Hello and welcome back to as seen on.
Today’s special abridged OOO edition is free because it requires your input.
As you may or may not know, I’ve been on a sort of shopping fast for the last two years. I got rid of 90% of my wardrobe when I left Germany because I hated all I owned, and now I’m trying to rebuild a completely new one. The goal here is quality. I don’t enjoy shopping, so I want the good stuff — clothes, shoes, accessories that won’t break my bank. So. I’d love your suggestions in the comments for what brands I should be looking at. Looking cute is suddenly aggressively suddenly top of mind.
America will do that to you.
Cosmo talked to 30 NYC women about their bobs. Love when journalism is fun. Brilliant creative direction, too.
Vulture published a taxonomy of the “Zillennial” shows “taking over”. Although not quite taking over as there are only three of them—two of which star Owen Thiele, and one a Lena Dunham comeback. I still don’t think anyone is writing Gen Z well.
Netflix is apparently on the hunt for a video podcast exec. We’re now in the second phase of the streaming wars, and this time it’s a two-horse race. Of course, if Netflix decided to play YouTube's game, they will lose.
My Best Friend’s Wedding sequel is in the works, and Celine Song—of Materialists and Past Lives fame—is writing the screenplay. Funny, these are two very different vibes I can’t reconcile. Looking forward to seeing how she executes a romcom. Stay safe.
Shoutout to my former employer for being cool and trendy.
Micro-influencer drama caused a new San Francisco wine bar to close permanently. Pretty insane story, and a reminder that the internet is run by miserable, sanctimonious shits.
Duolingo’s Zaria Parvez launched a Substack about building a social-first brand from scratch.
Yesterday, Skims launched its first face product—the $48 Seamless Sculpt Face Wrap, made with signature sculpting fabric and infused with collagen yarns for ultra-soft jaw support. It’s now sold out, but they may have finally got me with this one. The “morning shed” girlies have won.
dystopian is the word I keep telling you all that Shay Mitchell is the most underrated celebrity founder there is. BÉIS collaborated with Gap on a 26-piece capsule collection inspired by the brand’s signature denim. Gap, for its part, is collaborating its way back into relevance. It’s working.
The Martha Stewart brand is opening its own stores for the first time in its history. Curiously, both launches are in Dubai, with additional stores planned in India, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
Let's be honest, the Chili’s cowboy boots are pretty darn cute.
Novo Nordisk's stock plunged 20% yesterday after they issued a profit warning. “I don’t like it,” new CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar said on a call with reporters. “I don’t like it as an employee. I don’t like it as a C.E.O.-elect, and I certainly don’t like it as a shareholder myself.”
Quince is raising $200 million in a new round led by Iconiq, doubling its valuation to over $4.5 billion. This follows a $120 million Series C earlier this year from Notable Capital and Wellington Management. I think Iconiq’s investment here is telling—they also backed big exits like Dollar Shave Club and Glossier. The bet here is that Quince has the fundamentals to scale globally, especially as post-pandemic shoppers tighten budgets but still want elevated basics. It’s interesting to compare Quince’s unusually disciplined playbook to their predecessors—think Everlane or OV. No hype drops, no endless brand storytelling—just well-made, factory-direct essentials and solid margins. Like I said, people still want “luxury” basics without the luxury markup. Fun development, especially in light of the actual luxury market being such a shit show.
Those who want to M&A launch Eau de Parfum. That’s my working theory, anyway. Easily debunked I’m sure. But still. Rare Beauty just dropped its first fragrance products: a $75 Eau de Parfum and four $19 Layering Balms, created by perfumer Jérôme Epinette. I like the idea of the layering balms, which are designed to be mixed and matched, and worn under the fragrance like a scent enhancing primer. Fun.
Also fun: Rare reportedly hit $400 million in sales last year, up 14% from 2023. And earlier this year, news broke that the company had hired Goldman Sachs and Raymond James to explore a sale or IPO. CEO Scott Friedman told WWD that’s all just noise, and they “have no idea how that will evolve in the future years.” Sure. But it’s hard not to see this fragrance launch as yet another data point in a well-paced exit playbook. Certainly one we’ve seen before.
ShopMy wants to be a shopping destination, not just an affiliate tool. Fresh off a $77.5M raise, the company is revamping its website and launching an app. New features include collaborative “Circles,” wishlists, independent reviews via Thingtesting (acquired in May), and auto-populated creator storefronts that pull in every product linked across Instagram, TikTok, Substack, and others.
Magnum Ice Cream is having a moment. Their head of partnerships is hard at work.
Coach is going all in on coffee, with plans to open more than 20 “Coach Coffee Shops” in its retail and outlet stores over the next year, with dozens more to follow. The concept—first piloted in Jakarta—was developed by creative director Stuart Vevers and is now led by Ralph Lauren Hospitality alum Marcus Sanders. This is by no means a new strategy—every retailer wants to increase linger time. But I do find the decision to open these cafés at outlet malls rather than flagship locations interesting. There are a lot of cool developments happening in the quest to revive the American mall, and I expect to spend a lot of time in the near future writing about it.
Rumor has it that Meta is working on a super-secret, not-so-secret Search product.
CEOs have been openly boasting about AI-driven workforce reductions in their latest earnings calls. Turns investors on, apparently. Lean is in, baby!
I'm currently obsessed with VRG GRL and I've set alerts on ThredUp so I'm notified if pieces from a particular brand (like that one) in my size become available. You can also just filter and search that way instead of email notifications :).
I don’t think it’s only America cause it’s top of mind here for me too🤣 did a few hauls recently. Check out some Australian brands too very good quality decent price .