Hi, and welcome to this very special issue of Line Sheet, available only to Inner Circle members. (Trade up here.) Up top, an update on Marco Gobbetti’s whereabouts, a Q2 luxury forecast brought to you by the powers that be at LVMH, and news of another retailer who is missing payments. (Plus, a niche media development.) For the main event, I’m giving the people what they want: an update on the search for the next editor of Vanity Fair. Programming note: Tomorrow on Fashion People, I’m joined by Erin and Sara Foster, co-founders of Favorite Daughter, the fashion line that is way more popular than you could ever imagine. We discuss why they think the 5-year-old business has worked so well, plus how their podcast, apparel, hit television show Nobody Wants This, and personal investments all feed off one another. (It’s all about the flywheel, my friends.) Listen here and here. Mentioned in this issue: Vanity Fair, David Haskell, Mark Guiducci, Sara Moonves, Lauren Kern, Marco Gobbetti, OTB, LVMH, Louis Vuitton, Tommaso Maria Andorlini, Luisaviaroma, System magazine, Sunbelt, Barry Diller’s book party, Shawn McCreesh, Janice Min, Sofia Coppola, Jenna Lyons, Sam Altman, Anna Wintour, Roger Lynch, high ponytail facelifts, and many more…

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Four Things You Should Know…

Gobbetti fake news!: After mentioning earlier this week that I heard Marco Gobbetti was about to get a big job at an Italian group, I was told by multiple people in Milan that he was headed to OTB, where he’d ostensibly be in charge under Renzo Rosso. I thought it made sense. Gobbetti is good at building legit businesses with pure creative talents, and he’s run a public company before—OTB, after all, would very much like to be one.Alas, a rep for OTB said the information is completely unfounded, not true, etcetera. Why this is spreading like wildfire beats me. Sometimes people have a meeting and others jump to conclusions. However, it indicates that there is outsize interest in Gobbetti’s future, as well as the future of OTB, which has plenty of debuts coming, including Glenn Martens at Margiela and Simone Bellotti at Jil Sander.
Well, it’s definitely not getting better in Q2: Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that LVMH was hinting to investors and analysts that trading continues to be soft well into the second quarter, blaming a complacent Chinese market. (I’ve heard that the second big Murakami push at Louis Vuitton did not perform as well as the first.) The industry is far too reliant on China and the U.S. for growth, but I can’t help but wonder whether the market is experiencing the inevitable decline of demand for these big brands. There’s a hope that Matthieu Blazy and Jonathan Anderson will kickstart sales across the board, via their new appointments at Chanel and Dior, but individuals can’t change market forces. It doesn’t help, either, that prices keep increasing and the secondhand market keeps growing—and that’s even before taking into account the tariffs, trade war, and economic uncertainty.
Yet another retailer that owes you money: About a month ago, Luisaviaroma C.E.O. Tommaso Maria Andorlini sent an email to brands apologizing for late payments, blaming the economic crisis on top of the tariffs and duties applied by the Trump administration. In the email, Andorlini promised that the company would provide an “official update” on the new payment schedule by May 20. “We kindly ask for a little more patience and your valuable support during this delicate phase,” he added. May 20 came and went, and brands have yet to hear from the group. (A rep for the group let me know that the release date of the new payment schedule was moved back to June 3. Not everyone who is owed money received that update. Perhaps they missed the email.) In 2021, Style Capital, the Italian private equity firm that has backed everything from Zimmermann to Autry, invested €130 million in Luisaviaroma for a 40 percent stake. The company used the cash to acquire Andorlini’s business, which led to his appointment, and opened a (very nice) store in New York in 2024. You might think they had the capital to pay vendors, but you simply can’t be surprised when this sort of thing happens. This situation is a reminder that there are no guarantees in this business.
System’s fourth musketeer launches a creative agency: Before System magazine went through all that drama last year with its temporary owner, there was another, less-talked-about shake-up: the departure of co-founder Alexia Niedzielski, who now splits her time between Europe and Brazil, and recently launched a creative agency, Sunbelt, with the aim of linking the European luxury brands more closely with the Global South. (If you didn’t know, there is a ton of money in these countries, and they are often ignored by the marketers in Europe.) Her first project is a campaign with Rabanne, directed by Emmanuel Cossu and photographed by Melissa de Oliveira. It looks good and Niedzielski is quite ambitious. More to come, I’m sure.

And now, some notes on the search for Graydon’s successor’s successor…

The Vanity Fair Diaries

The scroll of contenders for the VF job is becoming endless—a bizarre, if unsurprising, phenomenon for a career-defining-ish role that the right people want to ignore and the wrong people covet, and that will be handed out by an inscrutable duo who won’t be in their chairs forever.

Lauren Sherman

Over the past week, as I’ve been inundated with new information on the search for the next editor of Vanity Fair, I’ve organized the growing litany of names into categories to keep it all straight. So far, I have lists for “Viable,” “Out of the Running,” “They Wish,” and “Condé Nast Wishes.” I’ve added some names as new candidates emerge and erased others as they get eliminated from the conversation. I’d be happy to fork it over to Condé Nast C.E.O Roger Lynch, who I’m told is in L.A. right now. Early on, there was speculation about Will Welch, but that was wishful thinking. New York magazine editor-in-chief David Haskell, likely the most obvious candidate, has zero interest. Stella Bugbee, my top candidate, also appears to have no interest. Sarah Ball, who has ties to the ancien régime but always seemed like a stretch, is all but out. Sara Moonves, who seemed like a good fit (well known, credible, well liked), is out. Kristina O’Neill, who might have auctioned away an organ for the job at some point, also seems to be out. There’s more: Lauren Kern, the editor-in-chief of Apple News and a former New York magazine editor, is unlikely to move across the country and forfeit a stock vesting program in the world’s most valuable company for a job that was cool a decade ago. Michael Sebastian, the Troy Young–planted trade reporter whose Esquire just won a Pulitzer (David Granger couldn’t even pull that one off) and a National Magazine Award, is a favorite of advertisers, but I hear he’s not interested and has not been approached. Also, any candidate inside Vanity Fair is guaranteed not to get this job. VF parents Lynch and Anna Wintour need to re-create market excitement for the brand—they can’t elevate an anonymous deputy who toiled beneath the somnolent Radhika Jones.

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The endless candidate list is a reflection, in part, of the job’s ambiguous nature—a reality that has been memorialized, as I’ve noted, in the marble-mouthed, A.I.-written job description on the CN website. Part of this, too, reflects the complex brand codes of VF. The job is based in New York, but it arguably should be in Los Angeles, since Hollywood relationships matter significantly. Yes, the product publishes longform journalism, but the editor’s job is to restore ties with luxury advertisers in Paris and Milan—a unique challenge that will vex almost every candidate. In the past year in particular, numerous luxury brands have backed away from the title, and the right candidate could reset relations. The laundry list reflects another multifaceted reality: Hollywood, the fashion world, and media people all pretend as if they, alone, understand the brand and what it stands for. All the names that have inundated my feeds represent the agonies and ecstasies of each of these communities, but rarely address the realities of all of them. During his quarter-century in the seat, Graydon Carter figured out how to make a product that spoke to Paris, New York, and L.A. During her seven-year itch, Jones unsuccessfully tried to learn on the job. The next person up will have to tick at least a couple of these boxes.

The Names

The best argument for Mark Guiducci, a Wintour Vogue deputy whose name has topped the early gossip rounds, is that he could rebuild momentum among luxury advertisers. Guiducci is ambitious, educated, and well connected, if less experienced in editing and managing than many of the other candidates. He would need the support of a seasoned executive editor who could oversee the product while he works to rebuild the business. Perhaps a good idea for executive editor under Guiducci rule would be New York executive editor Genevieve Smith, whose name was floating around Barry Diller’s book party on Tuesday. Smith, of course, may want the job herself—and some sideline chatter at the Diller party suggested she’d be up for the challenge. I’m told by multiple people that she has gone through three rounds of interviews. Smith, who’s spent the past 13 years at New York, has real editing chops, but her rise to the top of the conversation may be a case of the New York writers network (former and current) working in overdrive and having an unsophisticated comprehension of the role. Lynch and Wintour aren’t looking for someone who can win ASMEs or tap into the id of Williamsburg parents—this is a business development gig, one where you are judged more by LVMH renewals than haunting cover shoots. Also, the consensus is that Smith, who was never a favorite of Adam Moss, probably owns too many pairs of No. 6 clogs to be a viable candidate. After the failed Radhika experiment, unfortunately, that matters. And then there’s former Men’s Vogue, Town & Country, and Esquire editor Jay Fielden, who has been spending his days editing some vanity product at Ralph Lauren while interviewing for the editor-in-chief job at Penske-owned Robb Report, an old-fogey relic of good-life-era wealth porn. Landing the Vanity Fair gig would be the ultimate redemption for Fielden, whom Young jettisoned to the remainder bin as Hearst leaned into digital. (Remember that embarrassing Instagram post of his departure from the Hearst building?) Fielden also desperately wanted the VF job after Carter retired, only to find himself the wrong flavor. The case for Fielden is that he knows how to work for Wintour, has experiences placating cover stars and advertisers, and has something to prove. The downside is that he’s already proved feckless at innovating legacy products, and may not have the appropriate energy level for the task at hand. Wintour, who espouses a postwar British keep-calm-and-carry-on vibe, prefers worker bees to guys who keep liquor shelves in the office. (Fielden told me this was “not a good time to talk.”) Hmm, who else? Disgraced Bon Appetit editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport, a great talent perhaps looking for a post-cancellation chapter, is as big a longshot as New York Times correspondent Shawn McCreesh, whose name has been insanely bandied about—possibly on account of his proximity to Maureen Dowd, his den mother. (I hear there is no there there with McCreesh, and yet, the rumors persist… because this is a fun game.) Other names that have come up in speculation: Stephanie Mehta, the C.E.O. of Mansueto Ventures, publisher of Inc. and Fast Company, and a former late-stage Graydon person; and Noah Shachtman, the former Daily Beast and Rolling Stone editor-in-chief, who is way too dad-band for the job. I’ve heard people discuss Jesse Angelo and Josh Tyrangiel, both of whom are terrible ideas for obvious reasons. Their inclusion in the discourse represents the challenges of both the search and the industry, itself.

The Too-Familiar Dark Horses

Of course, the likelihood that any of these contenders gets this job is slim. In retrospect, Michael Grynbaum and Sydney Ember’s candidate roundup, which was published in the Times shortly after Carter announced his exit in 2017, was filled with drive-by candidates. Jones, herself, was still editing dreary unread book reviews when it was written and didn’t even muster a mention. And yet, Sally Singer, of all people, made the cut for inclusion. Other names on that list have left the industry. Anne Fulenwider, whom I always really liked talking to when she was editing Marie Claire, now runs a women’s health platform. It’s a reminder that the first stages of searches are often populated by wishful thinking, worst-case scenarios, and bad gossip.

There’s an argument that Wintour, known for her loyalty and for rewarding those who stand by her, will choose someone in her circle who has earned this—that’s part of the Guiducci thesis. But there is also an argument that Lynch is feeling pressure from the board to assign this to someone with experience managing a meaningful business. And then there is the likelihood that Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, the new chief revenue officer, is sufficiently new to this insane culture that she’ll agitate for a partner who can hold a lunch at The Polo Lounge and Bistrot Paul Bert. And while I’m told Lynch is otherwise engaged on this Los Angeles trip, there are plenty of viable, if unremarkable, local candidates—either those clearly making overtures (like Hollywood Reporter co-editor-in-chief Maer Roshan) or those who were shortlisted by someone close to Wintour. I also heard that Sean Fennessey, The Ringer’s chief content officer, was called for the job. When I texted him about it, Fennessey told me he had “no comment across the board.” Fennessey’s experience building a media property not reliant on words could be compelling to the Condé Nast board, but he lacks certain credentials (like never having heard of Stefano Cantino) and likely has too much of a penchant for Vuori. Though he did work at GQ back in the day. Perhaps the most Hollywood of endings would involve someone who was on the tippy top of the New York Times list back in 2017: Janice Min, who may be looking for an exit for her media property, The Ankler. In 2023, she almost sold it to Barry Diller, according to the Times, in a deal that would have made her the editor of The Daily Beast—an undeniably lower profile job. One executive told me they bet Condé Nast could buy The Ankler for as little as $1 million. Which is probably a non-starter. There’s also a big taste issue with Min that would turn off certain advertisers. She never understood fashion, and while Vanity Fair isn’t a fashion magazine, Carter knew better than anyone how to use the brands to push both his agenda and theirs. And yet, Lynch and Wintour would get an operator who understands the Hollywood ecosystem and a proper editor. Last time around, moving to New York and salary were the concerns. Perhaps now, both sides would be willing to compromise. The biggest difference between now and then, however, is that few qualified candidates seem to want this job. Min made a hard play for it last decade. Now she’s already bad-mouthed it in the Times.

What I’m Reading…

Ralph Lauren beat estimates on high demand for the Polo pony. [Reuters] Speaking of Polo, Sofia Coppola wears a lot of Ralph Lauren in this story for i-D promoting the first book from her new imprint with MACK, which covers the ins and outs of the making of her first feature, The Virgin Suicides, and includes never-before-seen Corinne Day photos. Good job, Steff Yotka! Also, here is the polo, rugby, and button-up we should all buy. [i-D] Jenna Lyons has joined a fund called Cashmere, which bills itself as “the first direct-to-consumer venture capital fund, designed to accommodate all investors regardless of status,” as an investor and advisor. The press release said Lyons’ relationship with the fund—which also recently brought in Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen—is a paid partnership. So far, the fund has invested in consumer brands including Graza olive oil (pretty good) and De Soi, Katy Perry’s non-alcoholic thing. Shrug. People gotta eat? [Press Release] Sam Altman has offered former Apple designer Jony Ive $6.5 billion in OpenAI stock to create devices powered by artificial intelligence. It feels like a mild threat to Apple that could turn into a big threat. Or it’ll be nothing. I wonder whether Ive still wears an Apple Watch. I bet not. [Bloomberg]

And finally… High ponytail facelifts for everyone! 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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