brandy melville would rather start a whole new brand than stock inclusive sizing

that HBO doc didn't work hard enough

QUICK HITS

• JoJo Siwa’s inevitable reality show is happening

• Netflix’s next live event is a Joe Rogan comedy special

• Becoming a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader is like getting into Harvard

• Arsenic, Lead, and other toxic metals detected in tampons, U.S. study finds

• How a distinctive beauty brand fell apart, sinking almost $700 million with it

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• Goop’s ambitious brick-and-mortar expansion plans might be because Gwyneth is hoping to sell soon. Might be. After announcing a new retail location at the Marin Country Mart that will, for the first time, offer premium beauty treatments, Goop said it plans to open as many as 20 additional freestanding stores—up to three doors per year—starting in places like Greenwich, Palm Beach, and Aspen. They’ve also spent the last year beefing up their C-Suite and are starting to streamline Goop’s owned and operated labels.

• Kylie Cosmetics is launching skin tints. I like the packaging. 

• Gabbriette’s lip kit collab with MAC reminds me of the Kylie lip kits of yesteryear, and not in a bad way. My first thought when she teased a lip liner reveal was, finally, someone’s going to use this girl. I did not expect that someone to be MAC, which I still very strongly associate with mid-2010s beauty YouTubers. But then I read

  Kristen Vinakmens
  ’ extremely well timed post on why MAC is primed for a comeback, so maybe we’ll be seeing more of them soon.

  

• Target says sales of travel sized products have more than doubled in the last three years, and Glow Recipe reports that sales of its minis were up 110% year-on-year to $22.7 million in the first half of 2024. This trend is mostly driven by Gen Alpha, who want to experiment with beauty and skincare products but don’t have the $$$ for full sizes. (Gen Z is also similarly afflicted, btw). Beauty brands like Charlotte Tilbury, Rare Beauty, Saie, and Tatcha are taking a cue from fragrance brands and leaning into discovery sets. So far, they’re seeing success in customer acquisition. Kinda funny that this article made no mention of Ipsy or Birchbox (does that still exist?). When I lived in the US, I was an Ipsy girl and looked forward to that delivery every month. I still have those pouches.

• Somewhere on the interwebs, there are 2000 young men paying $10 a month for tips on how to become hot. Mogwarts, started by beauty influencer and college student Kareem Shami, is an online forum with threads for looksmaxing advice, a “calendar” that lists upcoming advice classes, and a perpetual text chat to discuss tips and daily happenings. Members can also get feedback on their looksmaxing progress. I’ll admit, I struggle to take this stuff seriously because it's men. And guys getting into skincare and the general concept of cleanliness is net positive. BUT. If I read this exact same article but Mogwarts was for teenage girls, I’d freak. I’d be saddened. Incensed. So I’m trying to feel the same way, because insecure young men are really bad for society. And paying  people to rate your looks is never a good sign. 

• A viable prediction.

• HENRYs—High Earners Not Rich Yet—are finding love on Blade’s Hamptons bus. The $195 to $275 ride isn’t quite the party bus, and it isn’t the helicopter experience either, but it’s also not the geriatric Jitney. The result? A bus full of possibly young, possibly hot 20 to 30 somethings not quite not looking for love. This story mentioned the whole love at the pickleball court thing, and I just have to say I love how meeting people in person is a trend now. How the fact that people are wanting to do that is newsworthy.

• The Post published this article about pimple patches like Starface making acne cool for young people, and it did a weird thing to my brain because I was like um duhh. Then I went to the comments (as one does!) and saw all these millennials and boomers (yes, I can tell!) being like oooo aaahh this looks cool. And it was kinda nice and wholesome because it reminded me that my duhh isn't everyone's duhh, which is why I love writing this newsletter. Anyway, loved the photography.

  

• Rich French people, spooked by the election and France’s hung parliament, are exploring possible moves abroad. They don’t want to pay more taxes.

• Penguin Random House is acquiring comic book publisher Boom! Studios. Founded in 2005, Boom! is behind Keanu Reeves' 'BRZRKR' comic book series and the upcoming Prime Video spy show 'Butterfly.' Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but as part of the transaction, Disney is selling its minority stake in Boom! Studios that 20th Century Fox acquired in 2017. Comic book sales are down, so nice to see a big player investing in this space.

• Incase you were wondering, here’s your official finance bro ranking. Bottom of the food chain are investment bankers, and top of the food chain are your big fish VC/Private Equity bros. You're welcome. 

• Some rich guy—his name is Angermayer—is raising $300 million for an Olympics rival where athletes are on PEDs and steroids. He’s already gotten $10 million from Peter Thiel. Angermayer says he is “sleep-obsessed” and spends heavily on things to optimize and extend his life. Through his family office, Apeiron Investment Group, he has backed ventures including longevity science, brain-computer chips, and mushroom therapeutics. In The Enhanced Games, athletes will compete in 10 events, from sprinting to weightlifting to some undecided combat sport, while “proudly taking growth hormones, anabolic steroids, and other performance-enhancing drugs.” In Angermayer’s home is a spectacular replica of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, aka the Nike statue from the Louvre, overlooking a hot tub. He says it reminds him of Nike and the endorsement deals he knows will roll in for The Enhanced Games. “If Nike is not sponsoring us,” he says, “they’re going to fail over time.”

• TikTok Shop ads are annoying on purpose, but people are still as addicted to the app as ever. So why stop?

• If Fishwife is having a party, I’m going to talk about it.The rare and delicious pleasure I get when two brands with perfectly similar aesthetics get together has been activated by this Fishwife and Lisa Says Gah collab. Is it not a vibe?

  fishwife

  

  A post shared by @fishwife

• Today is the day where I tell you I’m OBSESSED with period dramas. OBSESSED. I think I've watched all the good ones and am currently mining Tubi to see what can be found. Please drop some recommendations! Starz is coming about with an Outlander prequel next year and wow my heart is so happy. 

• Creator startups have raised as much money this year as they did in all of 2023. Globally, they raised $767.9 million, around a 49% year-over-year increase. Most of that investment is going to AI companies, followed by music, shopping, and publishing, with creator services bringing up the rear. I’ve been seeing funding announcements for Creator AI startups everywhere, and even existing startups are coming out with AI features or, like beehiv, making AI acquisitions. Yesterday, Media startup Volv announced a creator program that provides AI tools for publishers and newsletter creators to help them “go viral in a smart way.” Hashtags on the IG post announcement include #substack and #substackwriter, so I guess they want YOU! By the way,

  Caroline Albro
  interviewed the Volv founders for her newsletter yesterday, and she interviewed me a bit ago too. Both are fun reads, if I do say so myself.

• Those who pay my bills also pay Bella Hadid’s bills. They pay her much better. On any given day, you can find me walking around the adidas office whining about how crazy it is that we haven't signed Bella. After all she’s done for us. And for free! I guess someone finally listened.

  

• Today’s required reading is this WWD article about how IP managers are taking over fashion. Management companies like Authentic Brands Group (which recently bought Champion for $1.2 billion), WHP Global, and Marquee Brands are swooping in and acquiring faltering brands using aggressive acquisition strategies. On one hand, these companies are usually great at driving efficiency and growth, but not so great at developing creative talent and diversity, which is one way luxury conglomerates like LVMH and Kering differ from these “brand collectors."

• Guys, I’m cryinggggggggg! Brandy Melville would rather create a whole new brand than stock inclusive sizing! TikTokers have been sharing videos of themselves exploring a new store, called St George, and searching for evidence that it’s owned by Brandy Melville. But the Glossy team found an email chain on Groups.io from April 9th announcing the store opening: “St George at Brandy Melville is a special collection from Brandy Melville featuring the St George line of women’s clothing,” the excerpt from the Montana Ave. Merchants Association read. I still get ads for the HBO documentary 'Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion,' but I feel like if it really did its work, they’d be stocking larger sizes by now.

• This Zara short film was nice. Honestly I’m a sucker for this type of color grading. 

• Love love love these summer outfit lookbooks publications are doing. And for the record, I’m very much enjoy how people dress these days. Tired of people whining about how the algorithm is making us all dress the same. Pick a different issue.

  

  

• The ex-military to Venture Capitalist pipeline is so hot right now. Silicon Valley pumped almost $35 billion into defence tech startups in 2023, and over $9 billion so far this year, according to PitchBook. And as the trend continues, VCs are turning to veterans and ex-Department of Defense officials to join their ranks. Andreessen Horowitz hired Matt Shortal, an ex-fighter jet pilot, as its chief of staff; Lux Capital brought on Tony Thomas, former head of U.S. Special Operations Command, as an adviser; and Shield Capital’s managing partner Raj Shah served in the Air Force. “Hiring ex-military personnel can be a major advantage for firms, giving them an understanding of what problems are actually on the battlefield, instead of just sitting in Silicon Valley and theorizing,” said Ali Javaheri, a PitchBook tech analyst. Fun.

• David Beckham is now the co-founder of a mysterious consumer health brand. There’s little publicly available information about IM8, but according to its website, the brand is being developed in partnership with NASA’s former chief scientist. Beckham’s founding partner at IM8 is Prenetics, a Hong Kong-based biotech firm which specializes in generic profiling and went public via a SPAC in 202. Beckham is also now a strategic advisor at Prenetics. Just a hunch, but I bet whatever they’re cooking here will appeal to the Bryan Johnsons and Angermayers of this world. Not to mention the cryogenic preservation crowd.

• Didn’t you hear? Outliving your peers is now a competitive sports. 

• I’m dissolving my filler' announcements are a thing now. In 2010, more than 5.3 million people got Botox and more than 1.7 million received filler in the U.S. In 2022, 8.7 million received Botox and more than 6.2 million received filler, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. And as Botox becomes relatively affordable and relatively mainstream, being a 30-year-old woman who hasn’t gotten any work done is becoming its own kind of flex. But other less invasive treatments like red light therapy and laser treatments are growing in popularity. Of course, they cost thousands of dollars. I don’t think we’ve reached peak Botox yet—I’ll give it a few more years. But I do think more people are going to start going for a “natural look,” (still very expensive to attain btw), which will, in time, go back to people lying about the work they’ve done. But first will come discourse…

• People got mad at Olivia Culpo for saying she skipped mascara, lip liner and eyebrow makeup on her wedding day to achieve “simplicity and elegance”, even though she regularly gets a bunch of very expensive beauty treatments done. I expect to see more of these eyebrow raising natural beauty proclamations in the next year. Olivia had also announced that she dissolved her lip fillers. 

vogueweddings

A post shared by @vogueweddings

• Spotify is allowing comments on Podcasts, and I love it. So dangerous. So fun. The feature will only be available to podcasts that allow it, and creators will be able to control which comments appear on their page. Spotify aims to foster a sense of community among podcast listeners and compete with YouTube. According to Spotify, listeners who engage with interactivity features are around four times more likely to return to a show within 30 days and listen to twice as many podcasts on average compared to those who don’t engage with these features.

• Disney execs discuss Youtube “everyday” in strategic meetings, and I’m willing to bet all the major streamers do as well. According to Nielsen’s monthly “The Gauge” report, YouTube made up 9.7% of all viewership on connected and traditional TVs in the U.S. in May — the largest share of TV for a streaming platform ever reported. Netflix ranked second, claiming 7.6% of viewership. Each streamer has a different strategy for dealing with the YouTube issue: Disney research found that younger Americans use YouTube as an online encyclopaedia, which led them to focus on the benefits of the platform’s discovery functionality while also programming against it. The same insight has led WBD (which owns Max) to double down on creating more premium and adult content. Netflix, meanwhile, has found some success duplicating content on YouTube, as they did with “Cocomelon.” The biggest threat these companies face from YouTube, though, is competition for ad dollars. YouTube is by far the best at audience targeting, and has spent years building this core competency. In the first quarter of 2024, YouTube’s ad revenue climbed 21% from a year earlier to $8.1 billion, even as Netflix launched their ad-supported tier. May the streaming wars never end. 

• Not all dating apps are created equal. While Tinder and Bumble are struggling to grow paying users, Hinge (owned by Tinder’s parent company Match Group), has seen a surge in paying users this year, with user downloads jumping 14% in the second quarter compared to last year. Grindr’s shares are up nearly 120% from last year and about 32% from last month, after laying out a compelling growth plan during its investor day. I can’t speak for Grindr, but considering Hinge’s “serious vibes only” positioning, the fact that it’s popping off could be indicative of where people’s heads are right now. Or, it could just mean Tinder users are flocking to where the masses are and bringing their bad vibes with them. Only time will tell.