Dickson’s Denim: The starlets wore denim.
Sydney Sweeney, Chloe East and Lucy Hale were among those out in Los Angeles supporting their stylist Molly Dickson on Thursday in celebration of her Madewell collaboration.
“I got a lot of inspiration from fittings with my clients and then making notes about pants and denim,” Dickson said of her muses, on the rooftop of Soho House’s Holloway property in West Hollywood. “Like, one of my clients loved wearing her jeans oversized. She was like, ‘I just hate how you go up with your sizes and the butt in the back is so droopy.’ And so, I’m like, ‘OK, we need to do an oversize denim, where the butt is still in a good placement.’”
She also took inspiration from her childhood.
“I grew up on a farm in North Dakota wearing denim,” she said. “And every August for back-to-school, we would drive five hours to Mall of America and go shopping. Our go-to, my siblings and I, our go-to denim was Madewell.”
The 12-piece capsule, which came out on Friday, includes baggy, straight, and wide-legged jeans (including a double-waistband design and cutoffs in place of pockets), as well as cargos, a bralette, cropped shirt, oversized overalls, and a miniskirt (with attached shorts underneath). Dickson wore the latter with a tank and knee-high boots.
“One of my clients wore a custom low-rise miniskirt last year at the MTV Movie Awards,” she said of Sweeney. “And I think that triggered the low-rise mini trend again. And so, that’s what inspired me on the skirt.”
Rainey Qualley DJ’d as guests (who didn’t do interviews) posed in a photo booth and sipped on cocktails like the “Canadian Tuxedo,” with vodka or gin, lime, cucumber and mint, and “Spicy Farmer,” with tequila, chile, cilantro, lime and agave. Nostalgic hits by Hilary Duff, NSYNC and Shania Twain blasted from the speakers as the party went on well past its 9 p.m. end time. It was a crowd of twentysomethings, locals enjoying the summer air, including Ava and Deacon Phillippe (kids of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe), Grace Van Dien, Lukas Gage, Sofia Hublitz and Samantha Logan.
“L.A. is known for their street style,” said Dickson. “That’s kind of what I wanted this collection to be — that my clients and my girlfriends and everyone I work with will want to wear it out on the streets. And, like, be cool and comfortable.” — RYMA CHIKHOUNE
Moving On: Pat Saxby is set to leave Bergdorf Goodman after close to three decades with the company, WWD has learned.
Yumi Shin, Bergdorf Goodman’s chief merchandising officer, informed brands this week that Saxby will be retiring from her role as vice president and divisional merchandise manager of cosmetics and fragrances and leaving the company in two weeks.
Angela Welcome will transition into the role of director and associate divisional merchandise manager for cosmetics and fragrances, reporting to Shin. Her role will be backfilled shortly, according to Shin.
“I look forward to supporting Angela in her new role, and to continuing to partner with all of you. Thank you to Pat and to all of you for your continued focus and dedication to our customers,” wrote Shin in her note to beauty brands, seen by WWD.
According to LinkedIn, Welcome has been at the retailer for 24 years and was most recently a cosmetics buyer, previously working in shoes.
A representative for Nieman Marcus Group, which owns Bergdorf Goodman, did not immediately respond to request for comment on the executive changes.
Last week, WWD reported that NMG wants to become even more “customer-centric” and is reorienting its buying approach. Merchants will now be more intensely focused on customer data and insights and buying for the company’s existing shoppers, and the company has formed a marketing strategy and customer analytics team.
As part of this, NMG created new senior management roles and consolidated certain responsibilities to eliminate silos that typically limit interactions between different business functions and slow the execution of plan. — KATHRYN HOPKINS
Closing Up: Shen Beauty has shuttered its brick-and-mortar door.
The influential Brooklyn-based independent beauty retailer, founded by Jessica Richards in 2010, was known for its early adoption of the clean beauty movement and carried brands ranging from Westman Atelier and Augustinus Bader to Irene Forte and Vintner’s Daughter. The website remains operational.
In a local Facebook group, several residents in the area posted that they noticed the store was closed and shelves were empty.
The reports follow the reported closure of Farfetch’s beauty business, as well as the closure of Amyris-owned Onda Beauty. Amyris filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday morning.
In 2020, Shen, a single-door retailer, moved to a new location with four treatment rooms on Court Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. As one source remarked, Shen was known for its ability to catapult niche European brands into directional powerhouses.
Per its website, the brands it most recently stocked include Alpha-H, Augustinus Bader, EltaMD and Kosas, among others.
Shen opened the new Cobble Hill space after outgrowing it’s previous location, Richards previously told WWD. “We had a three- to four-week waiting list for facials, a brow chair shoved into a corner. It was so busy — everyone [had started] shopping us [for beauty] instead of Barneys,” she added at the time, referring to the shuttered Barneys New York location on Atlantic Avenue. — K.H. and JAMES MANSO
