Every now and again, I hear a grievance from a well-meaning reader who wishes that I didn’t write so much about Europe, when there are so many Great American Brands. (I promise, this person owns zero red baseball caps.) The reality is… I follow the money, and more often than not, that happens to take me to LVMH, which has a market cap of $288 billion on a bad day.
But combing through our greatest hits, you’ll find that Rachel Strugatz, Sarah Shapiro, and I actually write about U.S.-based companies more often than not. Herewith, a selection of the best scoops, insights, and just really good American stories that we shared during the first half of 2025.
Scenes From the Kardashians-Grede Marriage
I’ve been tracking the evolution of Skims for years, and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the NikeSkims sub-brand, which you heard about here first. But the evolution of the partnership between Popular Culture’s Jens and Emma Grede, and the Kardashian family, which I analyze here, is at the center of it.
The Vuori Reality Distortion Complex
If LinkedIn had a clothing line, it might look a lot like Vuori: bland, technical, sufficiently breathable for crushing those quarterly all-hands from your remote location. But with a big bet from SoftBank (and others) and a $5.5 billion valuation, can the San Diego brand sell enough comfortable, forgettable clothing to keep its investors happy? Sarah followed up her own Vuori coverage with a piece this week looking at the various exit scenarios.Rhode to Retail
Rachel is the voice on the business of beauty, and I get a little thrill every time she has an incremental update on Rhode or Glossier, in particular, two generation-defining brands. Not only did she break the news that Rhode was selling to e.l.f. Beauty at a billion-dollar valuation, but she followed up with the definitive explanation of how Rhode beat Glossier to an exit. Rachel was also the first to reveal that Glossier’s once-$2 billion valuation had been cut in half. Just weeks later, Glossier C.E.O. Kyle Leahy announced her exit.Saks to Grind
The Saks Global saga really started in February, when C.E.O. Marc Metrick sent his now-infamous love letter to vendors, notifying them of further delayed backpayments and new 90-day payment terms. Since then, our partner Bill Cohan, who writes Puck’s Dry Powder private email, has tracked the evolution of Saks’s debt more closely and authoritatively than anyone, and Metrick even joined me on my podcast, Fashion People, to say his piece.Dôen the Right Thing
I love a scrappy founder story, and nothing scratches that itch more than the Los Angeles–founded Dôen, which reached new heights by crafting aspirational and totally wearable coastal casual pieces for the Montecito and Nantucket set. In a revealing conversation, Sarah asked co-founder Margaret Kleveland and president Holly Soroca if Dôen could maintain their carefully cultivated exclusivity. Just weeks later, I scooped that the company had raised $25 million at a $250 million valuation.
Wintour in Winter
In my time at Puck, one of my pet projects has been tracking the machinations at legacy publisher Condé Nast. But no matter what we’re discussing—the editorship of Vanity Fair, or kerfuffles in China and beyond—it always comes back to Anna Wintour, the company’s North Star and global chief content officer. Now, she’s searching for her successor at American Vogue, a choice that could determine the future of the company. Watch this space, as they say.
