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Lauren Sanchez's New Bag

40m 26s

Lauren Sanchez's New Bag

This podcast episode centers on the pivotal role of Very Important Customers (VICs) in the luxury fashion industry. VICs, constituting the top 2% of clients, drive over 40% of sales for major brands. To retain them, companies invest significantly in exclusive perks like couture show invitations and luxury travel, despite the high costs relative to profit margins. The discussion reviews recent Paris couture shows, praising designers like Chanel's Virginie Viard and Dior's Maria Grazia Chiuri for skillfully blending heritage with contemporary appeal to attract both older and younger affluent buyers. The conversation also addresses the current luxury market slowdown, noting a shift in consumer spending toward experiences such as cruises, and contrasts the agility of private houses like Chanel with the challenges faced by public groups like LVMH. Additionally, the hosts briefly analyze a Victoria's Secret documentary highlighting marketing strategies under designer Adam Selman, underscoring the industry's ongoing adaptation to changing consumer behaviors and economic pressures.

Transcription

7133 Words, 36401 Characters

English
Hello and welcome to Fashion People and one of Sherman writers huts fashion and beauty memo line sheet and today with me on the show is Sean tol for Nanda's writer at the cut and New York magazine Sean tol is here to take us inside the world of very important customers also known as VICs. She tells us how much they're spending with luxury brands what luxury does to keep them spending a Lauren Sanchez Bezos became their queen B in just a week and so much more. Before we get going I wanted to remind you that if you like this podcast you'll definitely love puck where I send an email called line sheet if you're a fashion person you get that reference it's an original look at what's really going on inside the fashion and beauty industries line sheet is scoopy analytical and above all fun along with me a subscription to puck gains you access to an unmatched roster of experts reporting on powerful people and companies in entertainment media sports politics finance the art world and much more. If you're interested listeners of fashion people get a discount just go to puck.new/fashion people to join puck or start a free trial. Happy Friday everyone hope you had a great week I am back in Los Angeles for exactly eight days I'm very happy to be here the weather is beautiful I hope to see many of you but you know I had an amazing time in Paris and I am glad that my family and I are going to be there for a good chunk this year so much going on I learned so much in just a few days and a lot of that reporting will come out in the coming weeks but it was it was a great trip check out line sheet for some fun scoops and such but I also wanted to very quickly offer some notes on the rest of the tour since you all have been asking I know many of you are not crossover readers but you should be sign up it's not that much money you can expense it anyway first of all I wanted to tell you all that Jacob Gallagher would love everyone to know that he loves Chanel he totally got it so anyone who was wondering I had a couple people DM me about him hopefully he changed his mind now that he saw this catorid he did he thought it was fabulous he stands by his feelings out the New York show but whatever he'll come around someday anyway my personal take was that it was the exact right proposal of what cator should be which is what I wrote and it was a very unique category because it's like the ultimate example of selling a dream but you also do like ostensibly have to sell the clothes and most of them do get sold not a ton but you know like these are three hundred four hundred thousand dollar pieces and some people just sell one set some people sell one set per region some people sell five of each you know that type of thing but it's and you can customize it blah blah blah but anyway it's not like a volume play but it is a good chunk of money in terms of Chanel in particular I know we talked a lot about Dior with Chris earlier in the week but in terms of Chanel I you know obviously personally loved it it's it really is any fashion writer or critic who says that their own taste doesn't kind of come into their assessment of brands is lying and you have to be like super aware of it but in this case it's been really fun for me to write about because I love it and I also think it's it's really well done I would say if I was a rich lady that's what I would be buying but I know people who bought some of the Dior it looks fabulous too so on the Chanel I we all obviously wanted the shoes and again it's just like a very clear indication that Chanel the two tone kind of round pumps understands its brand positioning and it's need to change a bit for a younger consumer I'm not talking about like Gen Z I'm talking about like 40 year old women or 35 year old women it needs to be conservative and not trendy but it does need to speak to how people have changed like if you talk to someone who works at sacks or Nordstrom like a personal shopper they're kind of the women in their 40s and 50s they buy the row they buy Phoebe Filo they buy Givenchy they're not they don't want to look like old ladies so the yes aesthetics are all different but I would say that there is a customer there and and that's where the the customer in the U.S. with a lot of disposable income has moved and the Chanel ready ready to wear in particular I think is this kind of cemented that he knows what he's doing and there was a lot for a lot of the clients that the older clients to that maybe preferred the sort of more whimsical loggerfeld there was a lot of whimsy in this too but I think that they understand that they can't they don't want to be trendy but they also need to speak with what's happening in in the market and and with consumers I thought that he just like really struck a great balance I also really like Deore and I thought online Deore was more striking and I wrote about this it's interesting like in person I they were both great in person and I feel very happy that I got to see both it's it's super valuable I don't get to go to shows all the time but in this case I didn't it was it was really really great um I think that like the lighting at Chanel for for someone like me who just takes a few photos wasn't great I get my photos weren't great because I am not an expert photographer whereas Deore I didn't have as good of a seat and my photos are just way better and and more dynamic because of the lighting and and and also his color palette was more saturated uh Jonathan's than Mathews but um I would say in person I think Deore was amazing it was like a thinky collection because that's who he is and there was a lot to love and also there was a ton more on offer for the client when you went in like I think there were sixty looks and there were a hundred looks when you went in so I a lot of what I heard from VIC the VIC pool was that they were excited about the other stuff too and it sold extremely well and people people bought it you know there are a lot of gallows coming up in the spring um well I don't know how maybe it will be ready for Matt I have no idea how that works it might be too too long of a lead time anyway or for fall what have you but um I thought it was great but I thought that like Deore went online and Chanel went offline but they were both fabulous and both were very clear that headline on the puck piece about Jonathan's collection Anderson's collection was that like this why he got the job and I think that and I think that about Mathews as well um I think Jonathan's job is harder than Mathews they're both really hard and and it's been fun to see how it goes and obviously we love Mathews taste of music Joan Baez Oasis the verb it's you love to see it and that is I don't know how he's gonna um keep it up my suggestion is jewel foolish games I thought it was coming on Tuesday I thought that was gonna be what he he ended with so let's see that's my suggestion if someone at Chanel's listening I want to whisper that in his his ear I also just wanted to say that like this was all happening in the backdrop of this luxury industry slowdown on Tuesday I'll be made to release their earnings and kind of said this year 2026 it's not going to be super easy they have a lot of they did really well Louis Vuitton last year because of the Maricame stuff early in the year and they're going to have to as they call it and retail anniversary it which isn't going to be easy hopefully the ship inching in all the like crazy renovation of stores which seems to be really successful for them will help but look like I think the market was I don't know it's the the share drop seven percent I think they're being a little bit too negative like this business is not going away it's so very incredibly profitable it's just we it's not the center of consumer spending anymore other things are and that was going to happen no matter what the pandemic just sort of delayed it and it one of the hilarious things from the bay in Altagama report was that cruises are up to 12% and so many people messaged me and said that's crazy but people love cruises I will never go on a cruise but a lot of people people like them rich and poor people and like Wilcoe does cruises people love cruises so it's just all happening on the backdrop of that and we have to see all these businesses manage it because it's look like Dior Selene at LVMH these brands are going to see a big bump because they were down a lot last year is it going to be the same kind of growth that they saw for the last 15 years I don't think so and they just need to manage for that and I'm sure there are small people in that building doing buildings doing modeling to to be careful of that obviously companies like Chanel and Hermes which are owned by the families are just really I mean LVMH is controlled by the family but those are private businesses and mostly private Hermes obviously has some public offering but the point being that like it's going to be easier for Hermes and Chanel to manage it LVMH has a much bigger bigger challenge on their hands but I think it's manageable and I'm excited to see how well Selene does I every single person I talk to this week was like buying Selene I want Selene across like real fashion people and that's exciting and I think it's going to it's going to hit so I hope that they do LVMH does one of those things where they are like exceptional performance that Selene even they'll never break the numbers out maybe they will someday but it's I think it's going to be good and finally the other thing I just wanted to say is I love that Seaglass green color that Matublazi is who introduced in his first collection it's a very Chanel color and obviously the red that he paired it with is a very Chanel red but it was so it's like my favorite color combination ever it was my bridesmaids dresses were that color which should I have had bridesmaids should we have just said a 50 person wedding anyway but I love that it's my favorite color combination of all time and he did it again in his show but I also saw that there was like tons of they call it Jade at Armani which the Armani couture was exceptional it was just amazing and if like these clients like they're just so spoiled if you have the money there is a beautiful clothes and also Valentino used it he his red was like a little bit more magenta but I love I just love this color combo and I can't wait to see it in every single I've always wanted a kitchen in that combo too it's very Italian I love it anyway read more by subscribing to line sheet at puck and what's it going with Sean tall Sean tall Fernand has welcomed back to fashion people hi how are you I'm so good things how are you doing how's the baby he's really good he's in potted plant phase and just very cute I've never heard that term that I understand it yeah no crawling just sitting in being cute oh you're so lucky just wait does you know it does get more and more fun although this morning it's quite early here it's almost 6 30 a.m. here and I was supposed to meet you at 6 15 to do this and Fritz came into my room at 5 30 it was like I'm sick and I also feel sick in a different way because I had or 24 hour commute home from Paris and so I feel terrible this is like the sickest I felt in like decades and he's like I am sick I cannot go to school I'm like I don't understand what to do I'm sorry and Dan is out it's fun so you were telling me there's a new Victoria secret documentary that I didn't even see but you already watched it tell me all about it as I'm sure many of you know Sean tall and I co-authored a book together called Victoria secret no it's called selling sexy Victoria secret and the unraveling of an American icon icon and you can buy it anywhere books are sold or listen to it anywhere books are sold but tell me about this doc who did it and why didn't they call us they probably did I feel like so many people called us about this stuff and I was like we would just be like okay fine and then nothing would come of it well they reached out to the to the cut to share it so that's why how it got to me but it's not very I mean it's not very long they made it themselves about the last fashion show it's like 20 25 minutes long and it doesn't have a ton of views on YouTube or anything but it's very sweet because it's all through the eyes of Adam Selman and my big takeaway was like they really made a good decision in having like such a likeable central character to this current phase like he's just so lovely to watch and like he's so Amy Sideris is that it's just you know he's very and it's his first show so it's all through his eyes of like experiencing it for the first time and the models are like oh yeah we've done this a million times so it's kind of sweet in that way is this um was it supported by the brand or is it separate yeah yeah no no no it's like a really brand content that they are now in their way that they're marketing it yes okay now I understand why they didn't ask us just no it's it's it's marketing of their thought it was one of these people who called and we're like we're gonna do it I'm like someone already did a documentary no no no you're never gonna find out the thing you want to find out no this is like content from the brand like another way that they are sort of playing with the history of the fashion show and all the behind the scenes clips instead of doing those little segments that they used to do I guess they put it all into this one documentary is very sweet but well I love saying that Adam Selman is the adresic of his generation which I'm sure that there are people who love that comparison and I'm I don't think that comparison is quite right because he's like a designer no but his job is Ed's job he's not sure does not design he's ahead of marketing and and all that stuff yeah but I think he has a different sense of it yeah sure but the actual job is the same job which is interesting that is interesting because he's like obviously completely opposite from adresic in every single way also an awesome just a great person I'm really happy for him it's done very well like the brand has performed in recent months and a lot of that has to do with how they manage the show and I was extremely skeptical and I still think like is it modern to do that I don't know but it's working so good for them yeah and I think he has a good sense of like the campiness of it but not going too far into that so it was it was interesting to watch I don't know how many people would like organically watch this unless you're a super fan sort of that audiences so much smaller but it was interesting they put it out yeah that's interesting well thank you for the update and thanks for doing the the homework as always okay so the reason I wanted to have you on this week is I just got back I was in Paris for like five days and I went to a bunch of tour shows and I hadn't been well I had been like probably to a couple in the last few years but not like gone to all of them in probably 10 years and what I a there was it was January so I think they're smaller overall because it's cold and it was you know obviously snowing in New York there was a lot of stuff like keeping people in their homes but the shows were really tiny and they were mostly made up of clients customers who will buy these pieces some of them cost a million dollars a dress some of them are you know three a lot of stuff is like three four hundred five hundred thousand dollars and so I obviously people talk about VICs a lot but I thought that this piece you did how was it like about a year ago on the cut or yeah or I think it was for the fashion issue not last year but the year before okay so like a year and a half ago about VICs and why very important customers is the long long version of what they're called and and how they become so important to fat they always were but like they in the era of like only really expensive stuff sells they became increasingly valuable to these big companies and I guess to start can you just kind of explain what a VIC is and like how it's evolved over the years because they've always existed yeah I think there's just more of them and they carry more weight in this industry as it's gotten bigger there's the stat that I think originated from our friends at business of fashion but that the top two percent of customers generate more than 40 percent of sales for these luxury brands and I'm sure that number that ratio is only gotten more stark yeah for like multi brand retailers a lot of times it's like 80 percent it's crazy yeah so yeah they're they're influenced in this business is grown there's more of them the wealth of the wealthiest people in the world has grown income disparity has grown so it's just the focus on them is more than it was you know a decade or two ago and there's many more of them at shows as a result so yeah very important customer someone who spends an outsized amount at a brand or at a department store and is rewarded and sort of encouraged to keep spending with a bunch of perks that have nothing to do with dresses and handbags whether it's invitations to shows trips anything you name it sort of like these brands have turned into hospitality machines to keep these people entertained and excited and also give them a place to wear what they buy you know even if you're the richest person in you know I don't know Utah like you're probably still wearing your workout clothing most of the time when you're home and then this is an opportunity to wear that that could toured dressy bodice to go to you know a fancy dinner or a ball or whatever twice a year I don't smoke and I never have but I feel like everyone else I know is suddenly smoking again of course it's a free country so if you like smoking do what you will but if your New Year's resolution is to quit or even to use nicotine in a healthier way check out quit with Jones visit quit with Jones dot com slash fashion to take the free quiz and use code fashion to get 15% off your personalized quitting journey that's quit with Jones dot com slash fashion taking back control starts now thanks to quit with Jones for supporting this episode and just a heads up the mince contain nicotine which is an addictive chemical Jones's FDA approved and available for those that are 18 and older what's up guys I'm canistered bassett and you may know me from my time on the real housewives of Potomac or as a part of the latest cast of the traders and I'm Michael Arsano off of the New York Times best seller I can't date Jesus on our podcast undemesticated we don't just say the quid prints out loud we're putting it all in kitchen table and inviting you into the chaos if you're ready for bold takes real talk and a little fun come join us listen to and follow undemesticated and audacity podcast available wherever you get your podcasts the question I for you let's start with because there are different tiers of these things there's like v ic v i c v i i c you know it depends on like the cator customer I assume is sort of the top of the heap but it's also like you buy one or two pieces that are really expensive instead of buying a bunch of stuff but these runway shows like I've heard figures and I'm curious what you found in your reporting I've heard figures that like a person who gets invited to a runway show often in a ready to wear runway show so that's like normal clothes will spend like you know upward of 200 grand a year but the thing is that like it costs them to get these people over to fly them first class to put them up at the ritz or wherever they put them to wine and dine them to wherever it is that's like 30 grand a person so like it's really cutting into you're taking you're cut 200 grand same you're you're profit off of that after you know the margin on that is 40 percent or something like you're or six it's you're lucky at 60 percent that's 90 grand then you're putting 30 grand into doing this stuff for them and then you're left with like a 60 grand profit that's so pretty good but like what is the reasoning and do they do you know anything about how they sort of put this on the balance I assume that they a lot this they like write it off in marketing but I was just curious if you looked into that bit it all and generally how much you heard these brands were requiring people to spend in order to come to the shows yeah I heard the same it's like 200 to 300k and then but it really sort of breaks down to like what are people spending so if you have someone in your region you know who's spending a lot then you get bumped down the list but yeah 200 to 300k plus is what I was hearing for sort of the bigger brands but if it's a smaller designer it's easier to get in there maybe you're only spending 30k a year or something like that and I would also say in terms of what the brand is paying I think it varies they're not always paying for flights and hotels I think that is tiered out also maybe they you know a lot of these people have their own planes they don't they don't need you to get them there and they don't mind paying for the hotel but what the brand is really organizing for them is like you know the Chanel show that was in the subway in December they hosted a private nutcracker show you know a cocktail party at the frick so there's kind of that stuff around it that they're also organizing and paying for it so it's not always that they're paying for the full like hotels but they are sometimes paying for like make a artist photographer to come along with you so the perks really vary I think depending on the person in the spend to make it work out what did you hear about Couture in particular because there were some little details that I heard that were really interesting but I'm curious like because that's a different league right yeah like going to Couture being invited to Couture and then also being like welcome to buy something yeah what I heard because I was speaking primarily to VICs on the ready to wear side what I was hearing is they sort of that they were being encouraged to bridge up into Couture so maybe they were invited to Couture show they'd never shopped Couture before but they had already established themselves as a good ready to wear customer and the brand was trying to tell them like this is how it works like this could be interesting so it's a lot of kind of enticing people into that world that were more in the ready to wear side got it yeah it was interesting because I think the big narrative during this fashion week was this Lauren Lauren Sanchez being a Couture the whole time she was with Anna Winter she was with the stylist lot Roach she was at the shows people were really enraged like I'm getting DM's people mad about it look like this is not a commune like this is not we are not fashion is a capitalist business like I don't understand what they think has been going on for years like if they think she's bad imagine all the other people that buy these dresses like there are a lot of ethically questionable people buying these dresses and there's a great max burlinger our friend posted a great quote from Kathy Horn from the late 90s saying like fashion brands don't discriminate they if you have the money you can you can buy something I do think they are like I think it depends on the brand I think the higher up you are the the more you need to have like shown that you are capable and be that you maybe you bought ready to wear for three seasons or something like that I think that they're not just like letting anyone have an appointment I think like you have to prove yourself a bit but generally like what do you think about all this Lauren Sanchez stuff because it's just been interesting to me that people are upset when the reality of it is like this is she is an example like that's what the whole business is are these like kind of cheesy ethically questionable people who have billions of dollars totally I think I think what's grading people is not just that she's buying it's that she's backstage hugging the photos like it's clear how chummy and close and she's getting that access that personal access you know a lot of these VICs maybe they'll get a quick FaceTime with a designer but that's what one of the clients told me who had been you know shopping for decades just like I was able to become friends with these people with the designers and now they barely have a second for me because they're so busy so who are they making time for clearly Lauren Sanchez was one of those people this season and I think that's what's really grading to people and the timing with them and so does stuff it's just yeah it was very challenging but it's it's really interesting to see that conversation online I'm curious what's going to happen with the met gala and all of that but yeah of course when I was doing this VIC story I spent hours and hours and hours trying to find these people and then figuring out like what their source of wealth is and yeah there's some there's some unethical things happening and then it's become someone's daughter wife or you know whatever and then and then they're shopping and it's really interesting to kind of track that but I think Lauren Sanchez in some ways represents a sort of idealized VIC where you know she's changed the way that she's dressing from a couple of years ago like her or not she is certainly dressing better by industry standards and she's fun like that's what everyone says about her she's a fun person and you know I'm sure she brings a lot of attention everywhere she goes so maybe it works out for the brands but again it's like the Arnose you know putting a lot of time with Trump it's it's sort of all a version of the same thing and I think it's natural to feel icky about it it is icky but it's not new yeah I think that's the thing that is I feel like is not understood is that sure if you think it's wrong that they're engaging with them feel free to say that I think the issue is like this is a business you don't get to choose who who buys your things and who doesn't like these are capitalist businesses that people have like emotionally invested in and you know if you if you don't like that then don't buy any luxury I don't know it's just I think like I understand there at some point there will be a line and and I think what was happening in Minnesota made it clear that that line will you know we'll be obvious sooner than later in the people who were on the wrong side of the line will look really terrible but I think generally I come to the bezos in particular I find I don't know I mean I'm not I think they act ridiculous and I'm not but I I just like I just like I I understand why the brands are engaging with them like I don't I I think sure should they should they really think about it maybe but then if they didn't have her they're putting their leave money on the table and also he's powerful I will say also a story that came out of my VIC story was about one of these luxury brands uninviting a VIC because they didn't like the way that she looked even though she spent she was a massive spender but the creative director didn't want her front row because he felt like it was diluting the brand's coolness essentially because of the way her hair was because of the way she looked so there is sort of precedent for like yes you people are free to buy what they want but maybe they won't be embraced in the same way where you get invited to all these things so clearly these brands have decided they love Lauren I mean she's sponsoring the Met Gala like she's as Rachel wrote for CNN she's like she's as in as you can be right now so yeah everyone has seemed to have made their decision and we'll see what the ramifications are on a smaller level you can look at something like what happened with the row and that sub-stacker whose name is did you see Neilum is that a name where she was sort of she met according to her sub-stack this is a Canadian woman who's like very chic and used to wear head to toe the row and was like I can't like basically a row a sub-stacker about the row like she would just post photos of herself and close from the row and the way she puts it is that she met one of them in the store they invited her to a show and this was a time where they were sort of experimenting by any more influencers to things and then something happened where she felt like they were pressuring her too much to like link directly to them instead of my Teresa where there's a great affiliate return or whatever and it became this like silly thing where she wrote the sub-sack the sub-sack series she put it behind a pay while people are buying it and forwarding it to people it was like everyone was talking about it because the row is so snobby so it like the snobby brand that had like the she-kissed client it's not like she looked in look amazing and so many people like my friend Claire her mother Barbara who listens to this sometimes shout out to Barbara she what she is like a big customer of the row and she followed her and was like what is going on and it was just an interesting because I was like this lady needs to chill out like they can invite whoever they want on the other hand they need to be careful if they want to control stuff so much that she's gonna not invite people like that ever and so I wonder if they felt like it was a lesson to them but I I'm sure there's a balance going on like that at every brand the row is unique because they're small so they can be really selective and also also like their brand is so perfect pristine but I was just curious what you thought about that I think a lot of these luxury brands have clients that they're ashamed of but that they have to keep entertaining and they can't these people are buying from them and they can't force them to wear the clothing in a certain way I think in that situation it's interesting because it's sort of the blurring between an influencer and a client which is also something I'm seeing because a lot of these top clients do it also right I think Morgan has a good approach to the internet but a lot of them are sort of coming to this maybe for the first time they want to kind of be a mini Lauren Sanchez the mini Kim Kardashian and this is their hobby and they make it into their sort of online personal brand and maybe the way that they post about it is tacky and that's something to navigate as well you know that's a personal shopper told me you know he advises some of his clients like don't post stuff like that with so many logos you don't look good like the brands are never going to invite you to the runway show if your Instagram looks like this so they're the brands are looking at all of this stuff to the to the extent that they can when they're deciding you know when you have two people spend the same amount you're deciding who gets the invite like a lot of it comes down to this behavior and who they're sort of proud of or not but yeah I mean the the the VIC is someone told me for that story is like quite tacky in a lot of cases and the brands have to navigate that but that's that's this business as it is now where it's so global and giant and kind of difficult to control in that way they can't they can't force the client to behave in a certain way especially now that they are so public about their shopping online. Yeah so that's I guess my other question is are a lot of these people doing this to sort of make it feels like almost like a sorority type thing where you're like doing it to make friends and the entry fees the hazing is like not having the great appointment slot or whatever. I think some people do it to make friends especially among the younger people like I I talked a lot of people who are in vogue 100 which is also kind of a community that you buy into and people become friends and see each other at all these shows. I think there's a type of VIC that we never see at shows who never wants to meet other clients and doesn't care about this at all. I think it varies it varies you know there's just people who are fashion lovers and this is this is a thrill for them but there's some people who treat it like a job because maybe they have their their Dallas you know philanthropy calendar is so intense that they need to be planning you know this far in advance for what they're going to wear. And in terms of regional like I'm sure you talk to mostly US people but are more and more of these people I assume are in the Middle East in particular in China and I assume that's where a lot of the growth of this area of the business is coming from. Yes the US is still really strong and we can see that in the number of shows that are taking place here in the next year like I feel like everyone's coming here to do some kind of a special local show and part of that is to cater to the clients. Yeah those resort and pre-fall shows that they do in different cities they are often very client focused so for people listening like you go and that's again there it's like half half clients at the shows and then they'll do sort of repeat shows that already took place in a different city in places in the US or in Shanghai and that's another way to get clients excited. Yeah yeah. Shantal what did you think of Couture? I thought it was beautiful and interesting in the way that some of it didn't sort of translate purely to Instagram which I think is healthy and indicative of who the customer is there and I'm interested I've been a little perplexed by some of the red carpet use of these debut collections and I thought it looked better and I'm interested to see how it translates to the red carpet. Yeah same I thought that the dioren particular there was a lot of stuff that's good for Oscars that just been hard. I think that obviously that's a very big job and so there's a lot of moving parts and I don't think anything has like they've totally nailed a red carpet dress yet and I think the silhouettes in the Couture were as much that they could so I think it'll be interesting to see and it also be interesting to see Shantal was you know as many people have pointed out a lot of a lot of day wear so there you know some of that can work for Oscars the really light the light Mussolene very very very light dresses they could figure something out and make it more formal looking but a lot of it it wasn't casual but it was definitely day wear and so I bet they're obviously Oscars is when you do custom so but I think it I agree it was a good and I thought our money was really beautiful scaparelli will do a couple good um Oscars it's it'll be interesting. Scaparelli came up in my story as like everyone the VIC's favorite brand like everyone is nuts for it like cult following among these women they collected like especially in the US I would say it feels like it is um like the that business is those clients like they have a great ready to wear business I think it you know an email mark there an email Marcus in the US fingers crossed but um yeah I think like the business is built on those clients so he's he's smart and he I think out of all the designers is probably one of a few who still spends a lot of time with the clients he's from Texas he gets it yeah Daniel Rosemary we're talking now shantal I'm I feel like I'm gonna die so I'm gonna let you go okay well I hope this is helpful it was great to see you I'll see you in a couple of weeks yes for sure thanks for everything oh wait do I ask you what you have for breakfast this morning no no let's just do it at the end would you have okay I had oatmeal is that really exciting stuff still sounds delicious do you share what you're eating for breakfast or is that sometimes I did eat this morning because I feel terrible but I had a little bit of banana and peanut butter so hopefully I think I might just be dehydrated I don't know the world does not mean you know all this stuff but I'm gonna go back to feel better thank you bye fashion people is a presentation of Odyssey in partnership with Puck this show was produced and edited by Molly Nugin special thanks to our executive producers Puck co-founder Jon Kelly executive editor Ben Landy and director of editorial operations Gaby Grossman an additional thanks to the team at Odyssey JD Crowley Genoise Berman and Bob Tabitor

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. The podcast discusses Very Important Customers (VICs) in luxury fashion, who represent the top 2% of clients but generate over 40% of sales for brands.
  2. Luxury brands invest heavily in hospitality (e.g., show invitations, trips) to retain VICs, as these customers spend hundreds of thousands annually, though the cost of courting them is high.
  3. The conversation analyzes recent couture shows (Chanel, Dior, Armani, Valentino), noting their strategic balance between tradition and modern consumer tastes amid an industry slowdown.
  4. The hosts touch on broader industry trends, including shifting consumer spending toward experiences like cruises and the challenges for public conglomerates like LVMH versus private houses like Chanel and Hermès.
  5. A brief mention is made of a Victoria's Secret documentary focused on designer Adam Selman, illustrating brand marketing evolution.

Summary:

This podcast episode centers on the pivotal role of Very Important Customers (VICs) in the luxury fashion industry. VICs, constituting the top 2% of clients, drive over 40% of sales for major brands. To retain them, companies invest significantly in exclusive perks like couture show invitations and luxury travel, despite the high costs relative to profit margins.

The discussion reviews recent Paris couture shows, praising designers like Chanel's Virginie Viard and Dior's Maria Grazia Chiuri for skillfully blending heritage with contemporary appeal to attract both older and younger affluent buyers. The conversation also addresses the current luxury market slowdown, noting a shift in consumer spending toward experiences such as cruises, and contrasts the agility of private houses like Chanel with the challenges faced by public groups like LVMH. Additionally, the hosts briefly analyze a Victoria's Secret documentary highlighting marketing strategies under designer Adam Selman, underscoring the industry's ongoing adaptation to changing consumer behaviors and economic pressures.

FAQs

A VIC stands for 'Very Important Customer,' referring to top-tier clients who spend an outsized amount at luxury brands or retailers, often generating a significant portion of sales and receiving exclusive perks.

The top 2% of customers, including VICs, can generate over 40% of sales for luxury brands, with some multi-brand retailers seeing even higher contributions from these high-spending clients.

VICs are rewarded with perks like invitations to fashion shows, all-expenses-paid trips, exclusive events, and personalized hospitality to encourage continued spending and brand loyalty.

As wealth concentration grows and luxury markets expand, VICs represent a reliable revenue source, with brands focusing more on retaining these high-value customers through tailored experiences and services.

Hosting a VIC at a fashion show can cost around $30,000 per person, covering first-class travel, luxury accommodations, dining, and entertainment, which is offset by their high annual spending.

Brands like Chanel aim to maintain conservative aesthetics while adapting to evolving consumer preferences, such as appealing to younger affluent customers without being overly trendy, to retain VIC interest.

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