly given many designers and executives some… freedom. Things got so bad, in many cases, that there was nowhere to go but up, and at least a little room to experiment.

One response has been a possibly inevitable shrink-to-grow-again strategy, which has apparently taken hold at LVMH across the fashion group. “Everyone was growing at all costs, and finally there’s been a senior-level, company-wide acceptance that the macro factors make it more sensible to refocus on the truly affluent,” a person close to LVMH told me. “Which means more creative product, etcetera. It’s what I’m seeing at Dior and Celine in particular.”

Of course, it’s not that simple. As this person said, there needs to be a companywide change, even as strategies vary across brands. At Dior, Celine, and Givenchy, sales numbers fell so far that it should be relatively straightforward to build back up. (I got some intel on Celine’s new collection numbers today, and the results were positive.) At Loewe, there is a need to keep up momentum. Loro Piana is lucky; its objective is controlling growth. The challenge, other than getting all the executives to understand this new model of thinking, is that there is instant consumer feedback online that can drag on the rebuilding narrative. But if the six previous months have taught us anything, it’s that we are never going back.

Malique Morris

Call it the Adam Selman Effect: Is C.E.O. Hillary Super actually… turning Victoria’s Secret around? In the first quarter of 2026, sales rose 15 percent year over year to $1.5 billion, and net profits surged 20x to $57 million, thanks to lower tariff rates and higher full-price sales, beating expectations. The stock, which now trades under VSXY, spiked 40 percent.

Investors can also thank chief creative officer Adam Selman, who’s overseen an improvement in the fit and visual desirability of the bra assortment and introduced the right amount of fashion nostalgia at Pink. The revamp is maximizing Victoria’s Secret cred among the 18-24-year-olds, who Super attested were camping out at the new Pink store in SoHo at 1 a.m., and Millennials making less than $50,000 and more than $200,000. The pitch-perfect, zeitgeisty brand messaging—including a Valentine’s Day campaign starring Hailey Bieber and a swim and fragrance rollout featuring Angel Reese—is making the marketing more effective and helping the company minimize discounting. Looking ahead to the annual shareholder meeting on June 11, today’s results may complicate Australian billionaire Brett Blundy’s efforts to remove Donna James from the company’s board as part of his proxy war.

Quince and Repeat

As Everlane becomes a cautionary tale for retailers committed to selling “radical transparency” and sustainable fashion, Quince is becoming a billion-dollar business by remaining unapologetically transactional.

Malique Morris

Two weeks after Lauren broke the news of Everlane’s fire-sale acquisition by Chinese fast-fashion purveyor Shein, the fallout continues to offer hard lessons for the industry: the downsides of the venture-backed hyper-growth playbook, the shortcomings of direct-to-consumer’s cut-out-the-middleman shtick, and the increasingly difficult task of retaining consumers whose brand loyalty is more fleeting than ever.

Then there’s the question of what Everlane’s collapse could mean for Quince, the digital department store giant that heavily borrowed from the former’s pricing transparency and stealth-wealth knockoffs playbook, and applied that strategy to everything: quarter-zips, home goods, vitamins, skincare. Where Everlane stumbled, however, Quince has thrived, with more than $1 billion in annual sales. Just two months before Shein scooped up Everlane, Quince raised $500 million at a $10 billion valuation. An I.P.O. is out there somewhere on the horizon.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

Agentic commerce isn’t a future concept. It’s already reshaping how people shop. Static storefronts are giving way to guided,

• What agentic commerce is and why most AI tools don’t qualify

• Why AI discovery platforms aren’t built to convert for your brand

• Why owning your AI experience and your data is becoming non-negotiable

👉 Download the full report

Founded in 2019, Quince raised fistfuls of money from investors that valued it more so as a tech platform than a fashion outfitter. It also somewhat upped Everlane’s faux-luxury proposition by selling dupes of popular styles from established brands, although not without some legal blowback. Like Everlane’s Michael Preysman, Quince co-founder Sid Gupta has insisted that he is bringing honesty to an industry built on inflated markups.

Of course, the two businesses are not identical. Everlane mostly stuck to selling boxy-cut tees and barrel-leg jeans, while Quince produces everything from $50 Mongolian cashmere sweaters to supplements, linen sheets, and even diamonds. Still, the two brands feel linked by a certain vibe. Before its ill-fated exit, Everlane worked hard to shed its reputation as a cheaper basics label and establish itself as a fashion brand. In 2022, it hired former Marni and Carven designer Mathilde Mader to transition the business from monthly drops to seasonal collections. In 2024, it brought in Alfred Chang from Fear of God to refine its quiet luxury aesthetic. Chang launched Everlane’s first celebrity-fronted campaign with pop-jazz “It” girl Laufey.

By that point, though, it was probably too late: Everlane’s product largely failed to evolve alongside its Millennial customers, and never achieved the scale to compete against newer basics brands like Amazon and… Quince. Last year, Everlane generated less than $200 million in revenue and is likely to lose even more customers because of its affiliation with Shein. It’s the sort of cautionary tale that should be top of mind for Quince executives in San Francisco: Sure, Quince is already several times larger than its spiritual predecessor—but in fashion, and especially with basics, nothing lasts forever.

The Prince of Quince

Quince, as I’ve reported, is hoping to outrun its reputation as a shameless copycat. Earlier this year, it partnered with A$AP Rocky to distribute vinyls and original merch for his latest album, and Quince executives have told employees that the company plans to pursue future celebrity partnerships. The company has also enlisted A-List stylists such as Erin Walsh (who dresses Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez) and Jamie Mizrahi (who works with Pedro Pascal and Riley Keough) to create more elevated, and less nondescript, capsule collections.

It’s easy to understand why Quince is investing in brand mythology. Yes, it would like to move beyond its infringement era, which spawned lawsuits from Ugg owner Deckers Brands, Williams-Sonoma, and Tapestry. But the brand also needs to be able to raise prices or reduce customer acquisition costs in order to increase margins and achieve profitability. Becoming a legit style destination and losing the dupe stigma could strengthen customer loyalty—a major priority for the company.

Gupta, who is relentless about soliciting feedback from customers and employees to improve quality, may also have some surprising answers on his hands. What if the industry cares more about Quince’s dupe rep than actual customers? Most consumers don’t seem bothered that its $50 cashmere sweater will never be as supple or as durable as Brunello Cucinelli’s $1,450 version—or even remain as presentable as J.Crew’s $148 alternative. According to Consumer Edge’s debit and credit card data, Quince’s U.S. sales doubled in the first quarter of 2026.

Nor is Quince creating signature design details like Cucinelli’s subtle metallic embroidery. Quince’s stylist-fronted capsule collections are just edited items the company already sells. Customers don’t seem to need that level of distinction from Quince. According to influencer marketing platform CreatorIQ, Quince’s earned media value across social media doubled in the last year, and most of those posts are creators “reinforcing Quince’s central tenet of affordable luxury.”

With Everlane left to wither under Shein, Quince’s “better prices, same quality” proposition only feels more singular. As middle-class consumers are hamstrung by a punishing economy, most mid-priced brands are struggling to convince consumers they’re worth the price. Quince is proving to have an answer. Its prices are right, and the products aren’t slop. In today’s shaky market, consumers aren’t asking for more than that.

What We’re Reading… and Shopping For…

The first drop of Phoebe Philo’s Collection E is here. Phoebe has become the brand that makes it fun to, uh, collect something from each drop. Everyone is going to buy these silk shorts and the pajama trousers. And the gathered flats and the flip-flops, obviously. The cotton tote is controversial, as you’ll hear on today’s episode of Fashion People. [Phoebe New Arrivals]

Another Jacquemus marketing feat: They managed to get friend-of-Dior Kylian Mbappé to star in a campaign touting Simon’s partnership with the French football federation and Nike. [Instagram]

Becky talked to Sapna Maheshwari about the disintegration of Glamour. [N.Y. Times]

The executives involved in the ill-fated deal between Estée Lauder Cos. and Puig (read Rachel’s essential coverage) just won’t stop yapping about it. This morning, ELC’s Stéphane de La Faverie went on about how the “price” for Puig “was not right” for ELC. [WWD]

The 2026 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists include the smart-and-hot-girl brand Emily Dawn Long, Montecito mom staple Jamie Haller, Terrence Zhou of Bad Binch TongTong, and the great colorist Zane Li of LII. I wonder what value these competitions offer designers if you’re not LVMH, but this lineup is really impressive. Chloe Malle is taking Anna Wintour’s seat on the selection committee. Good! [Inbox]

Vinted, Europe’s resale giant, participated in a $26 million funding round for an A.I.-powered, European version of Whatnot called Tilt. It’s notable that Vinted is not only big enough to back other startups, but that it’s putting money into the live-shopping infiltration in the West. [Inbox]

Until tomorrow,
Lauren

P.S.: We use affiliate links because we are a business. We may make a couple bucks off them.

Need help? Review our FAQ page or contact us for assistance. For brand partnerships, email ads@puck.news.

You received this email because you signed up to receive emails from Puck, or as part of your Puck account associated with {{customer.email}}. To stop receiving this newsletter and/or manage all your email preferences, click here.

Puck is published by Heat Media LLC. 107 Greenwich St., New York, NY 10006

SEE THE ARCHIVES