Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.

Retail Brew

Fashion

Andrew Adam Newman

retailbrew.com

A new American Eagle campaign featuring actor Sydney Sweeney is going 

, but not necessarily in the way the brand had hoped.

As evident in the wordplay of its tagline, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” the campaign plays on the idea that both her American Eagle denim and her genetics are exemplary.

“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color,” Sweeney purrs in one 

, the camera lingering on the blond and blue-eyed actor. “My jeans are blue.”

For some, who took to social media to object to the campaign, the message seemed to echo the dark legacy of eugenics and “

A TikTok from rapper and singer Doja Cat mocking the campaign had more than 20.2 million views at the time of publication.

“What it communicates to people is that there is a prototypical standard for good genes: white, blond hair, blue eyes,” Dr. Marcus Collins, 

 and marketing professor at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business, said in a 

 he posted to LinkedIn. “Considering the political and social, cultural backdrop that we’re in right now, that could seem like some pretty bad dog whistling.”

While Collins stressed he had no idea of American Eagle’s intent, “it certainly makes sense that people will see it as such.”

The backlash drew coverage from media outlets including 

. Some coverage defended the campaign, with the New York Post characterizing critics as a “

.” (“Wow. Now the crazy Left has come out against beautiful women,” Senator Ted Cruz 

 about the controversy on the platform. “I’m sure that will poll well.”)

Retail Brew asked American Eagle to respond to criticism of the campaign, and whether it planned to respond to critics on social media and elsewhere. American Eagle did not respond.

After 14 consecutive Instagram posts over three days featuring Sweeney, American Eagle 

 an image of a woman of color wearing denim that said, “AE has great jeans👖✨.”

Many of the top comments to the post were dubious.

“Just like clockwork. Damage control,” responded @acolortheory. Added @cinddyy.liz, “Quick let’s add a poc so we don’t get hate.”

 on LinkedIn as the campaign was launching, American Eagle’s CMO Craig Brommers wrote, “A massive thank you and CONGRATULATIONS to our internal teams and external partners - and SYDNEY herself - for this defining moment 🙏🙏🙏.” But a few days later, as critical comments far outnumbered positive ones, comments to the post were turned off.

Similarly, Ashley Schapiro, VP of media, performance and engagement at American Eagle, turned off comments on her LinkedIn 

 about the campaign (“The ⭐️ star power of Sydney and the double meaning behind the campaign has a culture shaping power beyond anything I could have ever imagined being a part of,” she wrote) following critical comments.

Responsible Marketing: How to Create an Authentic and Inclusive Marketing Strategy

, told Retail Brew that she thought the new campaign by American Eagle is “pretty overtly referencing” eugenics and called it “egregious.”

Bakare was disappointed that American Eagle had not directly (at least not before this article was published) addressed the controversy—aside from 

 some of its ads from its social campaign, per Ad Age.

“They still have time to turn it around, but I am losing faith that they will,” Bakare said.

Bakare said American Eagle should at least address the criticism, even if it doesn’t pull the campaign.

“‘We really appreciate that our loyal fans are letting us know that there’s some issues that many see with our recent creative,” would be a good start of a message from the company to critics, Bakare said. “‘We hear you, we’re listening, and we’re working really quickly and getting together to see how we can make sure you know everything that we put out continues to do what we always care about most, which is respecting our fans.’”

Sydney Sweeney in an American Eagle campaign for jeans

Why American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney campaign is facing backlash

Critics say the tagline evokes eugenics.

Jeena Sharma

 figures are any indication of the current state of consumer sentiment, it’s that a good product alone isn’t enough. Customers still want quality, but at a price that feels fair, something most luxury retailers haven’t really nailed.

That’s where Quince, the online DTC brand behind 

 favorite $50 Mongolian cashmere sweater, steps in. Founded in 2018, the brand has quietly cracked a model that blends quality, affordability, and viral appeal—all without the luxury price tag. In fact, the retailer—which sells everything from apparel and home goods to beauty products—doesn’t claim to be a luxury brand at all.

What it has on offer in fact is quite the opposite: items that emulate luxury at bargain prices. Think European 

“Premium apparel was often marked up 5–10x or more, making everyday luxury inaccessible to most people,” Antonieta Moreland, head of brand at Quince, told Retail Brew. “At the same time, fast fashion sacrificed quality, longevity, and values. We believed there was a better way; thus was born our model that offered high-quality, ethically made essentials at radically fair prices.”

That model has also resonated with millennials and, more recently, Gen Z audiences tuned into the thousands of influencer videos praising the brand’s quality and sustainability online.

“TikTok introduced us to a whole new generation of customers, especially Gen Z and younger millennials,” Moreland said. “It also made us rethink how we tell our story. The best-performing content isn’t polished or branded; it’s real people discovering how good our $50 cashmere sweater is and telling their friends.”

In 2024 alone, the brand hit ~$340 million in 

, the DTC retailer is now valued at $4.5 billion after a recent funding round that raised ~$200 million. 

Moreland explained that the brand’s price-to-quality ratio hinges on its factory-direct approach. “By removing traditional retail markups and selling directly from top-tier manufacturers, we can offer the same (or better) quality as designer brands, without the sticker shock,” she said.

She added that it hasn’t been without challenges as the brand had to create a global supply chain to support a model based on “quality control, ethical standards, and speed, working closely with our factory partners.”

Still, while Quince’s low prices may seem reminiscent of fast fashion, the brand distinguishes itself through tighter production cycles, limited launches, and a commitment to responsible manufacturing. Moreland said the company also adheres to certain sustainability benchmarks including only working with factories (often family-owned) that meet Quince’s “global standards” for ethical labor, safety, and environmental responsibility. 

“Our pricing isn’t about cutting corners; it’s about cutting out unnecessary markups,” she said. “We don’t run wholesale, we don’t overproduce, and we launch new products only when they meet our standards for value and responsibility.”

With loyal fans still singing its praises across social media, Quince is now focused on turning that momentum into long-term growth. The retailer is currently expanding into Canada on the horizon along with introducing categories like supplements and fine jewelry. Quince is making it clear: Its version of affordable luxury is just getting started.

“While we’re a digital-first brand, we’re also experimenting with pop-ups and in-person activations to bring the brand to life,” Moreland said. “But whatever we do, it has to serve the same mission: Make luxury essentials more accessible to more people.”

Quince is the anti-luxury luxury brand taking over Gen Z’s feeds

The DTC retailer went viral by ditching markups and may now be worth $4.5 billion.

First of all, David’s Bridal is alive and well. And with the latest step in its tech makeover, it hopes to be thriving soon.

Fresh off a strategic pivot to an “asset-light,” tech-powered model, the legacy wedding dress retailer officially tapped Shopify for a new integration that allows it to “unify its e-commerce and in-store operations” with shoppable screens, enhanced checkout experience, and streamlined omnichannel inventory, according to a company release. Shoppers can also view and purchase the full David’s catalog from in-store screens and have their picks shipped directly to their doorstep.

“We’ve been in existence for 75 years; we’ve dressed over 100 million women in that time frame and so we’ve captured a lot of information on brides and bridesmaids and mothers over the years,” David’s Bridal CEO Kelly Cook told Retail Brew on a Zoom call while navigating a busy airport. “The No. 1 emotion a bride feels for 18 months is anxiety…She gets proposed to, and she’s happy for about 15 minutes, and then panic sets in…It was clearly evident to us that we needed to rethink the technology that she’s interfacing with.”

A key part of rethinking that technology has also been streamlining inventory with “tens of thousands of dresses.” Cook said, adding as part of its new Shopify tech, the retailer is “quintupling” its number of dresses online.

“[The bride] ends up buying 18 and 20 outfits between this time frame because she needs outfits for everything…but we simply didn’t have enough SKUs,” Cook said. “Traffic to our website is up 42% YoY but our conversion rates are plummeting. Some just didn’t have enough products to sell, so we got a drop ship of over 50 companies waiting to get into our e-commerce marketplace, because we have so much traffic, and when you’ve got 90% of the brides hitting your funnel, the 2.7 million wedding vendors that are out there serving those brides want to partner with us, because we’re the only source of first-party data out there.”

While the digital upgrades could make the shopping process a lot more seamless, will the company be able to regain consumer trust, especially given that the retailer has been through 

 in recent years? Cook said it’s different this time.

“The first difference is our entire growth strategy for the company is built around AI and being asset light,” she said. “Let’s take the example of couture. An asset-light approach to couture is partnering with somebody that does it, versus setting up the internal mechanisms to produce it ourselves. It gets us to the market faster. It’s an asset-light approach developing a tool that takes a bride’s Pinterest board that she’s been building for five or 10 years…and using an AI analyzer, which is something that we built that’s in production, that imports all the data from her Pinterest board and puts it into our wedding book on our side. Before, that would be a survey that she’d have to fill out and then the survey has to be downloaded, and it’s just cumbersome.”

Another major difference between 2023 and now was how the operational expenses were used to run the company. “We are monetizing every single aspect of our business, including our vertically integrated supply chain,” Cook said. “We have 36 design and production centers all over the world. Those centers are in China and outside of China—like we have Myanmar, we’ve got Sri Lanka, we’ve got Vietnam, and the list goes on and on. Starting at the end of last year with Trump talking about his anticipated tariff activity, we started moving production out of China ahead of time, and by July of this year, we will be 100% out.”

She added that this pivot made it so that companies were now approaching David’s Bridal to produce their dresses for them.

Beyond the tech innovations, the company has also tapped designers like Marchesa for luxury collaborations, introduced menswear, and launched concept stores called Diamonds & Pearls by David’s that offer a more curated experience.

Will the collective changes and partnerships work? Only time will tell, but Cook, who celebrates her 31st wedding anniversary this year, is confident. “I’m a very lucky woman,” she said.

David’s Bridal is gunning for a digital reinvention

But what is different this time? According to CEO Kelly Cook, a lot.

With the sheer amount of executive changes at major luxury brands over the past few years, it might seem as if retailers have been playing a game of revolving doors. And now, a key player has joined the game. Earlier this month, Kering 

 Luca de Meo as CEO, replacing longtime chief executive François‑Henri Pinault, who will stay on as chairman.

The switch came as a surprise but not a total shock as sales at the conglomerate have been on a downward spiral with Gucci—the linchpin of Kering’s revenue—

However, Kering’s stocks were up ~12% as news of de Meo’s potential appointment spread before the official announcement, indicating a positive response.

“The appointment of Luca de Meo as CEO of Kering is both bold and appropriate, as it signals…Kering is in a turnaround and has selected an experienced turnaround executive (who also has luxury brand experience) to lead that turnaround…Fresh new thinking is being brought to the company and industry,” Bret Bero, assistant professor of practice in management at Babson College, told Retail Brew via email.

Although investor optimism is strong, de Meo certainly has a tough task ahead—turning around a company that has faced significant financial challenges and a “75% drop in its value since the summer of 2021,” 

All eyes will be on Kering’s new leader, who officially takes the reins at the company in September. But if there is anything to cast doubt on the Milan-born executive’s ability to be able to transform Kering, however, it’s his much talked about “outsider” status.

The Bocconi University graduate is most well-known for his impressive tenure as an automotive leader with key roles at Fiat, Toyota, and most notably Renault, where he was responsible for what was called a “

,” aimed at restoring profitability and steering the company toward EVs and software-defined vehicles.

While de Meo may not have much direct luxury experience, his strategic expertise may be just what Kering needs.

“I think it’s a terrific, albeit seemingly unconventional choice bringing him in from outside the world of luxury and fashion,” Michael Prendergast, managing director in the consumer and retail group of Alvarez & Marsal, told Retail Brew. “de Meo has had a successful background in brand management and marketing, which should play well for him in the new role.”

Bero agreed, adding that it might be unfair to label de Meo as simply an “automotive guy.”

“He has experience with highly recognized luxury brands, such as Lamborghini, Ducati, and Alpha Romeo, as well as mass market brands; he has experience turning around deeply troubled brands, such as when the Fiat 500 Abarth helped save Fiat and relaunch the Abarth brand and the basis of that Fiat turnaround was on revitalizing an iconic brand,” he said, adding,“It is reasonable for Kering to have a sense of urgency…and look outside the fashion industry for a turnaround leader with brand experience.”

And while it might be too early to predict how de Meo’s tenure at Kering will play out, Prendergast believes it will certainly shake things up at the company.

“This is perhaps necessary to help jump start a business like Gucci,” he said. “Outsiders are not tethered to political requirements either and at the beginning of their term often have the political capital to make the boldly needed moves that in certain cases could be very obvious, but for whatever reason have not been implemented.”

He added that de Meo’s appointment is likely also a reflection of a broader trend in the industry to “bring in newness,” both in terms of creative thinking and strategy.

“Luxury has been on a decades-long growth cycle that has more recently slowed, so disruption is needed across the board,” Prendergast said. “One way to do this is to bring unconventional leaders in. These trail blazers should help stimulate the necessary changes to set the luxury houses up for another growth cycle.”

Can an ‘outsider’ transform Kering?

Luca de Meo’s appointment as Kering’s CEO marks a significant strategic shift for the conglomerate.

As the last century was winding down, the notion of buying and selling used items on the internet was just beginning to take hold, with the introduction of both 

By today’s standards, however, recommerce was a byzantine process. To list an item, sellers had to take photos on digital cameras, then transfer the photos to their computers via SD cards or USB; to buy something, purchasers would have to both park themselves at a computer and be somewhere with Wi-Fi, perhaps at one of those 

 that started popping up in the mid-’90s.

With a new century, however, came swift and dramatic improvements to mobile and e-commerce technology that would transform the resale market.

“Online resale is happening for a while before other companies start to take pieces of eBay and pieces of Craigslist,” Jake Disraeli, co-founder and CEO of Treet, which works with retail brands to launch resale programs, told Retail Brew. “It’s like the unbundling of eBay.”

Disraeli noted that it wasn’t just resale that in the early aughts started to break off pieces of what had worked for eBay and Craigslist. Having seen categories that had performed well on Craigslist, he noted, StubHub launched in 2000 and Airbnb in 2007.

When it comes to resale, it was apparel and accessories marketplaces that were the first to get their footing.

Clothing marketplace ThredUp entered the picture in 2009, and in 2011, it introduced the 

, which simplified getting more used clothing into the resale market by making it as simple as consumers shoving clothing into a bag and bringing it to a shipper or scheduling a pickup.

 told Retail Brew that “the real sea change” for both e-commerce and recommerce came with the introduction of smartphones, especially the iPhone, which was 

Carrying these small computers and digital cameras in our pockets spurred “fundamental changes in consumer applications and behavior that start to unleash a different way of consumption,” said Reinhart. “That’s sort of the beginning of this journey.”

Also helping ThredUp and its resale peers, Reinhart suggested, was the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 that reflected the “zeitgeist around sustainability,” as evidenced by the then-nascent electric car market (Tesla’s first model rolled off lots in 2008) and a growing interest in 

ThredUp marks the beginning of resale companies demonstrating “it was possible to buy secondhand stuff online in a much more curated way” than shopping on eBay, with its 

 categories and subcategories, Emily Gittins, co-founder and CEO of Archive, which partners with brands to launch resale programs, told Retail Brew.

Poshmark and Depop—both of which introduced social media elements in resale marketplaces—launched in 2011, as did TheRealReal, with its focus on luxury goods. Also introduced that year was OfferUp, establishing local marketplaces, which were the ticket for bulkier items like furniture that were too expensive and burdensome for sellers to ship to buyers. (Facebook Marketplace, a similar proposition, launched in 2016.)

Sneakerheads were the primary focus of two more marketplaces, Goat, which launched in 2015, and StockX, in 2016.

 cleaning up on the platforms, which themselves, with their easy-to-use apps, became not just simpler but—thanks to what Gittins calls the “gamification and social media-ization of resale”—kind of addictive.

“You have people scrolling through ThredUp and spending a lot of time on an app like that, as if it’s part of their social media usage,” Gittins said. “And you saw the dwelling time on these resale sites go up as it became much more about capturing the consumer’s attention versus just for a transaction like it would have been on something like eBay.”

Notably absent from the resale landscape for much of the first two decades of this century, except for a few notable exceptions, were brands. They may have noticed how briskly their products were selling on resale marketplaces, but they stayed on the sidelines.

Soon enough, though, they got into the game, too.

The first brand to launch its own resale program, Eileen Fisher, was way ahead of the pack, introducing Eileen Fisher Renew in 2009. It would be eight years before outdoor brands, fittingly enough, put their stakes in the ground: Patagonia and REI launched their resale programs in 2017, The North Face in 2018, and Arc’teryx in 2019. 

“Brands are like, ‘Well, shit, if this is going to be part of what my customers are going to do for the rest of their lives, we should probably pay attention to this,’” Reinhart said.

By the end of 2022, the number of brands with resale programs had swelled to 

 and today numbers 148, according to ThredUp, which tracks branded resale participants and listings volume monthly on its online 

Vendors that set up and often administer brands resale programs, known as resale as a service (RaaS) have been helping fuel this growth. Trove, a self-described “

” company, launched in 2016 and in turn helped launch the aforementioned recommerce sites of Patagonia, REI, and Arc’teryx.

ThredUp got its B2B sea legs and launched its RaaS program in 2019. Other RaaS foundings include Recurate in 2020 (sold to Trove in 2024), and both Archive Resale and Treet in 2021.

Reinhart said that many of the factors that spawned recommerce, like advances in mobile technology and e-commerce and the dedication of value-seeking consumers, also fed other phenoms that turned out 

 to have legs, like the flash sale format led by 

“These things were more faddish,” said Reinhart of the flash sale sites. “I think resale has shown that it has real successive-generation staying power.”

Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar and then-CEO Meg Whitman in 1998. James D. Wilson/Getty Images)

How recommerce went from a novelty to a mainstay 

After eBay took reselling online in the ’90s, competitors and branded resale took off.

French luxury retailer Dior has a new creative director in charge.

, the Northern Irish designer, best known for transforming Loewe with his artful designs and a strong emphasis on craftsmanship, makes history as the first designer after Christian Dior himself to oversee all of Dior’s men’s, women’s, and haute couture collections.

While there is little to cast doubt on Anderson’s ability as a designer, the question is: Why was he the right choice to take on the storied reins at Dior?

“This isn’t just a creative hire; it’s a fundamental restructuring,” Nora Kleinewillinghoefer, partner and North America lead for fashion and luxury in Kearney’s Consumer practice, told Retail Brew via email. “By unifying all lines under Anderson, Dior is leaning toward brand coherence over specialized expertise, which is a smart operational move that could deliver significant efficiencies.”

His own legacy as a designer, both at Loewe and his eponymous label, JW Anderson, is marked by iconic pieces like the Loewe Puzzle bag, gender-fluid aesthetics, and surrealist and sculptural runway presentations. Moreover, Anderson’s collaborations with celebrities such as Harry Styles and director Luca Guadagnino—best known for 

—has further cemented him as an instrumental influence in the global fashion landscape.

“This signals LVMH’s belief that consumers want cohesive brand experiences, not siloed categories,” Kleinewillinghoefer said. “Anderson’s track record of maintaining brand DNA while driving cross-category synergies makes him uniquely suited for this challenge.”

There is perhaps little downside to having Anderson on board as far as Dior sees it for now. But for a historic brand such as Dior, Kleinewillinghoefer believes the designer will need a bit more than talent and influence to make a long-term impact.

“Creative directors at top fashion houses must be both a guardian and revolutionary—preserving the DNA that makes the brand unmistakable while pushing boundaries that keep it relevant for the next generation of luxury consumers,” she said. “The modern creative director must think beyond the atelier and the runway. Every collection must work as beautifully in an Instagram story as it does in a Vogue editorial. The customer journey now begins and ends in the digital space.”

Jonathan Anderson at the end of a runway presentation

Why Jonathan Anderson was the right choice for Dior

Anderson makes history as the first designer after Christian Dior to oversee all of Dior’s men’s, women’s, and haute couture collections.

 have reignited concerns that fashion retail may be bracing for a broader wave of job cuts—driven not just by inflation, but by new tariff pressures.

While circumstances have been challenging for most fashion retailers due to inflation and a consumer spending pullback, impending tariffs have added another thorn in their path. With many retailers reliant on manufacturing hubs such as 

—companies are already employing cost-cutting measures. Unfortunately, staff reductions are often part of the cost.

“These layoffs aren’t isolated incidents; they’re a strategic response to fundamental shifts in retail economics,” Nora Kleinewillinghoefer, partner in the consumer practice of Kearney, told Retail Brew via email.

Brett House, professor in the economics division at Columbia Business School, told Retail Brew via email that the “entire retail sector is coming under immense pressure.”

“Most retailers are likely to impose cost-cutting measures to protect margins and revenue amidst the damage being inflicted by the president,” he said. “These steps are likely to include staff reductions, more automation, and store closures.”

Although the possible layoffs may seem like a sign of deeper trouble, experts caution against seeing them as a full-scale industry retreat. In fact, most layoffs seem to be a precautionary measure on the part of retailers anticipating higher tariffs.

“The US economy entered 2025 in strong health; the probability of a recession was at its lowest point in three years,” House said. “The current round of layoffs we’re seeing in fashion retailers is being driven mainly by the misguided trade policies emanating from the White House.”

Lauren Beitelspacher, professor of marketing at Babson College, said via email that she believes layoffs are likely just a strategy to “appease” shareholders in order to reduce costs, and that there are other ways to address the current challenges.

“They don’t want to reduce staffing and impact the customer experience if they can help it,” she said. “Rather, they will try to find other ways throughout the supply chain, like improving operational efficiencies, as a cost-saving strategy, before they start to lay off employees.”

 and nearshoring manufacturing to Mexico or other parts of Asia is another potential viable solution that many experts have strongly recommended if tariffs do go through.

“The most logical starting point for brands and retailers is to reassess supply chain strategy,” Brittany Steiger, principal analyst of retail and e-commerce at Mintel, previously told Retail Brew. “In most cases, this would involve forging relationships with new manufacturers in regions that may be less affected by tariffs than the ones they work with currently.”

But even if companies resort to staff reductions, it likely won’t impact all retailers in the same way. Kleinewillinghoefer cites internal Kearney research showing that “luxury brands have 30%–40% more pricing power to absorb costs than mid-tier retailers.”

While that doesn’t mean luxury retailers are immune to any damage, they just might have more time on their hands as many luxury consumers are not as price sensitive. According to Kleinwillinghoefer, a key tell of where the economy is headed will be when premium retailers start cutting staff.

“It signals deeper systemic pressures that will likely cascade throughout the industry by Q3 2025,” she said. 

Illustrated group of people walking away in despair from a closed door with two signs that read "jobs" and "closed"