The story of what sold in 2024 is dominated by a few things: quiet luxury (no surprise there); a greater sense of realism about what you might actually need and whether it can stick around in your wardrobe long enough to make the investment worthwhile; and, that when it comes to accessories It status is no longer it. If you’re going to spend plenty of money on a bag, then practical, durable, and madly luxurious is actually where it’s at. (Likewise, if you can wear a look with a loafer, the shoe of 2024, you’re good to go.)
All this has meant that it has been a terrific year for The Row, Dries Van Noten, Loewe, Sacai, and Bottega Veneta. Joining this group is a name that was on almost everyone’s lips, Auralee, which has been selling up a storm. (Though honorable mentions too to TWP and High Sport.) All that said, there’s a counter narrative happening too. What emerged from chatting with nine boutique owners across North America these past few weeks is that there’s an ever greater desire for new names, particularly independent young labels; their emphasis on a singular vision and specialness, not to mention conveying their own personal stories through their work, has proved to be compelling. That’s an encouraging development as we move into 2025.
Beth Buccini, Kirna ZabeteNew York, Palm Beach, Bryn Mawr, Nashville, Miami, and East Hampton
The huge message of the year for us has been quiet luxury—it is astounding how much of that we have sold. We’ve always focused on wardrobing real women—clothes for seven days a week: a work outfit, a weekend outfit, a black tie outfit—and when you look across the board at our top brands, women have wanted basics which are luxurious, and for that reason, TWP has been a runaway success. It has this one shirt called the Next Ex, which is the perfect Oxford (I am wearing one now) and it has just sold and sold. That, and a pair of pleated pants—and it is nearly impossible to sell pleated pants!—have been constants. [TWP designer] Trish Wescoat Pound has done an incredible job. (High Sport pants, too, have done well; we sold 165 pairs in one month!)
Otherwise, it’s Khaite, The Row, Bottega Veneta, and Alaia. When you break all those down, it’s really the luxury of chicness and polish. This has been the year of Khaite: Anything [designer Catherine Holstein] has done has sold, and she has all the categories down: the shoes, the bags, the jeans, the knits, the eveningwear—even the belts. They come in and they go right out. Same with the Alaia belts. Women are redefining their waists again.
We don’t seem to have price resistance. Women really want value, and she wants to make sure that it feels luxurious. We’ve also had some under-the-radar fashion hits which are really expensive but that we sell super, super well, like Libertine and Dusan. There’s a new line we like out of Stockholm called House of Dagmar. And Maria McManus has been strong: It’s priced beautifully, the product is absolutely gorgeous, and the messaging is incredible. I love how at the end of her show, she stands up and gives you a spiel about where everything comes from and how it was made. It’s very soulful, and that’s what women want these days—not just to be buying stuff that doesn’t have a meaning to it.
Aside from the quiet luxury minimal moment, we also always do well with colorful prints—La DoubleJ, Pucci, Carolina Herrera. And then there’s the real fashion girl who’s buying Miu Miu—oh my God, the amount of Miu Miu we have sold this year! There’s absolutely no price resistance to it. That’s really the only logo-ed thing that we sell. Generally, the woman who is 50-plus doesn’t care about price. The Miu Miu girl is typically young and shopping with her mother or her grandmother—she’s convincing them to buy it for her.
Thinking across ages is something we’ve really worked on. I’ve been doing this for 25 years now—I was in my twenties when I started, and now I am in my early ’50s—and we’ve been through the gamut of all the things that women need. We have really had a post-Covid correction this year. When we were coming out of Covid, all anyone wanted was sexy, sexy, sexy. That’s over—it doesn’t work anymore. This has been a year where all the talk is about chic and polish and classic.
Also, the sneaker moment is over. Comfort is still important—it’s not like they’re asking for stilettos—but they want loafers or ballet flats. Our woman is also not afraid to spend the money on an expensive bag—the Margaux from The Row has been nuts for us—but she is concerned about spending money on a trendy bag. This year there has been much less trend, which is great. Personally, I am not super into trends.
Finding newness is one of my favorite parts of my job, and I would say right now it’s nearly impossible to be a new designer. I think they are all struggling—the industry now requires so much money, and everything is so expensive to set up and get going, and no one has the patience anymore. In the time I’ve been running Kirna Zabete, it has never been a more challenging environment, which is heartbreaking. As an industry, we need to do more to support new designers. The fall of MatchesFashion and Farfetch, these macroeconomic things, have really hurt them.
Chris and Ben Ospital, MAC (Modern Appealing Clothing)San Francisco
Ben: We try to treat everything [at the store] like we’re stylish Margaret Meads. It’s that idea of what does the average client eat, and when do they eat, and where do they go to dinner? What are they doing on Saturdays? Is it in a ballgown or in athleisure? These things are so important. And you know how it is: It’s that weird thing of one season you go, ‘Oh God—what was I thinking: high waisted pants?!’ And a year later, everyone’s coming in and saying, ’Do you have any high-waisted pants?”
Chris: We constantly analyze not only what went out the door, but what stayed in the dressing room. [As retailers] our real estate has to be about excitement—so we constantly have to think about what is exciting to the person walking into MAC.
Ben: New ideas: That’s the driver. So much of that is the story—of fresh faces, of fresh silhouettes, sometimes—that you’re like, ’Okay—I have stuff but I want something new.’ You want to put on a new thought. That has meant for us in the store: no more oldies—just really good clothes, really exciting and successful clothes that can go anywhere, and which can be worn every day. It has been interesting to see the curve of consuming post-Covid. We found, during Covid, that all you could sell was wildly cozy, something that you could do the crossword puzzle in bed with. And then [post-Covid] suddenly we found there was this great leap towards going out, so we sold a lot of clothes to go out in: celebratory, something to up the ante.
Chris: Now, in 2024, we’re finding a settling in. Before, people had come out of the pandemic saying, I don’t know what I need; I don’t know where my clothes go; I don’t know where I’m at. We saw the same scenario after 9/11, when suddenly people felt changed, and they felt that they needed to think about who they were. This year we found there wasn’t the need to check in: People really began to think about what clothes would mean something to them every day.
Ben: That’s why we found people like Sophie D’Hoore, who makes fantastic basics, but they’re unusual—she did well for us. We’ve gone through a period of minimalism, and not to get all Margaret Mead, but if ever there was a time that you have to think about what you stand for, it is now. It’s all about expression, which has led to this feeling of wanting to be a very free spirit, more so than before—that attitude of I’ll wear whatever I goddamn please. We are certainly going forward [as a store] with the idea of being more free-minded: The rules are meant to be broken. It’s the Lynn Yaeger approach: You love that skirt so much? Well, wear two! Truthfully, that has actually always been our approach, because we sell both men’s and women’s clothes, and things are kind of mixed-up here. Sometimes a guy would pick up a cashmere V-neck sweater and say, “Is this a man’s, or woman’s?” And our answer has always been, “Flip it over and check the genitalia!” I mean, it’s a V-neck sweater!
Chris: [Other designers who are connecting have been] Meryll Rogge, Comme des Garçons, Casey Casey, Dries Van Noten—Dries is one of those fantastic lines where women feel very attracted to the men’s clothes. [For our customers] it’s typical that a woman will buy maybe a men’s piece to wear with a dress or a skirt. Going forward, I think we’ll be even more in a moment of clothing anarchy. Julie Kegels: Love, so good—that trench coat of hers! It was like, Do you need it to go to the opera? Great. Do you also need it to walk your dog? Go for it. It was that most modern idea of turning the codes of design upside-down. The other person we really love is Cecile Bahnsen. It’s the same thing: She makes these evening clothes which are ultimately so easy and fun to wear.
Nancy Pearlstein, RelishWashington DC
It’s been a kind of strange year, because our approach to style—at least the style we try to promote now, post-Covid—is about how to get the customer back on track: To get them out of track pants and lounge wear, to not go back to the same old thing they were in before—how to make workwear work, let’s say, which I’m mostly focused on; how to get that to be updated and modern. That might mean a gray flannel pant, but one with an elastic waistband or a drawstring waist so it suggests a more casual look, but one that can be brought into the real world to go to work.
The thinking has been: Let’s get dressed up and be a little more serious. That’s been a really big trend. There has been a lot of talk about going back to the classics, but my customer already has her classics. What they do want is more of an elevated look—and they’re looking for help to achieve it; they want someone to guide them. Everybody seemed to be very unsure about what to buy because they’re not sure what direction to go in. They feel like there’s nothing to hold onto.
Sacai was very strong this year. She’s the one that really stands out. Dries Van Noten was good, but perhaps not as strong as in past seasons. Auralee is a label that I picked up that did really, really well and which represents what I am talking about: more casual, but also more hip. Setchu is another new label for us. He did this program of cashmere blazers that were unstructured, almost like a shirt jacket, but double-breasted, and which could be worn with a pair of cashmere trousers that looked like jogging pants, but more structured. Our women loved, loved, loved that.
Another new name for us: Song for the Mute. They’re young designers and they have a fresh take on classics that the more established names don’t seem to be grasping; they’re just a lot fresher. I mean, if I look at some of the things out there… They look so boring to me that I would just fall asleep and I wouldn’t want to buy them. And if I’m not going to buy it, [our customers] are not going to buy it!
We carry The Row, and that did well too. Yohji Yamamoto also did well. I’ve carried it for a while but this fall, for some reason, it struck a chord. I can’t exactly tell you why, but they loved the idea of it—that it was a little more dressed-up, yet it also has a kind of bohemian feel to it. But Sacai has been the standout. She’s the most creative—and the most relatable—to my clients right now. They want something elevated, and they want to be seen in it—they just don’t want it to shout. DC has always definitely been that way, but even more so now.
For fall, I did a lot of bags from Marni; I loved them. They got eaten up right away—and they weren’t exactly cheap. They were a little bohemian, more relaxed than a structured bag. There is a desire for something more casual, soft, and squishy. Heels we can’t sell. If they need a little height, a wedge or a platform will do well, but the reality is we sold a lot of loafers this year. Or they want Birkenstocks, or a version thereof. That seems to be the direction of where shoes are going. And it has been like that for a while.
Anything that has a stiffness or a tightness, no one wants. The fabrics have to be luxe. They like easy and relaxed, but they don’t want the big oversized look anymore. They weren’t fans of it in the first place, but now? Forget about it. Anything too heavy doesn’t work, either, although sweaters did extremely well for us this fall, which was unusual given the mild weather. They love the coziness and the ease of them—they’re more dressed up than a sweatshirt, but they still give that nonchalant feel.
[In terms of spending] everybody was talking about how classics are back in, but too classic, and it costs a fortune—and then the reaction was, this is ridiculous; it’s not worth it. But show someone a gorgeous pair of leather pants or a beautiful leather jacket, or a stunning cashmere blazer, and then price isn’t an issue. It can even be a T-shirt—if it fits well and the fabric is beautiful, they’ll spend any amount of money on it. It’s like, I love it, it fits me, beautiful, thank you, bye, see you later!
Margaret Austin, OutlineBrooklyn, New York
Our customer is interesting—we obviously do e-commerce, but we are really a local Brooklyn store. She is someone who lives in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Gowanus, and she is a working woman; she is very practical, and is thinking a lot about things she will actually wear, whether it’s an everyday situation or more of an occasion, but the thinking is the same: How long will I have this in my closet? She’s less trend-driven and thinks much more about longevity, and quality, and things which aren’t too specific to a certain era.
Our top-selling brands are The Row and Dries Van Noten, which are obviously very different, but they don’t feel specific to 2024—they could have existed in 2015 or 2030! These are labels which are timeless, but never boring. Across the brands we carry, outerwear is huge. People definitely understand that coats are going to be expensive, and they feel comfortable shelling out for a really beautiful, special, well-made winter jacket they will have for a long time. Particularly The Row: We get it in and then basically it goes right out. Handbags are also a big thing, and they have been a big part of the commerce conversation—we are in a handbag economy.
Suiting is also something that people have felt they can really invest in, whether it’s a full suit, a jacket, or a perfect pair of pants. Dries’s Pakora trouser is a classic. They do it every season in different fabrics, and we always have those pants—people love them, and they look amazing on different body types. The Row, too, has a really nice men’s trouser for women that sells and sells. You can wear it every day—that’s why people feel like, Okay, I’m going to spend $1,500 on these pants.
Also, for us, this has been the year of Auralee. We opened two and a half years ago, and Auralee was one of the brands we launched with, so it’s been amazing to see its growth. I am very proud of them. It’s such an Outline brand, as its fabric-first. Our customers appreciate the simplicity, as well as their use of color and fabrications. They do things in an interesting and unexpected way, but it still feels very approachable—I don’t want to say casual, but it’s simple and beautiful. We also sold a lot of Maison Margiela Tabis. They are certainly what I reach for every day, and we have customers who come in and have lengthy conversations about them—they might have seven pairs already, but they want another! I’d mention Pleats Please too. We started with that in January, and people love it.
Someone we picked up who isn’t new but is new to us is Margaret Howell: It just makes sense for our customer. People appreciate fabrics and well-tailored clothes, and Margaret Howell really resonates with them. We had a great year with that—and a great year with Wales Bonner. We also brought on Renaissance Renaissance, which is from Lebanon. It’s a good price point, and it’s different, but not at all trendy. I think it’s important to differentiate that, because I think trendy clothes are boring. There are certain brands which can feel so 2024, and people assume that’s only new brands or young designers who are like that, and I don’t think that’s true at all.
Christopher Green, Ven SpaceBrooklyn, New York
We opened this fall, and from the beginning the number-one-selling brand has been Auralee—and I think most people who sell it will have the same sentiment. The sell-through has been so strong. It’s a wonderful brand which marries quality of fabrication, simplicity of design, and wearability. It works for different ages, and it touches people whether they’re in-the-know or not. It’s not a hard brand to introduce to people—even if someone isn’t overly into fashion, it resonates with them.
If the last few years have sometimes been about buying something in the moment and not really thinking about the end use of what you’re buying, that has changed—and that’s something we’re very much behind. It’s why we’re not into representing trends, and you won’t find any logos in the store. Lemaire has been wonderful, and it’s been gaining traction for some time now: It is well-made and at somewhat of a luxury price. It represents an investment, and our customers are looking to invest. We also launched our own in-house line, Ven 11231, and that has been fantastic—it’s at 95%sell-through.
In terms of what else is selling, we’ve seen an uptick in knitwear versus the sweatshirting of the last two or three years, and I think a lot of that is down to people going out more, or they’re back in the office more. There’s also the value proposition: I can pay $500 or $600 for a sweatshirt or for a sweater, and maybe it’s actually in a nicer material and I can wear it in more settings and feel a bit more respectable than I do in a sweatshirt. Again, Auralee knits have smashed it, but even on the higher end of the spectrum—The Row, say—there hasn’t been price aversion to knitwear. We also brought in a knitwear brand called Yacaia from Norway, and it has been wonderful.
We’re seeing more smartness versus casualness. Yes, people are still buying denim, but I think people want to look and feel a bit smarter and more sophisticated. That’s true of the knits, but also we’ve had so many requests for a transitional blazer or jacket. They’re not looking for true suiting, but we’re walking towards a more laidback expression of suiting with a casual refinement—it’s about redefining the silhouette. Obviously the really wide and baggy has been at the forefront of people’s minds for some time, but I’ve noticed guys are not looking for that right now—they want a trimmer look. When I buy for Ven Space, with men’s, the silhouettes are really not that different from brand to brand. It’s not like the women’s world, which is so much more adventurous. So I really want to focus on the fabrication to tell different stories—that a fabric has been brushed, or spun, or woven to give it a certain hand.
We’ve had customers who aren’t shy about spending—and I know it’s still early for us and there’s a bit of a buzz about the store, so people want to get involved and participate—but I do think people are objectively looking for something they can wear multiple times. People do talk about cost per wear to justify purchasing something. The pandemic affected things a lot, and it still is: Streetwear is still relevant, but luxury streetwear is becoming far less important. People want a cleaner, smarter look. They’re moving away from the logo-driven stuff. The newness criteria for brands was that we had to love them, and perhaps they aren’t so visible—like the Japanese brand Cale that I really wanted us to have, and another brand from Japan, Graph Paper, which doesn’t have distribution in the US. It’s not everywhere, so you have to discover it. We’re small—we can introduce things to our customers and gauge their reactions.
Molly Nutter, By GeorgeAustin and New Orleans
This has been an interesting year, and it came on the tails of some interesting years—the pandemic, and then the post-pandemic boom, and then things beginning to stabilize. And then early in the year we were out in the market, talking to different people—or you’re reading the news, or talking to your friends—and you just kind of sense that we’re heading into a time that might be a bit uncertain. We could sense that in the way our customers were shopping. When things are booming, you’re just dealing with the boom—and when things change, you ask: What are the most important things to us right now?
We decided early on that we are a relatively small store, so we can only carry so many brands—and we love championing new brands, and right now we need to hold their hands and make sure that we are supporting them. If we pick up someone new, we are very specific about why we are doing so. The last thing you want to do is play it safe—we have to lean into what makes us different and special.
In the world of the big brands that we carry, we’re a little more niche: The Row, Loewe, Bottega Veneta—we’re not carrying Chanel or Gucci. We carry other brands that we’ve been nurturing over the years who have become part of the backbone of our business: Zero Maria Cornejo, Maria McManus, Sacai. We do like to introduce new names into the mix, like Zankov and Diotima. Another, which isn’t new per se but is new to the United States, is Jamie Haller. She started her own business during the pandemic with a loafer based on a shoe she found in Morocco, and since then she has branched out into clothes to wear with the loafers. So we launched that, and it has been doing great. It’s not about just having the bigger names—sometimes I think having these small, newer brands makes the established names look and feel different; it brings a halo effect.
We are always thinking about how our customer lives her day-to-day life. If I am going to ask her to trust me to try something new, I need to know it will actually work in her life. The one thing about the Austin customer is that they buy clothes they can actually wear. It’s not to say they don’t like special things—Dries Van Noten is one of our best brands, but we want someone to wear it to make it her own, be it laid-back or dressed-up. Right now, people are looking for things with a bit more polish, but it’s all relative—polished here is different from polished in Dallas, say. For us, it means less slouchy and relaxed and more clean and relaxed, like High Sport pants. We’ve had them since the beginning, and they’re still going strong; it’s a phenomenon I’ve seen only a few times in my career. They’ll go with a tailored jacket and a smart tee or pretty blouse, so everything is a bit more pulled-together. Dressing up here might mean a long dress from The Row with ballet flats.
[As for what people are willing to spend money on] it has to have an undeniable quality—something that will last. It really has nothing to do with the design per se. Unsurprisingly, jewelry is selling really well, with the price of gold going up: Nak Armstrong, Vada—by Katie Kaplan, who’s based here in Austin—Van Gelder, Adina Reyter. We carry vintage watches—Rolex, Cartier—and they’re doing really well for us. Speaking of vintage, we added a vintage denim bar to the store. Do you remember back in the ’90s when Stella McCartney and Liv Tyler wore those Filth Mart tees that said Rock Royalty? The designers live in Austin, and we did a mini pop-up with them during SXSW. It went really well, so we asked them to work on a denim bar. The jeans cost anywhere from $600-1,200, and we can’t keep them in.
Andrew Dryden, DepartamentoLos Angeles
We transitioned this year to a new store, which was a huge thing for us: visually, the collections are much better represented—that’s its own conversation—but [in terms of what sold] we definitely saw a big move towards riskier, more daring looks. Maison Margiela springs to mind—the way John [Galliano] has made the men’s is the women’s is the men’s. It’s made a lot of buyers steer clear from some of what he has done, but we take the risk, because we want to stay true to the image that John is creating. We ordered some of the ’women’s’ pieces in men’s sizing—like the ‘shorts’ skirts in silk and workwear cotton—and they all sold. It was a nice surprise—because, yes, it was risky. Sometimes, whether we win or lose, we carry something just for representation.
Loewe is another example: Every season I push to only buy more of the final-drop runway collections and less of the pre-collections—usually it’s 30% of the former and 70% of the latter. We flipped it in the other direction, and the result has been that we’ve just sold through the collection like crazy. We put our faith in the idea that people are actually out there looking for runway pieces.
We added Magliano, who we have been courting for a bit now, but this felt like the right time; that’s been a really exciting addition. The clothes are fashion, proper fashion, but they also sit on the knife edge of also being familiar, well-made clothing. The other label we took this year is the English label Cecile Tulkens. She has been in the background of the industry, doing knitwear for a lot of big-name designers on a consulting basis. What she does feels very personal, like Vetements when it started, where it is these industry people coming together; a lot of it is about the codes of uniform dressing. She’s the knitwear queen, but the trousers, for instance, are tailored by a friend who works on Savile Row. It all has really deep ties to making and the United Kingdom, working with old factories on the brink of closing. She also has a nice sense of community, hosting these impromptu happenings at her studio. We do spend a lot of time considering adding a new name—it’s not like we are adding eight new names a season—but with Cecile or Magliano, we need to know that they can sit besides the likes of a Loewe.
We have pulled back on sneakers. Only this morning I was having a big think about sneakers in the store. They’ve never really been my area of expertise, and we only worked with Salomon from the beginning because they were an outsider, in some respects, to the sneaker market. Now I can’t tell if it’s oversaturation, or if I just want to pull back. We always had them in the store as a more egalitarian item at a lower price point, and we will always have that, but maybe not to the extent that we now have it.
One brand that has been selling and selling has been Enfants Riches Déprimés. The designer [Henri Alexander Levi] is somewhat of an outsider. He’s a friend of ours, and a very authentic person. His work is reflective of his life and interests. Anyway, it has quite recently really caught on—actually, it’s turned into our most desired brand. People are beating down our door to get the product as soon as it lands. We have always had huge success with Chrome Hearts, and now Enfants Riches Déprimés has been attracting that same level of interest.
Kaelen Haworth, Absolutely FabricsToronto
Our top designers have been Christopher John Rogers, Zankov, All-In, Aeron (which is a brand out of Hungary), B Sides, and Interior (which is kind of ironic, since the label has now, sadly, closed). Luxury knitwear did well for us—well, all sorts of knitwear: that’s kind of low-hanging fruit in Canada! We also have Judy Turner, so directional knitwear with a strong point of view has been a big story for us.
I’d say that the general idea has been louder accessories—we’ve sold a lot of those dramatic, long All-In boots and bags from Ottolinger—but much quieter clothing. We do have a lot of editorial, directional pieces, but what sold really well was tailoring in more classic silhouettes in really nice fabrications. More in that quiet luxury vibe—I guess we’re still in that world.
We don’t really have price resistance when it comes to the classic timeless pieces, but people have to have a little bit of spice. Everyone seems to be gravitating towards pieces that they’re going to wear over and over again. It’s less event wear, and more I can definitely use this every day. They want wardrobe heroes, like Ashlyn, who makes beautiful, beautiful clothes.
With the conversion rate, we are hit pretty hard. In part that’s why we have to be really thoughtful about who we sell and why we sell them—though there is always the emotional purchase, where someone knows there are so few of them in the world… like, maybe there are only three of those Christopher John Rogers dresses. And we sell a Ukrainian brand, Bettter, which is all upcycled and recycled one-of-a-kind pieces. We also sell a very curated selection of vintage. I love Mugler suits, so we have a ton of those, and people buy them and don’t think twice.
Anecdotally, and going through our back-end data, the super-short, super-tight, overtly sexy stuff we are not seeing as much traction with. Instead, we have sold sets really well—people like a set. Not necessarily just suiting, though that’s part of it, but for instance, we have this set from Renaissance Renaissance that’s an intellectual kind of sexiness—a loose trouser in a really beautiful gray wool with a matching button-down which fastens all the way up at the front but which has an open back. It’s an interesting, different kind of sexy—there’s an ease to it that people are responding to. But the fussy, restrictive stuff that takes a lot to figure out how to wear is just not happening.
What has been surprising to me is how people know about brands that are quote-unquote “emerging.” So many people are coming in and asking for brands like Zankov, Ashlyn, Bettter. There’s a huge desire for newness. There’s not one brand we carry that anyone shopping here has not heard of.
Sherri McMullen, McMullen BoutiqueSan Francisco and Oakland
We opened our second store this year, in San Francisco [McMullen’s other store is in Oakland] and we’ve seen two differences, even though we’ve been open only a few months. Climate is one thing that’s different, but also the location. In Oakland, our number one category has always been dresses—ruffles, prints, pops of colors—they love that. San Francisco is different: It’s a little more understated and women want interesting everyday pieces; a chic that works for work, the school drop-off, and having lunch with friends. A lot of our clients travel all the time, or they have homes in various places, so they’re also looking for luxe travel pieces that they can also wear off the plane for whatever they’re doing that day. Also, many of them are leaders in the tech world, are on boards, are big in the art community, speaking on panels…they’re not necessarily looking for suiting, but they want something that stands out, but not too much.
So, knitwear—from the likes of Zankov, which just gets better and better; people love Henry Zankov’s knits, they feel special and work for lots of women—has done well; everyday tailoring; and, loafers instead of sneakers — we could sell loafers from The Row all day long. We’re such a good walking city, maybe that’s why they do so well here. Proenza Schouler is selling strongly in San Francisco. Women love the brand—it’s cool, it has got an established point of view. And Dries Van Noten is great for us; it’s very much a San Francisco/Bay Area label. I’m finding that customers are just wanting things a little more streamlined. Beautiful fabrics, interesting shapes, textures.
I added a label called Burc Akyol, who I met through the LVMH Prize. We bought it for San Francisco. It is all in black, beautifully designed, and he uses great fabrics. People really liked it. It’s different, but not so in-your-face that you have to think about it. And we did a collaboration with a Ghanaian label called Christie Brown which has been really successful. It was the first time I had co-designed a brand with a designer and I really wanted to create something that spoke to our customer, this working woman, this creative woman, this executive. It was a size inclusive capsule of twelve pieces, going up to a US size 20, which was the first time we’ve been able to offer that. So many women who wanted to shop with us weren’t able to because we didn’t have sizes that fit them. I was happy we were able to give them something that they could feel good in.
I’m seeing that so many of our customers also want to support brands led by women of color. There’s a strong interest in that, be it a designer from here in the United States or Europe or the Caribbean or Africa. We support so many, whether it’s Stella Jean or Diotima by Rachel Scott; Rachel is so intentional about her production and the women she’s showcasing. There is such an emotional connection with what she does. Especially in this day and age, people want to connect with those things that make them feel good. Sometimes with fashion there’s a perception that it’s superficial, but no; you can wear something that is fun and meaningful, that connects with your values—as well as supporting independent and often women-led brands. I’m very passionate about that. We have to get behind them.
People were a bit more conscious of how much they were spending. So even if they still bought a luxury item, maybe they weren’t buying quite as many. And it also just depends, like San Francisco feels like it’s a little bit different because of location, and there’s so much more disposable income where we are. But people are certainly asking about the cost; they’re not just saying, I’ll take it without knowing the price of something, no matter what it is. There is this thought, OK, am I going to wear this enough for it to feel like it’s a good value for me? And we’re talking about wearability more and more. It’s really like you can wear this dress over a trouser and you can wear this with a sandal, and you can find ways to wear it in the fall as well as the spring. Yet there’s still always going to be the emotional purchase: That you have to have that Diotima crystal mesh dress, or gown from Christopher John Rogers.
Ikram Goldman, IkramChicago
It has been a refreshing year in the sense that women were finally getting back in the groove of really dressing up and feeling empowered to dress up. Whereas in the past few years, dressing up was kind of like a taboo; if you were dressed up, people looked at you weirdly because you’re supposed to be in Covid mode, you were supposed to be in sneakers and sweatpants.
For us that has meant collections from Celine, Loewe, Zomer, and Valentino; they each have a direction that was modern, and so chic and so elegant and so elevated. Women were slowly but surely getting back into just being themselves again, and feeling good about who they are. What I also found this season, and this is really, really important, is that women wanted to wear what no one else had.
The look all starts with the shoe. Women have veered away from sneakers completely, and they’re totally into the most beautiful shoes, be it flat, kitten heel, or high. It’s the shoe that tells you the story of what you’re going to look like. When you were in sneakers, you were going to be a little bit more casual, a little bit more street, a little bit more punk. But in a heel, you’re going to be a little bit sexier, a little bit more elevated, a little bit more…attitude.
There is a difference to getting dressed up, though. Pre-Covid, it was, I have a black tie event, I have a wedding, I have a party, and people wanted gowns. Now, people have been like, you know what? I just need a great wardrobe. I have dinner parties and I’m going out for dinner and I just want to look good. So everything that was chosen was chosen methodically, but also really, really elegantly. It wasn’t just to go out and get dressed up, it was really to go out and feel like they are making this statement that I’m here and I am confident and that I feel beautiful. It goes back to Loewe, and to Valentino—and even with the shift from Pierpaolo [Piccioli] to Alessandro [Michele] people still looked to that label as a go-to for a very clear and precise look.
And with those selections…I would say it opened the door for us when working with younger designers to take a little bit more of a risk in terms of being creative. I would say, and this isn’t a new collection for us, but I would say people really looked to Richard Quinn for dressier clothes. Also, Caroline Hu; we love her pieces, and sold them fabulously. And Zomer, who I already mentioned; it has a real vision.
There’s a specificity to what people want, but it’s individually specific. There’s a group of girls who want the cropped wide legged leather pants from Loewe. There’s another group of girls who wanted the Nigel Curtiss denim suit, with flocked velvet florals, and, can I tell you, that was one thing this year that really lifted my spirits this year.
Lastly, there were two knockouts this year who really, really do stand the test of time—Chitose [Abe] from Sacai and Simone Rocha. They each have a fierce voice with the most feminine touch, without ever compromising a single thing about who they are. And with Simone, we also started carrying her men’s, and it has become one of our best sellers. In 2024, each of them just nailed it.