Accessible Luxury’s Big Week
What’s happening: Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo owner Capri reports quarterly results on Nov. 4, followed by Coach owner Tapestry and Ralph Lauren on Nov. 6. All three have been predictable when it comes to earnings: Tapestry and Ralph Lauren report growing sales, Capri’s have been in decline. Expect more of the same this week, though how rapid the increase and steep the drop matters.
Managing expectations: This is particularly true at Capri, which is close to completing its sale of Versace to Prada. After that, the plan is to pay down debt and focus on reviving its remaining two brands, particularly Michael Kors. At Tapestry, Coach’s Gen-Z strategy continues to pay off, though heading into next year it’ll contend with more compelling offerings from luxury brands and a host of newcomers in the affordable handbag space. Ralph Lauren, meanwhile, recently projected growth in the mid single digits through the next three years, driven by historically underserved categories like womenswear and rapid expansion in China.
Hitting sales targets without resorting to discounting, or having to eat the cost of tariffs, will be a challenge at all three companies. Otherwise they may share the same fate as Adidas, which last week reported record sales – and saw its stock fall more than 10 percent after chief executive Bjorn Gulden said “nervous” retailers were discounting its shoes to hold onto wary US consumers.
Fashion Awards Season
On Monday, the Council of Fashion Designers of America will hold its annual awards in New York. Then, the Latin American Fashion Awards takes place over a long weekend in the Dominican Republic. It’ll be a particularly busy week for Willy Chavarria and Raul Lopez, who are up for awards at both ceremonies; Chavarria for menswear designer of the year, Lopez for accessories at the CFDA, while the two are up for designer of the year in the Dominican Republic alongside Argentina’s Adrian Appiolaza. Donatella Versace, too, will collect the Positive Change Award at the CFDAs before picking winners as head of the Latin American Fashion Awards’ jury.
This will be the second edition of the Latin American Fashion Awards, which was established in 2023 by Constanza Etro and Silvia Argüello. While there’s naturally overlap with the CFDAs, the American ceremony is typically a celebration of the establishment, with awards serving to induct new members; the Latin American Fashion Awards have a heavier focus on emerging designers and celebrating the region’s heritage and craft.
Looming over both ceremonies is the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, which has disproportionately affected the US’ Latin American population. Last year, Chavarria used his acceptance speech for CFDA menswear designer of the year to underscore the stakes of the US presidential election, then a week away, in a ceremony that otherwise avoided engaging directly with current events. This year, politics will be harder to ignore.
It’s Not a Sprint
The New York City Marathon, held Sunday, is the world’s largest by number of entrants, and has in recent years become the epicentre of fashion’s growing fascination with all things running. Longtime sponsor New Balance just re-upped its decade-old partnership with the New York Road Runners club, which organises the marathon. But the event itself is a free-for-all for activewear brands. Marathoners and amateur joggers alike have the option of joining fun runs with Nike, Adidas, On, Saucony, Hoka and others. The less athletically inclined can also attend an Adidas-sponsored pasta dinner or a poetry slam put on by New Balance. Indie sportswear labels have started treating the marathon as their fashion week, with pop-ups and events.
Most of these brands are also competing to outfit top athletes for the race itself with so-called supershoes that they claim can significantly boost performance, typically cost $300 or more and come in increasingly bizarre-looking silhouettes. This year, Puma has an academic study to prove its Fast-R 3 is the best, while the leaderboards at major events are often dominated by runners wearing Nike’s Alphafly and Adidas’ Adios Pro Evo models. Among smaller brands, Asics’ Metaspeed Tokyo and On’s Cloudboom Strike LS are frequent contenders (2023 NYC winner Hellen Obiri wears the latter).
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