Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet, coming to you from Nashville, where I went line dancing last night. Hopefully evidence never hits the internet!

I’ll have more on my trip (Hermès is opening a store) in an upcoming issue, along with more on the exit of the brand’s menswear designer, Véronique Nichanian, as reported in Le Figaro earlier today. For now, I’ll just say that I really like this city, despite the rampant bachelorette parties. Today, you’ll find my take on Adam Selman’s reboot of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and news of an unexpected WSJ. exit. I also check in on some Line Sheet characters who have fallen out of the conversation in recent months. For the big story, I’ve got some fresh reporting on the executive shake-up at Vestiaire Collective, the French resale platform, and what it says about the future of that industry. Programming note: Tomorrow on Fashion People, my guest is jewelry designer Pamela Love, who just released her very own deck of tarot cards and accompanying guidebook, The Infinite Door, illustrated by her longtime collaborator, Krys Maniecki. We covered a lot of ground, including the business of buying back your business (which she did a few years ago), growing up in fashion’s indie sleaze era, and being moms in Los Angeles. She also gave me an impromptu reading. Listen here and here. Mentioned in this issue: Sabato De Sarno, José Neves, Hillary Super, Adam Selman, Victoria’s Secret, Rihanna, Amy Sedaris, Bernard Osta, Jasmine Tookes, Rory Satran, Maximilian Bittner, Missy Elliott, Vestiaire Collective, The RealReal, and many more…

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A couple of weeks ago, Maximillian Bittner, the C.E.O. of Paris-based resale platform Vestiaire Collective, stepped down from his post. Bittner, a German entrepreneur who likes to remind people that he sold an e-commerce business to Alibaba before investing his own money in Vestiaire, was confident that he could make the platform the first word in secondhand sales. After all, he had the advantage of being based in Europe, and Paris specifically, the center of the luxury industry. Vestiaire’s hybrid model—peer to peer, but with a vetting system for high-ticket purchases—could arguably be more profitable than a full consignment business, where the onus is on the store to procure, process, and distribute each individual product.

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The Liberty High Jewelry collection necklace evokes the spirit of New York City’s iconic skyline. Bespoke-cut diamonds and luminous emeralds are hand-set in white gold, radiating icy perfection like the Statue of Liberty’s crown.

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From the beginning, though, Bittner’s strategy encountered trouble. While its U.S. competitor The RealReal moved toward profitability as consumers cottoned to the idea of shopping secondhand, Vestiaire failed to keep pace—even as its U.S. business grew. When I joined Puck more than two years ago, I wrote about Vestiaire’s struggles to properly allocate resources and its overreliance on the U.K. market, which was demolished by Brexit. Local U.K. resale businesses Depop and Vinted have fared better, but these resale businesses work best with active local customers.

That’s probably the biggest lesson here. The RealReal has actually benefited from the tariff disaster because most of its customers are buying and selling stateside. But the E.U.—and France in particular—was too small a market to transform Vestiaire into the e-commerce success story that Europe wanted it to be. (There are very few unicorns founded in Paris.) When I talked to Bittner back in 2023, he claimed that he could make Vestiaire profitable in a matter of months, but that he was choosing to reinvest in technology and other growth levers. It was a very 2015 way of thinking about things. By that point, of course, interest rates were rising and economic growth had begun to slow. There were talks with different retailers and competitors about potential mergers, but nothing came to fruition. One person I spoke to described Bittner’s exit as a coup by the board of directors; others said Bittner and the rest of the leadership team were simply not aligned on strategy. (A rep for Vestiaire Collective said that Bittner’s exit was a mutual decision between him and the board, and that it was the “right time for transition.”) Regardless, it seems evident from the succession process that more radical change could be on the horizon. The promotion of C.F.O. Bernard Osta, an investment banker who joined in 2021 to lead strategy, to the C.E.O. role suggests further streamlining. The executive ranks are in transition, too. In recent months, Paris-based C.M.O. Marie-Christin Oebel left the business, replaced by New York–based Samina Virk, who is pulling double duty as North American C.E.O. and global head of marketing. The future roles of the two remaining cofounders—Fanny Moizant and Sophie Hersan—are unclear, say current employees. (A rep said that Moizant and Hersan “remain part of the company” and are still shareholders.) The feeling, according to many, is that the company is slimming down in order to prep for a sale of some kind. (A rep claims that’s not true, and that, “after years of international expansion, we’re streamlining to scale smarter, not smaller.”) No matter, it’s probably too little, too late for Vestiaire to achieve anything substantive on that end. Just as Brexit hurt the business in 2021, tariffs have made it harder to grow in the U.S. It’s not a great time to be an online marketplace with global ambitions. At one point, it might have made sense for The RealReal, which reported a 14 percent increase in sales last quarter (albeit still operating at a net loss), to buy Vestiaire in order to instantly capture the European market. And perhaps it might still be worth it, if only for the email list. Just yesterday, secondhand purveyor Fashionphile, which has stuck, for the most part, to selling high-margin accessories like handbags and watches, acquired the intellectual property, customer database, and social media channels of U.K.-based Luxe Collective in order to enter the market in a contained way. Vestiaire itself tried a similar approach with its acquisition of Tradesy, a Los Angeles–based seller that never quite hit a RealReal level of cultural consciousness. (Vestiaire’s rep, for what it’s worth, calls the acquisition a “great success.”)

But so many resellers purporting to be platforms have better ideas than business models. In an industry with so many variables—an infinite number of SKUs, a precarious procurement process that relies entirely on the whims of the consigning consumer, etcetera—the only sure thing about the resale market is that consumers want it to exist. Like many innovations of the startup age, from ridesharing to short-term apartment rentals, people want these services and, in many cases, can’t imagine their lives without them. The next 10 years will be about figuring out a way not just to keep customers happy, but to make money, too.

Armani has a new C.E.O.: Giuseppe Marsocci, who’s been with the company for 23 years and was effectively running the business next to Mr. Armani. He will report to the board and is “passionate about sports, journalism, oenology, and philosophy.” [Inbox]

Every few years, I remember the great Evan Dando and grow concerned for his well-being. Now, he’s written a memoir, seemingly targeted at people like me. Chris Black, one of the last people I know who still reads books, gives it a strong recommendation. [GQ] Kaitlin Phillips, another person who still reads, has a note in her latest email about the pub Peter Doig and Parinaz Mogadassi bought and revived. Related: Phoebe Philo is sponsoring Doig’s show, House of Music, at the Serpentine through February 8. [Gift Guide and Peter Doig] Diane von Furstenberg may never be able to do another interview without being asked about the unique nature of her relationship with husband Barry Diller, but at least she prefers not to mince words. [Variety]

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

Puck’s daily art market email, anchored by industry expert Marion Maneker, offers unparalleled access to the mega-auctions and galleries, elite buyers and sellers, and the power players who run this opaque world. Wall Power also features Julie Brener Davich, a veteran of Christie’s and Sotheby’s, who provides unique insights into how the business really works.

Puck sports correspondent John Ourand and a rotating cast of industry insiders take you inside the executive suites and owners boxes where the decisions that shape the entire sports business are made. You’ll hear interviews with players, network execs, and everyone in between. The Varsity is an extension of John’s private email for Puck by the same name. New episodes publish every Wednesday and Sunday.

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