TikTok Shoppies

0:03Hello and welcome to Fashion People. I'm Lauren Sherman, writer of Puck's Fashion and Beauty Memo line sheet. And today with me on the show is writer and stylist Becky Malinsky. She's here to chat about her new collaboration with Alex Mill, what you should actually be buying at all these sales, the latest round of designer musical chairs, and so much more. Hope everyone had a fab weekend. I was very busy momming, but saw a couple of you at the Peter Shire Open Studio Day in Echo Park, which was so great. I'm a big Memphis group person, so it's kind of amazing to live so close to someone whose work has been so influential on you.

0:42Also big thanks to Courage Bagels. They had a pop-up there. They somehow managed to find one last bagel to give my kid. And as a payback, I may stand in line next weekend at their shop, which the line is very long. And if you are interested in food trends and you've been to LA, you probably know that, but they sell these very light, airy Montreal stylish bagels with amazing toppings. And I haven't had one since the pandemic. So, you know, I might, I might, I may make the trip. It is the holiday season and I have a little bit of extra time and I'm here. Uh, this weekend line sheet, Sarah Shapiro is joining us.

1:20She'll start contributing as of Wednesday. So if you have any tips or thoughts for her, email her on shapiro at puck talk news. She's going to be covering a lot of new brands, mall brands, commerce, shopping, et cetera. And in Monday's line sheet, speaking of commerce, I dig into the state of the American mall. And I also follow up on that Louise Trotter news that she may be heading to Bottega Veneta. I scooped that last week. Plus a few other fun nuggets that you should be sure to check out. Again, we're so excited to have Sarah. Email her if you want to bug her. Email me on lauren at puck.news if you want to bug me.

1:56And until then, let's get going with Becky. I know many of you have bought her Alex Mill collab and she talks about how it all came together and we had a fun conversation. Becky Malinsky, welcome back to Fashion People. Thank you so much. What did you do this weekend? Were you skiing? Yes, I took my four-year-old skiing and it was so awesome. My back hurts a lot today, but it's worth it. Did you grow up skiing? I grew up skiing. I love skiing. I love being outside in winter. So I'm trying very hard to make sure he does as well. And he was into it? He was super into it. I took him once last winter and he cried the whole time.

2:44Yeah. He was very confused. I think he was three then. It was just, it was too young. But this time he was super into it, wanted to do it himself. It's great. got him cool snow pants and like, you know, the gear is half the fun. So I only skied a couple times growing up, but really loved it and felt like it was something I just remember feeling like, oh, I could do this. Like it was not. I turned it on really quickly. My big theory is with skiing, it's easy. I mean, if you're not very young and trying to figure out your balance and coordination, it's very easy to stand right away. You can kind of do it.

3:21It takes a lifetime time to master, which is what's so fun about it. Whereas I think snowboarding is the opposite. It's really hard to stand up right away. When I was a teenager, I did a little bit of snowboarding. It was so hard to make it click. But once it clicks, I think it's actually much easier than skiing. Interesting. But as you get older, snowboarding is harder because you have to sit down a lot. You fall a lot. Yeah. Yeah. If you can't get up. It's a bit trickier. Yeah. Trying to convince my husband to get back on skis. I'm like, you're 6 '2". You're too old to be getting up and down like that.

3:51Yeah. Yeah. So you did a great newsletter last season about ski gear, I feel like. People should check the out in the five things archives. Yeah. I think I have to go reread it. I think once I send it into the world, I kind of let it go. Well, there's that brand. Is it Bogner? Yeah, but I think they pronounce it Bogner. I pronounce it Bogner. I feel like you are a big proponent of this brand and have brought it to a lot of people who wouldn't know about it. Well, I love really technical ski gear. I'm very into classic brands, technical brands. Vintage Bogner is awesome. Like there was a time in the 80s and 90s where like one pieces were very popular and Bogner like owned that market.

4:42I think now they're trying to compete more with Montclair. I think Montclair kind of owns that like luxury technical market now. And Bogner is waking up to that a bit. I mean, obviously this is hearsay, but that's in my mind how they're operating, but amazing technical pieces, a lot of history. I love that brand. so really quickly on this and then we'll we'll move on to the the topics of the day but last week i had anna angelic on who's like a marketing fashion marketing person we were talking about american consumption of luxury goods versus european or other parts of the world and she made this comment that she was skiing in veil like 10 years ago and that americans tend to be more focused on technical.

5:31They are not wearing head to toe Chanel ski suits, whatever. And, and it, to her, it spoke a lot about like the American luxury consumer and how they kind of approach that, that kind of stuff versus a European or an Asian or any other region of the world where like being interested in fashion and labels and things is more appropriate. Do you you think that that's true as a longtime skier? And have you noticed that specifically? And B, do you think that's changed in the last few years? Because I feel like there is just so much great ski gear and that's technical, but also high fashion or what have you.

6:16That's a very interesting take. I mean, yeah, I think Americans in general are much more focused on the competition and the sport aspect, whereas skiing is so a part of the lifestyle in Europe where sort of everyone skis and there's a real sort of elegant way of doing it and having lunch on the mountain and having it be a family sport. And it's just a different thing in America. Everything in America kind of trends towards the competitive nature of it as someone who grew up skiing. And also luxury brands were not really a part of skiing when I was growing up and going out west and skiing that wasn't something I ever really noticed so much so in my head luxury brands creating ski clothes doesn't feel like it's made for real skiers it sort of feels like it's made for ski adjacent lifestyle in the same way that's happening in tennis it doesn't feel like it's really for the sport and as someone who loves the sport I almost feel like if I were listen I love Chanel.

7:18I feel like I could not wear a Chanel ski suit skiing because if you are not the best skier on the mountain, I don't necessarily think that would look so cool to be in Chanel ski suit. Interesting. So it does come back to this idea of like in the 90s, people, even really wealthy people, like buying designer stuff was not the go-to. It wasn't. And so I do. It was an interesting point you made because you think of like I you go to I love talking about this, but you go to Nobu Malibu and you just see like head to toe to every single designer that's ever existed. It's so fun to go there and just look at the way people dress.

8:00But that's like really new money. And a lot of that money is also not American money. And also consumers change and all that. But yeah, there is like a thing about I think that's why Arc'teryx has done so well, because it is designy, but also obviously like super technical. I just went yesterday, I went to this store in Echo Park called LSD, long, slow distance, not Lauren Santo Domingo. And it's like, have you been to that running store distance in Paris in the 11th? No, but I would love to. It's awesome. I'll make a note. Yeah, we can go then in February or March. But it reminds me of that. And apparently LSD, One of the guys who owns it is French and is friends with the distance running crew.

8:48But it's very much like a running store for run like cool kids who belong to run clubs. They have bandit. They have. They don't have satisfy because it sounds like satisfy won't sell to them. And also satisfy is guys. It's a little too expensive. If the satisfy running people are listening, you guys need to just take it down one notch. but they have a lot of on stuff and they also have tons of district vision and then Nord that brand Norda sneakers, lots on sneakers, lots of Nike, whatever. But anyway, they also have like white mountaineering and a couple other Japanese, a couple of Swedish brands.

9:28And the thing is all this stuff is like super technical. So it's that mix of design and technical, whereas you couldn't just have like a random designer stuff in here. You'd have to have like the low. Yeah, it's cool. I'm I'm very into this. It's sort of, I think, the evolution of Gorpcore. Yes, that sounds about right. So, Becky, this last week was a big week for you. It was a big week. I'm tired. You launched your collection with Alex Mill called Holiday Things, correct? Yes, Holiday Things. tell me about it. Congratulations. First of all, I love it. I got the suit. It's gorgeous. One of the best blazers I've ever owned.

10:16But tell me, how did you do it? How did this come about? And also, how did you like pick stuff and figure out how to what you wanted? What was in? Give me a very quick summary of how you how this you made this happen. Sure. It was about a year process start to finish. You know, we started in January and that was even a tight turnaround for a holiday collection. The rest of their holiday had sort of been produced and decided upon, which was actually helpful. And that was the starting point of the collection. But I'll back up. It came about because I did a newsletter partnership with them last December and it performed.

10:59It was the first time they did that with their brand and it performed really well. And I was really happy with how it turned out. They were really happy with how it turned out. They were really happy with the new customer acquisition. And, you know, Mickey Drexler, he's very curious about new things. And he called multiple times and wanted to know more about it. And we talked a lot about what else is it that we could do together? And he said, I want to do something. It doesn't just have to be this one time a year thing? What is something we can work on together? And from there, I had a meeting with Psalmsak, who is their creative director.

11:36In January, we just got a coffee with him and Rose Anderson, the head of their marketing. Rose, I don't know your title. I'm sorry. It's fine. Titles don't mean anything. People mean something. Exactly. And we're just kind of spitballing what it could be. And we thought, well, what if we do a little collection? and later that week I was going in to see Holiday anyway because I am still a market editor at the end of the day and I do still go see collections and I went to see Holiday and I looked at sort of their lineup and what they had and it was very Alex Mill obviously it was very casual a lot a lot of sweaters some outerwear and I kind of knew immediately after seeing it I was like oh I actually know what we need to do.

12:23We need to find a way to get all of these clothes wearable for like the onslaught of events so many people have in November, December. So from there, I sort of took some time, thought about what I thought it should be, pulled references, pulled ideas. And then I had a meeting with Somsak and we kind of together brainstormed of, you know, I was like, this is what I think we need. I mean, I'm working with women all the time. We need a holiday top, something really easy to layer and pair. There was a skirt that I featured in the newsletter last year that went viral for them. Like they posted the picture from my newsletter on Instagram and they are still getting calls about this skirt and they keep saying, I'm so sorry, it's not our skirt, it's our sweater.

13:11So they were like, we want something really dressy along those lines. So we kind of started there. I thought we needed a top. They really wanted a skirt. and I sort of put all these things together into an idea of what could be these pieces that could really dress up your more everyday casual wardrobe that you already are buying from them and that you already may have. And I feel like we are kind of of the same mindset. We're scrappy. We're casual. We have a bit of classic. So the ideas felt very, there was a lot of synergy. And when I would bring an idea, someone would say, yes, let me sketch it.

13:44And it was really fluid actually. And it came together pretty quickly. It was like, I took a lot of time, obviously thinking and processing and pulling ideas, but you know, in our meetings, I think it was two one hour meetings and we kind of had the idea of what we wanted. What about fabrics? Because for me, that was, especially when I, when I got the suit, I was like, whoa, this is a great, this is a really nice material. material it's like a wool crepe it feels very silky it has a nice really soft hand feel and it's you you're a drapey person it has a little bit of slouch and drape to it but the skirt has a great it's it's almost a taffeta but a almost utilitarian taffeta and you did that jacket too did you get to sort of go through fabric swatches how do they choose fabrics that must have been so It was so fun.

14:38And I'm obviously very specific about fabric and hand feel and I felt and touched everything. And I really wanted to make sure it would have that quality. And they have a great production team who is really supportive. And so I, you know, and I'm very specific and very descriptive. So I would say like, you know, okay, we want a skirt. I want it to feel dressy and like taffeta, but it should be khaki because this is Alex Mill and it should feel utilitarian. So is there something we can do with a little bit of shine and it should have this much stiffness? and so they were able to pull fabrics based on my descriptions well and they also you know they are they're good at what they do so they did a really good job of pulling fabrics and sometimes they would pull a fabric like I wanted to do the oversized t-shirt and a lame and the fabric swatches came in and I was like you know what this is nice but it's like too thick this is gonna feel kind of like fussy can we like make it thinner and they were like yeah we could open the weave.

15:34We could ask for a thinner knit. So, you know, I think it was three rounds of feeling fabric and seeing samples and sort of going back and fixing things. So that was super important to me. And then, you know, I knew I wanted a crepe for the suit because I wanted it to feel very evening-y, something that would feel like almost like you would put on a dress, but it was in a suit and I didn't want it to have any sort of like work wear feel to it, even though you could definitely wear this to work. But because we were doing like a purpley navy, like I thought it needed that like sort of really special, elegant, like textured feel.

16:16So they were able to pull based on my descriptions, but they did a really good job pulling is the long winded answer. What what has the feedback been? What what have you heard from your customers or your readers? what have you heard from their customers did you see a big uptick in your followers on sub stack what has a week in or a half but six days in or four days in or whatever however long it's been what have you absorbed from the experience feedback has been fantastic um i think the purple crushed velvet pants which which is one of the fabrics i started with i was like i don't know why but i I really want this in line.

16:57And it's kind of the outlier, everything else. We've made multiple pieces in one fabric, but that was sort of this extra. I was like, let's just do it. I love it. I think that's the first piece to sell out. It's almost totally sold out. I think there's like maybe size two left. Amazing. Which is unbelievable for the piece that I was like, this is just the fun piece. Like, please make it. Yeah. The feedback has been great. There's been great sell through. We're talking now about which pieces we want to recut, which don't we want to recut which we want to maybe keep um you know special and very capsulated yes and the feedback from readers has been fantastic obviously the newsletter community i honest i honestly call substag like the nicest placed on the internet because the comments are always so nice and supportive and you know people talk to each other in them and they've just been really positive and i was actually cc'd one customer wrote into alex mill to their like you know like customer at or whatever info at Alex Mill and Alex Mill CC me.

17:59So I could see the conversation about how happy they were that they brought in a woman designer and that men understand fantasy and like concept and idea, but women really understand what it is women need to get dressed. And they were so, they were so glad to see it and that they felt like they were heard as a woman and And like that felt so good. So it was really amazing to hear that feedback. And I had talked to the team at 2 p.m. that day on the launch day. And like Mickey had me on speaker going around the office. And people were like saying, hi, Becky. And they were like, everyone is in like an amazing mood and felt like they felt really positive about the collection.

18:37So, I mean, that's the most important thing to me that I feel like that I love it and proud of it, that their team was proud of it and wanted to support it. So like their head of production who is like super stylish and I love her. She in our last product fitting, she was like, I'm ordering the Anorak. And I was like, oh, my God, she wants to order it. I feel like, OK, this has legs. This is going to work. So the feedback has just been really, really positive. It's awesome. I know someone at Puck who spent eight hundred dollars on on stuff. We both know this person. I don't want to help them, but they were very thrilled.

19:15And yeah, I think it was great. There was something for everyone. And it does feel like it will obviously open up your audience, but it will expose Alex Mills audience to a group of people who would totally wear that stuff, but maybe have never heard of it. It's still a really small company in the fashion world. We know it very well because of Somsack and Alex and Mickey. But outside of it, they only have a few stores. And so this is the kind of customer acquisition, as you said before, that really works. So you're worth the investment, Becky, and congrats. Thank you.

19:55Hi, this is Jill Schlesinger, CBS News Business Analyst, Certified Financial Planner, and the host of the Jill on Money podcast. With the new year upon us, there's no better time to take control of your financial life. And the Jill on Money podcast is here to help. It's your questions that make it possible for me to provide unconventional and I hope entertaining insights on your money, more importantly, on your life. Follow and listen to Jill on Money wherever you get your podcasts.

20:28Other than your holiday collection, I thought you did a really nice post right before Black Friday that I cited in line sheet about it's okay to opt out of this in sales insanity. And it definitely I'm never super shoppy during that period because I always just want stuff that's full price. Same. I bought a pair of full price boots. But yeah, that's my problem. But it did make me think, OK, just remember, I don't need any of this stuff. And And I know that like everything's 70 % off and out of porté right now, but I don't need it. But you are constantly surveying the market. What do you think are some great like secret deals right now that if people are shopping and want to dig into this sales season, this like two month long sales season, you think they should check out.

21:31I mean, it's always important for me to say that you need to be looking at the things you liked full price anyway. So like, yeah, I always will advise against like, oh, my God, I love the sweater and tan and the green is on sale. Like, do not buy the green. Wait for the tan or just buy the tan and wear it and enjoy it. So I think there's a lot of that that you have to be careful of in the market. I agree. But what have I been looking at? Obviously, I've been looking at Bali's website. They had a Black Friday deal. And then I actually didn't pull the trigger on a blazer I had wanted. I had tried on a year ago in the store in Milan, but it was really expensive.

22:12I was like, what is happening with this particular blazer that's like three grand? Yeah. And that was on sale and I almost bought it. And then I think I kind of I do get into the Black Friday hysteria for my kid. Because like, you know, like you need new shoes like four times a year when you're four years old. So I like to buy lots of sizes and I kind of forgot. And then the next day the whole site went to 60. So I'm like, oh, great. So then I did just buy that blazer this morning because I was nervous we would talk about it and then it would get sold out. Congrats. So Bali has a pretty good sale right now.

22:45But you do have to pay attention to the models they use because not all of it is Simone's designs. You know, they had, they put up some of the old stuff that is like not the Valley we know and love. There's also some stuff in there. Yeah. Yeah. Best of luck to Ruiji. I'm a fan, but yeah, it's not, it's not for us. So I definitely bought a couple of things there this, like last week. Weirdly form, you know, FF. Oh yeah. They're having an insane sale because they have a new creative director coming. Yeah. Thanks. So I Yeah, Paul Halber's is gone. Yeah, which those clothes, which don't really read as anything online, so it's kind of hard, are so beautiful and well-constructed.

23:28Their sales right now are crazy, like$3 ,000 jackets for$700. So check those out. I just noticed that yesterday when doing some newsletter research. I also love Lisa Yang sweaters, which feel very expensive, just because it's not as well of a no-name brand, but the quality is so amazing. And those are on sale everywhere right now, like Saks and My Teresa and find great deals on those. And those are the best sweaters. So highly recommend that. How's that? Is that a good list? That's a great one. I've never bought a Lisa Yang sweater. Oh, they're so nice. They're so soft. And the cuts are nice and the colors are nice.

24:09Highly recommend. Yeah. I'm on a big and daughter kick, which is not having a sale. nor should they like those are i love and daughter too and those are like still made in heritage factories and they're so well priced as it is i bought one probably the first or second season this was when i still lived in dumbo and was blowing out my hair every day and it was short so this had to be 2012 maybe to that it was really early because i was blowing my hair out pre pre um baby from dirty dancing hair but um and i ended up i don't know if i ended up keeping it but then i bought another because it was like the fit wasn't exactly right but i could tell and i really like the story and the woman who runs it i think her dad was in the business or something like that's why it's named dan daughter uh but i thought she was interesting and had a good aesthetic and then last year I bought one of the wool sweaters and I just love the fit I love all the errands is it Aaron or Aaron knits that they just launched and ran and Don a lot of Donna stuff from Donegal so it feels very I just bought a sweater that feels very J.Crew in 1998 which yeah I'm so excited I had a similar one from J.Crew in 1998.

25:39Is it the one with the speckles? Yes I did I got the speckles one yeah. Nice. I think it'll look good with skirts too. It's gonna be great and it's that it's sort of fitted and not too boxy but not yes tight in the bad way. Exactly exactly. So Becky have you ever shopped on TikTok? Never shopped on TikTok but my sister spends a lot of time on TikTok Shop Talk. So she's buying stuff on there or is this for her job? You know, I don't know if she's actually ever bought it, anything on it, but we were actually actually we were talking about it this morning and I was waiting for the bus. I was I called her and we got into a whole talk like conversation about a shop talk.

26:22What did she have to say? we're kind of talking about how tiktok is basically just a platform for dupe culture and sheen and like sheen and tiktok may as well be like the same company so like it's not actually like a good place for brands it's a place that people can just copy your brand yeah well it's sort of replacing in some ways amazon yeah it's like amazon qvc yeah meets google it's much bigger than Shein in terms of revenue, which is crazy. It only launched in 2023, in September, 2023. TikTok shops. Sure. Whatever. It's called TikTok shops. Wow. Okay. Yeah. I mean, the whole company is only started in 2018 or something, right?

27:14Yeah. The being able to shop in the app only started a year and a half ago. Got it. But I will say it feels fake. Like it's just like who is buying all this crap. But I did buy something from there. Okay. What? I bought this. So you know that how I get this defrizzing treatment that has this defrizzing treatment is going to be the end of me. I've decided to phase out of it because the thing is, I live in L.A. My hair is very, very coarse, very, very curly. It's also very dry here. so it's not it's frizzy in a different way like it's it's easier to maintain in some ways and more difficult to maintain in other ways and this past year I also started getting my hair dyed because it just got way too gray and please do not write in being like you should let your hair go gray I don't want to I'm not ready like it's a lot of people look great with gray hair I don't want to it's not for me for now anyway I started dying it so my hair is just like a lot yuckier than it used to be.

28:18So I started getting this defrizzing treatment, but the problem with it is it makes my hair look great. I can blow out my hair with no problem or I would never blow my own hair out. I can have someone blow out my hair. Um, or, you know, when it first, it, it, the first time I got it, it just like loosen the curl and it made it just much easier to manage. But the problem is if you do it too much, it straightens your hair too much. And so I have to essentially I'm now I'm trying to phase out of it. I think I'm going to do it instead of every three months, every six months. But so it so it doesn't get stringy.

28:57But essentially, I have to blow my hair out all the time or my hair looks weird. It's and like parts of it will be straight and other parts curly. And it's just a disaster. So I bought this kind of blow dryer slash. It's not a blow dryer. It's a curling brush that also sort of it has heat in it. So it blows your hair out at the same time or straightens your hair at the same time you're brushing it. And there's an expensive version of this brush that works really well. So I someone recommends this brush to me. I see this girl on TikTok with like puffy, frizzy hair. Use it. It looks beautiful. I bought it.

29:40It was$40. It sort of works. Also, I'm not good. I've never done my hair. When I wear my hair straight, I've literally never tried to blow my own hair out. I am not going to blow my hair straight. It's partially me and partially... I don't know how to... There's no explanation of how to get the heat correct. So yeah, there's a lot of that stuff is selling on there. And I think when you look at implications of a potential TikTok ban, and we're going to get into this more at the end of this week, we have a special guest on Friday who's going to really dig into it. But when you look at it, I think the biggest threat of TikTok shops is a threat to Amazon and their dominance in marketplace because what TikTok shops has done is taken the QVC model and the Amazon marketplace model and merge them.