The Executive Briefing: NikeSkims Launches; TikTok’s Future; Brick-and-Mortar Is Back

Searching for That Big Bang Moment

What happened: Nike launched its first new brand in 40 years. Gucci entered its Demna era with his take on the brand’s archive and a short film. Gap hired a pair of industry heavyweights to oversee an accessories and beauty push.

Give ‘em the old razzle dazzle: These are all brands that have faced major challenges in recent years.

• NikeSkims is something genuinely new from a company that, under CEO Elliott Hill, has repeatedly said innovation is its path out of a years-long slump, but so far hasn’t released much that would win back customers.
• Gucci owner Kering has taken a deliberate — some would say sluggish — approach to fixing its biggest brand, where sales have plummeted as much as 40 percent. Demna’s take on the brand’s archive and Spike Jonze-directed, Demi Moore-starring film has put Gucci back in the fashion conversation and bought the designer and CEO Francesca Bellettini more time to unfurl their vision.
• Gap’s been producing “wow” moments ever since chief executive Richard Dickson arrived from Mattel two years ago. If the Katseye ad excited end consumers, hiring Reed Krakoff and John Demsey did the same for fashion insiders, signalling the company is serious about category expansion into accessories and beauty.

What markets are telling us: Investors, predictably, prefer Dickson’s sprint to Hill’s marathon. Gap’s stock more than doubled after he was appointed, and has held onto those gains, while Nike’s shares have drifted lower. Demna’s film didn’t move Kering’s stock, but it was already on the rebound following the naming of auto executive Luca de Meo as group CEO in June (his appointment was made official in early September).

What’s next: In the long run, the approach taken by Nike and Kering is higher risk, higher reward. If NikeSkims and Demna’s Gucci click with consumers, the sky’s the limit. If something more fundamental is broken at these companies, the extra months of waiting will be seen as another misstep.

But as our excellent sports correspondent Mike Sykes put it in his newsletter on Friday, there’s one huge cause for optimism: “Everyone wants to be in on that conversation. For Skims and Nike, that’s an essential part of the plan.” The same is true for Gucci.

Luxury’s Comeback Attempt Begins

What happened: Designers have shown their collections in New York, London and Milan. Our correspondents found badly needed signs of new creative energy in all three cities. We are a long way from knowing if that translates into stronger sales.

Opening acts: “Commercial” was the word of the week in New York, sometimes lobbed as an insult for dull collections, elsewhere as a nod to designers such as Elena Velez and Area’s Nicholas Aburn who savvily mixed wearable basics in with their more innovative looks.

London Fashion Week also had what Susanna Lau described as “a whiff of change in the air,” from emerging designers like Conner Ives and Dilara Findikoglu to Burberry’s ongoing turnaround.

The main event: But it was Gucci on Sept. 23 that kicked off the season of debuts in earnest. There was Demna’s film, and Simone Bellotti received raves for his first Jil Sander runway. Dario Vitale delivered a Versace collection that was “more brazen, younger, brainier, for a new customer,” in the words of Angelo Flaccavento. The industry also said goodbye to Giorgio Armani on Sunday, at a show originally intended as a 50th anniversary celebration for the designer.

What comes next: It’s too soon to tell if the enthusiastic reception for these debuts is a true renaissance, or just boosterism by a battered industry desperate for a win. Or to put it another way, it’s one thing to wow fashion insiders at a Milan film premiere, quite another to convince consumers to actually buy the clothes and bags.

Word of mouth on social media about many of the Milan shows has been overwhelmingly positive, helping to amplify the excitement felt in the room. Still, strong buzz only partly addresses luxury’s value problem – Jil Sander joins numerous brands competing in the ultra-expensive minimalist space, while trendier Gucci must win back shoppers who lately seem perfectly happy relying on dupes, counterfeits and secondhand to keep up with the trends coming out of Milan and Paris.

You have to start somewhere: We’ll take the over on luxury’s chances. Bringing some magic and wonder back into the equation can’t be underestimated; ultimately shoppers pay those high prices to buy into the dream, not because they’re admiring the stitching.

TikTok Tick Tock

What happened: President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Sept. 25 advancing plans to transfer ownership of TikTok to a group of mostly American investors. China’s ByteDance would retain a minority stake, and will license out the platform’s algorithm.

More of the same: What will this mean for fashion? Not much, at least at first. TikTok’s algorithm will still serve up addictive content, and TikTok Shop will still offer a mix of name brand products and dubious fast fashion. The question is whether the new owners will be content with business as usual or look to put their own stamp on the platform.

A repeat of Twitter’s — now X — fate, where the platform quickly became toxic for many brands under Elon Musk, is the worst-case scenario. TikTok is of course far more important and profitable for the fashion industry than Twitter ever was, both reducing the incentive for its new owners to shake things up, but also raising the bar for brands to withdraw if they do.

Watch this space: Even if TikTok’s new owners don’t have immediate plans to meddle, it feels inevitable that the platform will get sucked into the escalating war around the boundaries of free speech in America. Not so long ago late night shows were seen as the epitome of milquetoast mainstream entertainment; this past month saw Jimmy Kimmel at the centre of the firestorm. Given the ever greater cultural reach of social media, it’s hard to believe TikTok will stay above the fray.

For more on TikTok’s future, check out Tech Mode, Marc Bain’s monthly wrap of news at the intersection of technology and fashion.

AI’s New Normal

What happened: Artificial intelligence continued to make inroads into advertising and commerce, with Valentino and Vans hiring an AI studio to create an ad for its collaboration.

Nothing to see here: The big development here is that two prominent brands ran a high-profile, AI-generated campaign – and nobody cared. There were some disgruntled comments on social media, but those quickly faded, as did chatter about the ad itself. In a way, that makes the campaign as big a turning point for the use of generative AI as the uproars over H&M’s digital twins or the Guess ad in Vogue.

The new normal: AI still has the capacity to shock, and there is still resistance to its widespread use. Shortly after the Valentino ad dropped, the British Fashion Model Agents Association and The Milk Collective agency released a petition with thousands of signatories calling for the UK government to regulate the technology.

But each “first” that comes and goes without rocking the fashion industry to its core makes us all a little more comfortable with weaving this technology into our daily lives.

The Future of Retail

What’s Happening: In the space of a few days, Dior unveiled its renovated New York flagship and opened a new, four-story store on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. Louis Vuitton is going even bigger, earlier this month filing with regulators to swap its 20-story NY flagship for a new 25-story building, and new details trickled out of a planned Frank Gehry-designed space in LA for the brand, complete with museum and restaurant, set to open in 2029.

Living the omnichannel dream: LVMH’s store investments are exceptionally large, but are otherwise par for the course when it comes to retail strategy in 2025. Brands have internalised the idea that, while a growing number of sales happen on the web, there is no online substitute for the connections that can be formed in the real world.

That can mean going big, as luxury brands compete to open huge flagship in top retail destinations. Or you can go wide; Aesop has blanketed major cities with dozens of small boutiques, each individually tailored to its neighbourhood. Either way, the goal is to be where a brand’s customers are, and to make an impression, even if the actual sale happens when they’re back home on their phones.

Whither department stores: When a single brand can operate on the scale of Louis Vuitton or Dior (or even Aesop), it’s no wonder then that department stores and other multibrand retailers are revisiting the proposition they can offer shoppers. Saks has struggled most publicly with this, earlier this month saying it would sell a 49 percent stake in Bergdorf Goodman, one of the few American department stores that’s still a draw. Printemps, a traditional department store in France, has seen success in a smaller format in New York, emphasising friendly service, food and drink and evening events to draw young shoppers.