Glossy

For one, it came four years late. The company first started attempting to go public in 2022, but a series of political hurdles in New York and then London led to long delays. Finally, Shein went public in Hong Kong this week at a valuation of around $25 billion, down from $100 billion in 2022.

The decision reversal won’t likely halt Galliano’s return to fashion. His reputation has survived a criminal conviction, after which he worked his way back to the industry’s highest level and secured his next commercial act with Zara. Instead, it exposed the boundary between allowing a designer to work again and granting him a rare institutional honor. To go back to the beginning, Galliano’s downfall followed several encounters at La Perle café in Paris.

The following day, Coastline generated $3.5 million online in 24 hours, according to the company. It became the highest-grossing limited-edition drop in Set’s eight-year history. Carter attributed the performance, in part, to the online conversation surrounding the activation, amplified by an expanded group of around 15 “Set Insiders” who received early products and behind-the-scenes content.

Then came the blow-up. In the last few weeks, tensions between the two countries over the Trump administration’s aggressive tariffs on Canadian goods boiled over into a full-on trade war. Canadian negotiators rejected a deal they called “unfair” and unserious. In response, the U.S. enacted a 50% tariff on nearly $30 billion worth of Canadian goods exported to the U.S., targeting a wide array of exports including clothing and apparel.

We’ve seen this play out across dandruff shampoo, toothpaste and mouth wash, supplements, sunscreen, and, most recently, the allergy aisle. “We did a ton of consumer work up front, probably too much, pulling research reports, data and our own survey of 600 consumers, and what we realized was that there is a huge experience and efficacy gap,” Loren Lucree, the CEO and founder of 9-month-old allergy-care brand Wizard Wellness, told Glossy.

The pattern raises a sharper question: If online distribution, values-led messaging and direct customer relationships are not enough, what did the DTC brands that have survived do differently? Leather accessories brand Cuyana and heritage fashion brand Faherty are fitting counterpoints.

Life Time plants a flag in entertainment with the launch of expansive social programming A pivot toward entertainment as a tool to stand out and retain customers has worked well for the beauty industry in the past few years. Industry leaders like Dr. Squatch and E.l.f. Beauty have given marketing leaders a blueprint for evocative ads, comedian partnerships and an endless bouquet of unexpected collaborations.

SKIMS and Canada Goose showed how experience-led thinking is reshaping the physical and commercial sides of fashion. SKIMS, which won Fashion Brand of the Year, paired rapid category expansion with an accelerating retail footprint, opening 15 U.S. stores while expanding into beauty and fragrance through its acquisition of SKKN by Kim.

But since Abloh’s death, the brand has appeared listless. It spent several years with no specific individual in the creative leadership role. It has had multiple owners, including New Guards Group, Farfetch, which purchased New Guards in 2019, LVMH through a 60% ownership stake in 2021 and finally Bluestar Alliance, which purchased the company in 2024. Kamara, who had worked with Abloh, was meant to bring back some of the prestige and sheen that Off-White enjoyed in the Abloh days.

This week, I checked in on skin-care brand Rodan + Fields’ plans for growth out of its affiliate-model roots. Additionally, Old Navy launches its beauty line, and a former Weight Watchers CEO gets into the fragrance boom. How Rodan + Fields is growing its ‘affiliate-fueled modern omnichannel business’ While it seems like just about everything is sold on Amazon, there are still brands making their way to the e-commerce giant. As of last week, that now includes Rodan + Fields.