1. Shoppers Surprise Retailers by Returning to Stores: Shoppers are returning to reopened stores faster than expected, according to retail executives. Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette says the pandemic won’t permanently change shopping habits among American women. “The lure of having appropriate fashion from our customer all the way from mass or off-price to luxury is still incredibly potent, and while it looks in certain categories grim right now, I don’t think that’s forever.” – Read More on WSJ
2. The pandemic is tightening fashion conglomerates’ grip on the industry: “Luxury conglomerates benefit from economies of scale, centralization of capabilities, access to capital as well as access to an exclusive network of suppliers. As countries around the world recover from Covid-19 at varying speeds, the access to different markets around the globe will further benefit large conglomerates.” – Read More on Glossy
3. RETRO READ: “Brands Can Do Better With a Conglomerate” Behind Them … A Look at the Consolidation of the Luxury Industry. Such large-scale banding together “fortifies” big brands (even if the potential cost savings to be garnered from luxury mergers are not necessarily as sizable as those that abound in more down-market industries), particularly in light of investor fears of a looming global recession. – Read More on TFL
4. Solidarity Is in Style—but Is Fashion Media Really Ready to Reckon With Its Race Problem? For those of us who’ve long felt the fashion industry needs more black friends than the celebs on its pages, it has been further proof of how blind its media outlets remain to their own race problem—and how ill-prepared they were to confront it in a moment that demanded discussion. – Read More on The Root
5. World’s largest fashion group, Inditex, reports first loss despite jump in online sales: Sales fell to 3.3 billion euros from nearly 6 billion euros in the first quarter of last year. The loss came despite a 50% increase in online sales in the first quarter, and a 95% jump in online sales in April. Inditex expects online sales to represent more than 25% of its total sales by 2022. At the end of 2019, online transactions made up 14% of net sales. – Read More on CNBC
6. Can Anna Wintour Survive the Social Justice Movement? A reckoning has come to Bon Appétit and the other magazines of Condé Nast. Can a culture built on elitism and exclusion possibly change? Ms. Wintour clearly believes that she can break from the past and kill off any vestiges of a system steeped in the benighted values for which she has become the corporate avatar. – Read More on the New York Times
7. RETRO READ: Brand Anna. The editor of Vogue has always occupied the most powerful seat in the world of American fashion. But Anna Wintour’s web of influential friends and allies has helped turn her into a global brand that transcends fashion.– Read More on WSJ