Hi, and welcome back to Line Sheet. Were you in Madrid for Wes Gordon’s Carolina Herrera show last night? An underrated designer, and an underrated city. I hope you enjoyed.

Back in the States, Sarah Shapiro is taking the reins today as I rest up for my grand European tour. If there’s something you want me to write about over the next 2.5 weeks, just hit reply to this email.

In this issue, you’ll find Sarah’s dispatch from Menlo Park, where she witnessed Zuck model his A.I.-powered Ray-Bans at Wednesday’s Meta Connect demonstration. Do people really want to wear computers on their face? Over the next year, we’re going to see more and more software and hardware makers enter this market, and Sarah evaluates Meta’s pitch. Up top, Sarah has crucial intel regarding which handbags are selling the best on the secondhand market, an update on the affiliate marketing wars, and a look back at the week that was in retail.

By the way, Sarah’s taking a break soon and is working overtime to prep a mailbag issue for you. Send her your burning questions at SShapiro@puck.news.

Mentioned in this issue: Mark Zuckerberg, Meta, Ray-Ban, Eva Chen, Raul Lopez, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, Vogue, Sephora, Lisa Yang, Uniqlo, Kaws, and many, many more…

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

JEWELRY AS HIGH ART

David Yurman High Jewelry is the pinnacle of the House’s creative expression and artistry, marrying form and color with exceptional craftsmanship for modern collectors.

The Liberty collection 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.

Book a private appointment: concierge@davidyurman.com

EXPLORE DAVID YURMAN

Sarah Shapiro

Three Things You Should Know…

Secondhand handbag tally: My recent channel checks in New York led me to Fashionphile’s temperature-controlled showroom—part vault, part store, part museum—where you can inspect secondhand handbags before buying. A quick glance at their sales data reveals the styles, some of which debuted 70 years ago, that are increasingly popular today.

The top two bestselling brands, Louis Vuitton and Chanel, have styles that were designed in the first half of the 20th century. LV’s 1930 Monogram Speedy 30 was the most purchased, followed by Chanel’s Caviar Double Flap, Gucci’s GG Marmont, Hermès’s Evelyne, and Saint Laurent’s Loulou. It’s interesting that no bag launched after 2018 made the top five list.

Vogue and Sephora’s affiliate wars: This past week, both Sephora and Vogue announced plans to launch in the increasingly competitive affiliate marketing space. In partnership with Motom, My Sephora Storefront will allow creators and influencers to build their own digital shop. Meanwhile, Vogue will launch Vette in early 2026, led by Lisa Aiken, Vogue’s executive fashion director and Condé Nast’s S.V.P. of commerce.

The two new platforms join an increasingly competitive marketplace—one in which LTK (formerly known as RewardStyle) was the first mover and ShopMy later emerged as a disruptor. Most brands and retailers offer between 8 and 15 percent pass-through fees to creators as a commission, in addition to what they pay the affiliate platforms. These days, brands and retailers, like Vogue and Sephora, are hoping to build these platforms in-house as both a loyalty play and to keep more revenue for themselves. After all, if Sephora’s creators can link to the retailer’s products before you fall for a new sweater or handbag, it’s more likely Glazing Milk or Lip Butter Balm will end up in your checkout cart.
More store openings and launches: I’ve been watching early fall deliveries and taking note of just how many brands are highlighting cozy knits and all the luxe fabrications, like Lisa Yang’s brushed cashmere sweaters and argyle knits. Rùadh also made use of argyle in their new launch, which is now available on Net-a-Porter. … Aflalo’s delivery is also online, and includes embossed leathers, long shearling coats, silks, and tartans for the back-to-school look. … Uniqlo appointed Kaws as its first artist-in-residence, nicely timed to the upcoming Kaws: Family exhibition at SFMOMA. … This week, La Ligne x Observed by Us (Kirsten Dunst and Jessica Herschko’s illustrated fashion brand) launched with pajamas and striped socks. When I spoke with La Ligne’s Molly Howard in July, she told me that their best collaborations come from friends of the brands and creatives in their orbit. La Ligne also dropped a leather version of their bestselling wide-leg Colby pants.

And now, the main event…

Meta-Friction

Mark Zuckerberg unveiled his company’s new A.I.-integrated Ray-Ban sunglasses at Meta Connect this week, brushing off a buggy demo and upping the ante on wearable tech.

Sarah Shapiro

I wasn’t initially all that optimistic when I attended Meta Connect 2025, the annual showcase of new tech coming out of Menlo Park. The main event was the debut of the company’s new Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, powered by A.I., equipped with a tiny camera, and—for the first time—including a novel heads-up display within the lens, and a user interface that can be controlled with a flick of the wrist. Mark Zuckerberg, kitted out in a heavy black tee, described the product as a “huge scientific breakthrough.” But, of course, if smart glasses are going to succeed, they need to be embraced by the fashion world. And so far, most of the wearable tech we’ve seen—from Apple Watches to Oura Rings—flirt with the limits of good taste. (And who could forget the disaster that was Google Glass…)

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

JEWELRY AS HIGH ART

David Yurman High Jewelry is the pinnacle of the House’s creative expression and artistry, marrying form and color with exceptional craftsmanship for modern collectors.

EXPLORE DAVID YURMAN

By working with Ray-Ban, Zuckerberg has been trying to turn Meta’s eyewear products into a genuine consumer product—with just enough sex appeal, if that’s possible, to expand its market share beyond SAT tutors, Silicon Valley bros, and other early adopters. Meta, naturally, has been courting fashion insiders as well. At the Menlo Park event, fashion people were treated to a “Fashion Field Trip,” led by Eva Chen, the former Condé Nast editor who is now Meta’s V.P. of fashion. Guests included stylist June Ambrose, designer Raul Lopez, photographer Martin Romero, and creators Evan Ross Katz and Beka Gvishiani (Style Not Com), among others. Later, Chen hosted a fireside chat with Matteo Battiston, the chief design officer at EssilorLuxottica, and Joshua To, Meta’s V.P. of wearables product design.

As Battiston pointed out during that conversation, Meta’s partnership with EssilorLuxottica has been successful by many metrics. The world’s largest eyewear company has sold at least 2 million pairs of Meta Ray-Bans since their launch in 2023, and sales tripled year-over-year in Q2. Battiston also mentioned that EssilorLuxottica selected the Ray-Ban Wayfarer to launch their smart glasses program because the product should look good when it’s powered off, and the Wayfarer is almost universally accepted as stylish: Celine, Loewe, and Tom Ford all sell popular, chunky rimmed frames. (Snapchat’s Spectacles, by contrast, are almost comically bulky, although the company plans to debut new “lightweight” glasses in 2026.)

Apple Envy

Zuckerberg’s keynote didn’t go all that smoothly: When he tried to showcase the new Live A.I. feature, the glasses skipped steps and didn’t follow commands. (Apparently there was some issue with the Wi-Fi.) Later, Zuckerberg tried to use the glasses to FaceTime “Boz”—Meta’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth—but the connection was still shoddy, and they gave up after four attempts.

The glasses seemed to work better in one-on-one demos, when journalists were invited to try them on themselves. I was able to interact with people around me while simultaneously listening to Spotify, adjusting the volume, and taking photos—all with the use of a “neural band” that sits on your wrist and detects minute movements from your muscles as you move your fingers or rotate your hand. The A.I. could also add closed captions to my conversations, which might actually be helpful in a noisy restaurant. (Of course, it’s kind of creepy, too.)

Ultimately, the economic opportunity before Meta will depend on the adoption curve for an exciting, useful, but also unfamiliar and even disconcerting new product category. According to Bernstein, the eyewear market has the ability to expand 4x over the next 15 years, but smart glasses will need to become as ubiquitous as smartphones. Apple’s entire Wearables, Home and Accessories category, which includes the Apple Watch, generated around $40 billion in revenue last year. Meta is presumably lusting after a similarly sized market.

For mass adoption, the product needs to do more than look decent, work properly, and tangibly improve your life—it needs to break through into the cultural zeitgeist, too. But is your brain ready to multitask to this extent? After all, I’m trying to decrease scroll time on my phone, not become more reliant on technology. After 10 years of wearing an Apple Watch, and putting up with its bleeping, buzzing notifications and its huge tan line, I’ve downgraded it to gym use. I’m not sure I need Slack messages permanently attached to my face.

After I’d left Meta Connect, I thought back to the Labubus wearing Meta bucket hats I’d seen earlier, and how they’d already seemed ridiculously dated—Naomi Osaka’s bejeweled Labubus at the U.S. Open were the trend’s apotheosis and its demise. I wondered whether smart glasses, too, are just a passing fad. I think we’re about to find out.

Have a great weekend,
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.

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.

The Kimmel Capitulation

MATTHEW BELLONI & KIM MASTERS

Sen. Kelly’s A.I. Wealth Fund

IAN KRIETZBERG

A Bergdorf Escape Hatch

LAUREN SHERMAN

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