ISSUE #3 MARCH 13, 2020 A Publication of WWD Flash of Inspiration The coronavirus might be dominating everyone's thoughts, as it did during the just-finished fashion season, but it didn't stop makeup artists in London, Milan and Paris from creating fantastical looks on the runway, from extreme embellishment to slicked-back hair. For more on the key trends, see pages 10 to 12. PLUS, Master Class with L’Oréal’s Nathalie Gerschtein, the Rise of Clean Makeup and Leslie Blodgett’s New Book. PHOTOGRAPH BY DELPHINE ACHARD
Transcript
ISSUE #3MARCH 13, 2020
A Publication of WWD
Flash of InspirationThe coronavirus might be dominating everyone's thoughts, as it did during the
just-finished fashion season, but it didn't stop makeup artists in London, Milan and Paris from creating fantastical looks on the runway, from extreme embellishment
to slicked-back hair. For more on the key trends, see pages 10 to 12. PLUS, Master Class with L’Oréal’s Nathalie Gerschtein, the Rise of Clean Makeup and Leslie
Blodgett’s New Book. PHOTOGRAPH BY DELPHINE ACHARD
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MARCH 13, 2020
THE BUZZ
TOM SZAKY¬TerraCycle founder and chief executive officer Tom Szaky walked beauty executives through modernized recycling and reuse initiatives at PCPC, including the company's new Loop program, which allows for containers to be washed and reused. Here are key points from his talk:
"[Consumers are] not going to pay more for a product if there's
recycled content, but they will prefer it."
"Consumers like [sustainability] but will not do anything more to get it, they're not going to sacrifice convenience, they're not going to sacrifice price, and they're not going to sacrifice performance — but if those three things are the same, they will choose it.""It needs to be feeling as much like a throwaway system as absolutely possible. It needs to feel disposable, but act reusable. So when you're done, no cleaning, no sorting, throw it away like garbage and it's picked up except instead of going to landfill or recycling, it goes to reuse."
¬ The Personal Care Products Council focused this year's programming around sustainability, and featured speakers that touched on everything from consumer trust to recycling.
Those issues are top of mind, Lezlee Westine, PCPC president, and George Calvert, PCPC chairman, told WWD in an interview, as are sunscreen, which the FDA has been looking into more closely to determine safety, and clean beauty, which remains definition-less.
"From a product standpoint, people are looking for [sustainability]," Calvert, who is also Amway's chief supply chain officer, said. "They're looking at ingredients, they're looking at packaging, but they're also looking at operations more and more."
As the FDA looks more closely at sunscreen active ingredients, PCPC has been "working very closely" with the group to determine what if any additional information could be provided. The goal, Westine said, is for the eight ingredients in question to ultimately be considered safe.
"The industry is confident in the safety of all of these materials," said Jay Ansell, a PCPC scientist.
The group also continues to look to pass legislation for federal
regulations, which it contends would be easier to navigate than state-by-state laws. "We want the FDA to have more authority in this regard," Calvert said. "Right now, we're operating against a patchwork of state laws. You can imagine anybody trying to formulate a product for the U.S. can't formulate it for Maine, Vermont and California separately — it's a huge challenge."
Westine said she remains optimistic, but "this is a presidential election year, so getting anything out of Congress is always a challenge."
On the clean beauty front, PCPC is backing the idea of consumer choice, while affirming that the materials used across the board are "safe," Ansell said."Consumers right now are changing preferences," Westine said. "Some do want 100 percent organically sourced products. Others want what's more convenient, others want to stay with products that they know, others want the latest innovation — really, we're just providing the choices. The phrase personal care ... really does say 'personal,' so we want to make sure consumers make their own decisions."
Beauty Bulletin News from the 2020 Personal Care Products Council annual meeting. BY ALLISON COLLINS
The PCPC Agenda — Sustainability, Sunscreen And Legislation
Lezlee Westine & George Calvert at PCPC.
The Personal Care Products Council has moved into 2020 with fresh eyes — and fresh takes on everything from clean beauty to sustainability.
The lobbying group has not been known for budging on hot button beauty issues, but this year, things were different. The Environmental Working Group — which one PCPC attendee half-jokingly referred to as "the enemy" — was even there.
PCPC chairman George Calvert touted an Amway soap on stage that was vegan, cruelty-free, paraben-free and housed in recycled packaging as "just the kind of product that companies are going to make," and so many beauty executives crowded into a side room at The Breakers to hear from EWG president and cofounder Ken Cook that the organization had to bring in more chairs.
The agenda included a hefty focus on consumer trust, something that keynote speaker Richard Edelman told executives in the room they needed to improve. Personal care, according to Edelman's Trust Barometer, ranked right above the financial sector in terms of consumer trust. "You're second from the bottom above banks, good Lord," Edelman said.
Michael Maslansky, chief executive officer of communications consulting firm Maslansky & Partners, echoed Edelman's sentiments. To be
trustworthy, the key is to speak to consumers in regular words, not industry jargon, he added.
While Gen Z feels connected to influencers, "they don't trust them," said Andrea Campbell, head of marketing strategy and research at Condé Nast, who added that 95 percent of consumers are more likely to purchase from an organization they trust.
Some of the hot topics of 2020 — namely sunscreen — were carried over from 2019, when PCPC attendees were buzzing about possible changes in Food & Drug Administration regulation. In the halls, what executives were really worried about was the coronavirus. Hand shaking was sparse, and the normally affectionate crew of beauty executives, for the most part, kept their distance.
Calvert acknowledged in an interview that COVID-19 was likely to have significant impacts on the beauty landscape. "It’s a massive hit. When you look at the number of U.S. companies that are impacted by this, it’s staggering. It’s almost all supply chain,” he said. "Many of our suppliers for ingredients come from China, and in many of those markets the government is not allowing those factories to open up, or if they do, they may have very restrictive schedules.”
PCPC Modernizes With Sustainability Theme
George Calvert, chief supply chain officer of Amway.
COULD CLEAN BRANDS revive
makeup’s slowdown?
Beauty retailers seem to think so.
Both Sephora and Credo Beauty
this week have unveiled plans
to bolster clean makeup, despite
prestige makeup’s sluggish sales —
down 7 percent in 2019, according
to data from The NPD Group — and
clean makeup’s small size — about 7
percent of total makeup brands are
considered clean — relative to the
rest of the category.
Sephora is expanding its Clean at
Sephora program with an increased
emphasis on color cosmetics. On
March 12 the retailer began rolling
out a front-of-store animation in all
its U.S. doors, highlighting 11 makeup
brands that have received the Clean
at Sephora seal. The animation
will remain up for at least four to
six weeks, and there will also be
permanent endcaps throughout stores
highlighting clean makeup, plus a
digital component. The LVMH Moet
Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned retailer
has added new clean makeup brands
to its roster in the past year, including
Kosas and Tower28, and worked with
some of its bigger ones, including Bite
Beauty and Tarte’s clean makeup, on
reformulating and repositioning.
For its part, Credo Beauty, the San
Francisco-based clean beauty retailer
that many industry players regard as a
standard-bearer for ingredient policies,
has teamed with celebrity makeup
artist Katey Denno, who is known for
using only clean products. She is joining
Credo’s Clean Beauty Council advisory
board, and will also serve as its brand
ambassador and lead makeup artist.
“Last year we started to see a
bigger uptick in product innovation
and launches, and this year, there’s
a noticeable shift in terms of new
brands coming to market,” said
Annie Jackson, cofounder and chief
operating officer of Credo. “What you
hear about in the industry in terms
of sluggishness in color — that’s not
what we’re experiencing.”
The numbers reveal that clean
makeup brands still comprise a
small segment of prestige makeup,
and the biggest brands with the
most distribution are experiencing
declines like the rest of the category.
But within clean makeup, a stable
of small emerging brands with
limited distribution — sold in only
one or two major retailers, as defined
by NPD — are growing, up 10 percent
year-over-year.
“The big players in clean makeup
are dragging down the smaller
brands, but if you pull out the bigger
players in the space, the growth is
actually significant,” said Larissa
Jensen, vice president and industry
advisor at The NPD Group.
Jensen said consumer interest in
clean skin care, which has driven
significant growth, will apply to
makeup, too. “There’s going to be a
point where consumers are putting
clean skin-care on, and they’re not
going to want to put [non-clean]
makeup on top of that,” she said.
Until recently, clean makeup was
quiet with not a lot of activity; the
majority of consumers were wary
of the products not performing as
well as those from conventional
brands. But that’s changed, retailers
say, as newer brands in the category
create innovative products with
high-performance, long-wearing
formulations and sleek packaging
that challenge the notion of clean
makeup as health food store fodder.
Both Jackson and Cindy Deily,
Sephora’s vice president of Skincare
Merchandising who oversees Clean
at Sephora, cited the convergence
of consumer demand with the
emergence of innovative new brands
and technology as the reason clean
makeup is having a moment.
“It was only a matter of time
before the demand reached over in
a bigger way to makeup,” said Deily.
“At the same time there have been
significant moves on the brand side
and the chemistry has caught up.
Clean has been in the market for a
while, but has historically appealed
to consumers who prefer a more
natural look. Now you have founders
like Annie Lawless — she’s really
passionate about clean, but she’s a
huge makeup junkie.”
Brands like Lawless Beauty, Kosas
and Westman Atelier are changing
the notion of what clean makeup
looks like, and even more new brands
are emerging quickly. Saie Beauty,
billed as a luxury nontoxic line from
a former Estée Lauder executive, in
August raised a round of funding
backed by Unilever Ventures and
a slew of other investors. Industry
veteran Amy Liu last year started
Tower 28, which makes clean and
eczema-safe products like the
SuperDew Shimmer Free Highlighter
and ShineOn Jelly Lip Gloss, which
Sephora quickly scooped up.
Some of the newest clean makeup
brands are growing the fastest.
California-based Kosas, for
instance, grew 400 percent in 2019
following its launch into Sephora
and a series of product launches that
quickly turned into cult hits, such as
the 10-Second Eyeshadow and Wet
Oil Lip Gloss. The brand’s Revealer
Concealer, launched in February, sold
out of five shades in week one.
There are also established brands
like Ilia, which announced a Series
B round in January, and introduced
new branding and packaging. It has
been experiencing “extreme growth,”
said founder Sasha Plavsic. Sales
in 2019 sales were said to be $22
million, a number sources expect to
reach $35 million for 2020.
Veteran players like Bite Beauty
and Tarte Sea were revamped ahead
of Sephora’s clean makeup push.
Sephora worked directly with the
brands on “clearer DNA” and “clearer
definition in clean,” said Alison
Hahn, svp of merchandising for color.
Clean at Sephora now encompasses
11 brands. “It’s a really beautiful
group that can deliver to clients —
now is the time we can speak proudly
about it,” said Hahn.
“Brands have really evolved to beat
conventional beauty,” added Jackson,
who is adding Westman Atelier to
her assortment and planning on
eventually launching private label
at Credo. “If you ask a customer
now if you can tell the difference
between clean and conventional, they
wouldn’t be able to tell you.”
3
MARCH 13, 2020
NEWS FEED
Credo Beauty, Sephora Push Clean Makeup “What you hear about in the industry in terms of sluggishness in color — that’s not what we’re experiencing.” BY ELLEN THOMAS
Makeup at Credo Beauty.
Tower 28 Shine On Lip Jelly, $14All of the brand's products are nontoxic and safe for
eczema sufferers.
Kosas Revealer Concealer, $28 A partner to Kosas’ cult tinted
face oil, this sold out in week one.
Westman Atelier Lip Suede, $85 The brand’s first foray into lip is made from a
vegetable-derived base.
Ilia Super Serum Skin Tint, $46With niacinimde, squalane and hylaruonic acid, this is
foundation with built-in skin care.
Saie Dew Balm in Rosy Gold, $18This formula gets its sheen from marshmallow root and olive oil.
THE NEW CLEAN TEAMFive brands redefining
clean makeup.
A N I S A B E A U T Y. C O M | @ A N I S A B e a u t y
ANISA Beauty was created to revolutionize how you think about makeup and skin care.
No matter your skin type or age, our three collections: Present (Makeup Brushes), Protect (Skin Care Brushes), and Purify (Brush Cleaners), will empower you to take charge of your skin and beauty routine.
Our latest product, The Wash, brings your clean beauty routine full circle. The Wash is uniquely formulated to “wash away” powder-based formulas on your makeup brushes giving them that brand new feeling...because what touches your face matters.
Essie, Reddit Partner on Gift Exchange ProgramEssie is hoping to tap into the social platform's beauty-obsessed Gen Z audience via a RedditGifts sponsorship. BY ALEXA TIETJEN
LONDON — Digital first beauty
brand Beauty Pie is going off-line for
the first time with a pop-up at Harvey
Nichols beauty hall starting March 12.
Beauty Pie launched in 2016 as a club,
offering wholesale prices for luxury
beauty products to paying members,
and claiming to offer the best products
while cutting out the middle man.So why is Beauty Pie now
exploring bricks-and-mortar? “It’s an
omnichannel world,” said founder
Marcia Kilgore. “It started as a digital
brand, because we hoped it would
be a really convenient way for us
to test the idea of a luxury beauty
buyer’s club without having big
retail overheads. However, we knew
eventually pop-ups or another form
of retail would be required."
Beauty, Kilgore added, is a sensorial
experience and people still want the
opportunity to touch, feel and smell
a product. While starting out digital
made sense for her business model,
she stressed that it's still necessary to
have physical presence.
That being said, the concept is
far from retail as usual. In terms of
pricing, off-line will mirror online.
Members of Beauty Pie can shop the
products at members’ prices, which
are usually up to 80 percent off
typical retail prices for similar prices,
with allowance top-ups. Beauty Pie
members can buy up to 100 pounds
worth of a product’s regular price
value every month.
For nonmembers, customers can
purchase a drop-in pass where they
can purchase items for a discount of
50 percent off of typical retail prices.
Passes cost 20 pounds, and there
will be a limited number sold online.
For those who can’t get their hands
on a drop-in pass, customers can
still purchase Beauty Pie products at
typical retail prices.
For example, Beauty Pie's Super
Retinol Night Moisturizer costs 9.08
pounds for members and 75 pounds
for nonmembers. Lipsticks costs 4.64
pounds for members and 20 pounds
for nonmembers.
“It’s a tiered approach based on how
we think our customers like to shop:
Some dive in with reckless abandon,
some just want to dip their toes, and
some are still walking around the
edge of the pool,” said Kilgore, who
added that the extra margins gained
from nonmember purchases will pay
for the pop-up's expenses.
She said the idea of doing a pop-up
shop excited her and the partnership
with Harvey Nichols an easy choice.
“When you get an opportunity
to do something so game-changing
with a visionary retailer like Harvey
Nichols, you have to look at how that
opportunity might elevate your offer,
whether you can pull it off and test
and learn — just like you would do
online,” she said.
For the Harvey Nichols beauty
team, working with Beauty Pie fits
in with its ethos of “new, niche
and ground-breaking.” Jo Osborne,
director of beauty and concessions at
Harvey Nichols, said the brand is a
game changer in the industry.
"Their boundary pushing ethos
has a great synergy with Harvey
Nichols and we firmly believe that
this partnership will bring in a
new customer to our Knightsbridge
flagship, as well as appealing to our
existing domestic and international
shoppers," she said.
Osborne also believes in the
importance of syncing the online
and off-line experience together.
"While Beauty Pie already has an
extremely engaged online audience, we
understand that in-store experiences
are vital for any bricks-and-mortar
business, so the three-month pop-up
will be a combination of honoring their
existing format but showcasing the
brand in a whole new way," she added.
While Beauty Pie may be dipping
its toes into retail, Kilgore said the
focus remains on creating a robust
product development pipeline, ticking
off aromatherapy, more skin care,
body care, makeup, supplements,
hair and scalp treatments and artist
collaborations as projects currently
in the works.
Beauty Pie Grabs Slice of Off-line Retail With a Harvey Nichols Pop-up Beauty Pie will offer nonmembers a chance to purchase items at 50 percent off typical retail prices. BY FIONA MA
Harvey Nichols x Beauty Pie pop-up.
Essie is sponsoring a RedditGifts program in hopes of reaching Reddit's
beauty-obsessed Gen Z audience.
6
MARCH 13, 2020
NEWS FEED
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BEAUTY'S FLOCK TO TikTok
has dawned — and some are
opening more than just accounts.Fenty Beauty announced last
week an entire house dedicated
to the creation of TikTok content.
Located in Los Angeles, the space
will have a rotating roster of
residents. and a "fully stocked"
makeup pantry. Gleaning from
images Fenty Beauty provided,
there's plenty of room to go viral.
In a statement, a TikTok
spokesperson called the house an
"innovative opportunity because it
promotes inclusivity and highlights
diversity in beauty and lifestyle."
Fenty Beauty chose the creators,
including @challxn,
@makayladid, @emmycombss
and @thedawndishsoap. They will
live in the house for the next month.
While it isn't the first beauty
brand on the platform — let's not
forget E.l.f. Cosmetics' catchy
musical 2019 campaign — Fenty is
the first to open a dedicated house.
As Instagram becomes increasingly
saturated with sponsored content,
brands are embracing TikTok
as a supplement to their social
strategies and a means of reaching
a younger audience. TikTok in its
nascent stages is a place where
anyone can have at least one viral
video, regardless of one's clout on
other platforms. This week's viral
beauty clip came from a user named
Jarida, aka @ridaaaamat, who
shared her hack for foundation,
spawning the #FoundationChallenge.
Urban Skin RX is one brand who
has experienced the benefits — read:
sales lift — of unexpected virality on
the platform. A user named Ashley
Boggs, aka @niceoneAshley,
featured its Even Tone Cleansing
Bar in a video, which Urban Skin
RX confirmed was not paid. The
company saw a 220 percent increase
in sales at Ulta, Target and CVS
following the video. It has since
entered a paid partnership with
Boggs, who announced the brand's
#ClearSkinChallenge.
The Thread: Beauty Flocks to TikTok Fenty Beauty opens the door to a dedicated TikTok house. BY ALEXA TIETJEN
Fenty Beauty has opened its TikTok house, where content creators will live to go viral.
PARIS — Granado, Brazil’s oldest
pharmacy brand, is marking its
150th birthday this year in more
ways than one.
There’s a commemorative
book just published by Assouline
that is chockablock with history
and memorabilia. Find in it an
advertisement dating from the 1950
FIFA World Cup featuring Brazil’s
soccer team captain using Granado’s
Antiseptic Powder and photos of
Salomé soap in its first and recent
iterations.
“The Granado family left behind
a lot of archives that we use as
inspiration for advertisements, for
specific lines that are about our
heritage,” explained Sissi Freeman,
marketing and sales director at
Granado, whose father, Christopher
J.O. Freeman, in 1994 acquired the
Rio de Janeiro-based company —
once the official pharmacy of Brazil’s
imperial family. “When we thought
about what we wanted to do to
celebrate, this book was one of the
first things on our list.”
It took one year to pull together
the tome that comes in English and
Portuguese, and is being sold in
Granado and Assouline shops, other
bookstores and online.
Granado has also partnered
with the Olympia Le-Tan brand on
a limited-edition clutch designed to
look like the Granado book that’s
decorated with an image depicting
Rio’s coastline. Moda Operandi will
begin selling the clutches in October.
As part of the anniversary
festivities, Granado is hosting an
interactive exhibition in Rio’s National
History Museum through early May.
That features the book’s archival
elements, which have never before
been presented together or seen by
the public. The exhibit is divided into
five sections, including one about the
brand’s packaging evolution.
Freeman said a smaller exhibition
will be staged in Lisbon in May and
there might be a pop-up exhibit in
Paris later this year.
Granado’s financial results are
another cause for celebration. Despite
the challenging economic situation in
Brazil, where the company generates
95 percent of its sales, Granado has
been registering double-digit revenue
increases. In 2019, it posted a 17
percent on-year sales gain to about
600 million reals, or $127.5 million,
and in 2018, sales advanced 15 percent.
“This year our plan is about the
same, 17 percent,” said Christopher
Freeman, Granado’s chief executive
officer. “January and February
have been very good, so we’re very
optimistic.”
The gains — well above the 1
percent domestic category growth
— were driven by numerous
phenomena, such as new products,
including those done in partnerships
with artisans; more shops, and
continued investment in media and
store windows.
Granado, with treatment products
that run the gamut from body care
to face, bath, hair and nail care,
cosmetics and home fragrances,
all with vegetable-based, paraben-
free formulas, recently dipped
into fragrance.
“Now in our shops in Brazil, 22
percent of sales are fragrance. That
really took the ticket level up,” said
Sissi Freeman.
Granado has repackaged and
relaunched a few lines, and entered
into some more categories with
somewhat higher price points.
“For example, Phebo is very well-
known for bar soaps, and we have
been investing now in liquid soaps,”
she said, referring to Brazil’s first
luxury perfumery brand introduced
in the Thirties that was incorporated
into Granado in 2004.
New products, like limited editions
with a retail focus, have been
launched, making Phebo less skewed
toward wholesale than before.
Today, Granado makes about 60
percent and Phebo the remainder
of the company’s overall activity,
which has been developing both in
wholesale and retail.
Granado has 81 freestanding
stores in Brazil and eight abroad, of
which three are in Paris.
Phebo’s store layouts have been
reworked, and a new retail concept
was recently unveiled for Granado.
The smaller shops in more premium
locations than its traditional stores
sell only the brand’s exclusive
products, about 30 percent of
Granado’s stockkeeping units. The
format can be rolled out in other
locales, such as department stores.
“We are now starting to split
[Granado and Phebo] up a bit,”
Freeman said.
After Brazil, where e-commerce is
Granado’s number-one and fastest-
growing door, its largest markets are
France and Portugal.
Since Puig took a 35 percent stake
in Granado in September 2016, the
two companies share synergies.
Granado has begun third-party
manufacturing in Brazil for some of
Puig’s fragrance brands, for instance.
Looking ahead to later this year,
Freeman said: “We have a plan of
opening about three shops in Europe.
We’re exploring other cities.” Those
include Lisbon — the birthplace of
Granado’s founder José Antônio Coxito
Granado — Spain, Italy and London.
At home in Brazil, Granado
intends to debut seven more stores.
Granado Celebrates Its 150th BirthdayBrazil’s oldest pharmacy brand has a year of festivities lined up. BY JENNIFER WEIL
Granado's book published by Assouline.
7
MARCH 13, 2020
WEEKLY ROUNDUP
HBC'S RAPID PRIVATE
EVOLUTION¬ In the wake of
going private, HBC announced a number
of changes. The Toronto-based HBC is decentralizing so its
three divisions — Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks
Off 5th and Hudson’s Bay — operate more autonomously. Plans to integrate Barneys New York into Saks
Fifth Avenue are advancing, and a
campaign re-branding the Hudson’s Bay
division in Canada launches today.HBC also plans to
re-brand its Saks’ contemporary
business, currently called The Collective,
to Barneys. It would be a low-
cost maneuver to cast a brighter light on contemporary
fashion at Saks. Authentic Brands
Group has said it would open
40 Barneys shops at Saks Fifth Avenue locations, including
in the Manhattan flagship.
Additionally, the former Barneys flagship in Beverly
Hills will be converted into a new Saks store, while the
existing Saks flagship will close and be
redeveloped into a yet-to-be-determined
use. — David Moin
¬ After much speculation, Coachella has officially been rescheduled due to Coronavirus.
“At the direction of the County of Riverside and local health authorities, we must sadly confirm the rescheduling of Coachella and Stagecoach due to COVID-19 concerns,” Goldenvoice, organizers of both festivals, shared in a statement. “While this
decision comes at a time of universal uncertainty, we take the safety and health of our guests, staff and community very seriously. We urge everyone to follow the guidelines and protocols put forth by public health officials.”
Coachella will instead take place on the weekends of Oct. 9, 10, 11 and 16, 17, 18, while Stagecoach will occur on Oct. 23, 24 and 25. —Ryma Chikhoune
¬ Neiman Marcus Group, furthering its four-year “transformation” plan, is streamlining to sharpen the focus on full-price selling and raise profitability. NMG will close most of its 22 Last Call clearance outlets and let go of approximately 500 Last Call workers over the next eight months. Some workers could be reassigned within the company; others
will be eligible for severance and outplacement services and can apply for open positions. “This is not a workforce reduction. This is not a reaction to anything happening in the economy now. It’s a strategic decision to redeploy resources,” Geoffroy van Raemdonck, chief executive officer of the Neiman Marcus Group, told WWD. — David Moin
¬ As companies struggle to deal with the negative impact of the coronavirus, fashion brands are stepping up digital strategies to facilitate doing business long-distance, with potentially beneficial long-term effects for the environment.
On the day of the Louis Vuitton show at the end of Paris Fashion Week, chairman and ceo Michael Burke said the house acted fast to compensate for the expected
absence of 100 buyers and communications people from various countries. “Everything’s been digitalized so you can zoom in on every product,” he said of Vuitton’s new digital virtual showroom. “It would have taken me two years to get it done, but for the coronavirus.”
The move has implications beyond this season. “My prediction is that in the future, you’re not going to have to come to every showroom,” Burke said. “The e-commerce will benefit from it. You’ll see, within two, three months, all online sites will become a lot better because everybody had to scramble and get everything online,” he forecast. — Joelle Diderich
On Wednesday night, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte officially announced the closure of all nonessential commercial activities throughout the country until April 3. Beginning Thursday, the only stores able to remain open will be food stores and pharmacies.
“If we all respect these measures, we will overcome this crisis faster. We are all part of a community of individuals and each of us have to do sacrifices now for the common good,” Conte said.
Already, many companies, including Armani and Gucci, had shut their flagships in Milan. Now the effect is
country-wide. Rinascente has closed its nine doors, Coin has shuttered 40 and Kiko Milano has closed its 340 doors until April 3.
“We are definitely close to the exhaustion of our resources. We are trying to do miracles to respond to the requests of health treatments, but if we don’t do something to invert the increasing number of patients, we will never be able to be as fast as the virus,” said Attilio Fontana, Lombardy region president. “We have to make sacrifices, we have to stay home, we have to be ready to renounce income.” — Alessandra Turra
Italy Halts Nonessential Retail
Corona Cancellations
Neiman Marcus Group Gets Pruned
Coronavirus Amplifies Brands' Digital Push
Rinascente stores across Italy are closed.
Cochella
The Joor platform.
A Neiman Marcus Last Call store in Miami.
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Richard Baker
FORWARD FACING
As retailers and brands continue to pour millions of dollars into various technologies to improve the shopping experience of consumers, several successful brands in the
beauty space have found that building long-term customer value requires an in-store, one-on-one experience that builds trust and creates community while serving up high-quality products that shoppers need and crave.
According to a recent WWD Studios Thought Leaders’ Lab, the solution is a Zen-like focus on people and products. Beauty industry executives who shared their insights on what it takes to succeed in today’s market, emphasized a consumer-centric approach that requires brands to know how to unlock the mindset of today’s multi-generational beauty customer, while also creating demand at retail and leveraging social media.
The session was hosted by Sonia Summers, founder and chief executive officer of outsourced education and salesforce solution provider Beauty Barrage, and included Christina Fair, general manager at SkinCeuticals U.S., Suhair Nimri, chief revenue officer at Perricone MD, Allison Slater Ray, president of MBX, and Amanda Fitzpatrick, director of in-store experience at Beauty Barrage.
The starting point for success is understanding the consumer’s perspective, which begins with acknowledging that today’s shoppers have high expectations. Fair and Ray noted that consumers are “highly educated” and have done a lot of research before stepping into a store and contemplating a beauty brand.
Ray said consumers are “really empowered and I think they’re expecting a lot from both the brands and the retailers.” Summers added that consumers have “done their research, so they’re coming in armed with
knowledge and a euphoric expectation and you better be prepared to provide them more than they’re going to get online -- they want a signature brand experience.”
Nimri, Ray, and Fair agreed that brands and retailers need to live up to the expectations of consumers and that means working harder and being more cognizant of their needs. The panelists confirmed that brands spend a lot of money on marketing and social media, but when shoppers walk into a physical store and don’t have a positive experience, it’s a lose-lose for retailers and brands alike.
Consultive sellingSummers and Fitzpatrick said brands need to take a 360-degree approach that also encompasses online, social media and in-store. But it is the in-store experience that is the keystone of maintaining the customer-brand relationship.
“I think we have to remember too that when the customer is shopping for beauty, it’s still and will always be very experiential. They still want to touch textures and feel and smell the products … and that’s not something that will ever go away,” Summers said. Beauty Barrage has not only embraced this concept but continues to evolve because the bar for in-store experiences, increases exponentially every year,” Summers added.
It’s also important to note that shoppers are quick to jump onto trends, which could create a problem if misinformation appears online. Summers said it was important to work with brands in order “to ensure that the sales force can not only clarify any erroneous information that might exist online, but educate, because the consumers are so well-researched.” The panelists also noted that there’s a challenge for brands to “stay ahead of the curve,” especially when shoppers are also “ingredient savvy” and concerned about what goes inside their bodies as well as what goes on their skin.
“However, brands that have a
knowledgeable sales force are only halfway there from a sell-through perspective,” Summers explained. “To continue the 360-degree approach, Beauty Barrage has thrown out pressure-based selling and instead educates their team on consultative selling and understanding service and how to engage with the customer in order to solve the problem and provide a targeted solution.”
“We need to try and dig deeper and solve the root issue, instead of just trying to “sell them,” Summers added.
At Beauty Barrage, brand ambassadors are trained at least once a month, but can go to three times a month depending on the contract, and include training on products, selling and service and micro-influencing. The goal is to merge the sales tactics and incorporate a brand’s ethos with its products, as a way to forge a long-term, experiential relationship between the brand and customer – regardless of whether it’s a first-time buyer of a particular product, or a loyal shopper of the brand.
Human connectionsThe panelists agreed that the “human connection” is most critical in establishing the initial, base-line relationship. Amid investments and deployment of various technologies and platforms, meaningful and lasting conversions occur because of the in-store, one-on-one consultations. Fitzpatrick, Nimri, and Ray said there’s a high level of authenticity and trust in that relationship.
“I’m a makeup artist by trade and still, when I run into a store quickly wanting to pick up my “go-to” mascara, if there’s a good brand ambassador on the floor, a two-minute interaction has the potential to create a lasting, trustful relationship,” Fitzpatrick said. “Even if I’m there for one of my staples, if the brand ambassador educates me about another product, whether it’s the one they’re
representing that day, or something else – trust is created.”
That trust leads to having a truly authentic experience, said Ray, “which leads to shoppers returning for advice, which ultimately builds that customer/brand, signature relationship, and indirectly, generating increased sales.” Additionally, that trust created in-store carries over to online and strengthens the 360-degree approach Summers described earlier.
Fair said the majority of our business is in physician offices, but this holds true in-store. In-store service experience is important – and it’s not always about a quick sales conversion. “It’s about going in and having a special service that you’re not going to get anywhere else,” she explained. “For example, we’ll do a skinscope event that takes 45 minutes whereby we take a detailed skin assessment of the customer and then, recommend specialized and complementary
The panelists agreed that the “human connection”
is most critical in
establishing the initial, base-line
relationship.”
Beauty industry leaders discussing
what it takes to win at retail.
Creating demand at retail requires beauty brands to not only have on-trend products, but execute a high-level of service and personalized customer experience.
products to address their individual needs. This is a full-service experience that has to be provided in-store and I promise you, it cannot be accomplished without expertise and training.”
In regard to servicing multiple generations, the panelists agreed that brands have to stay true to their core attributes, which might require focusing on different channels, or acknowledging that it might not make sense to target 15-year-olds on TikTok.
For example, it requires knowing that Baby Boomers seek out a luxury, in-store, experience compared to Millennials, who first turn to influencers and product reviews before shopping for a brand or specific product. With Generation Z, the shopping experience both online and in-store has to be transparent. They want to know about ingredients and product testing. It’s also important to note that generational cohorts also have varying social media preferences.
“It’s obviously different for each generation,” Nimri said. “For example, Perricone MD is about healthy aging, so we cater to Baby Boomers and Gen X versus Millennials and Gen Z. And a lot of our
consumers are not on Instagram. Instagram is a great tool, but for us, Facebook has a higher aggregate of our customer base.”
Creating demandThe panelists said social media and marketing works best when customers are fully engaged, regardless of the platform, including direct mail marketing. The strategy should drive consumers to stores. Once there, one-on-one engagement can trigger multiple conversions – meaning, the shopper goes in for one product, but leaves with a basket-full of other items because the experience was positive and engaging.
Over time, blending the online and social media engagement with a meaningful in-store experience creates community. Shoppers feel connected to the brand and the retailer – it’s familiar and comfortable. Community also serves as a platform for customers to find solutions – whether it seeks to resolve skincare issues or to garner feedback on new products, or even to just answer specific questions.
And often, the in-store experience, which not only creates the community, is also what
demos and makeovers done in a compelling and memorable way to get shoppers excited about the brand and product.
The panelists concurred that newness continues to drive beauty and shoppers key into this and want to be delighted by a just-launched product, a GWP or a limited-edition item offered especially for them. Creating demand at retail includes a high level of service and customer engagement – but the panelists all agreed that it starts with the product itself, with Summers re-emphasizing that “it needs to be on-trend, and that a brand needs to know what’s selling and edit down the SKUs that aren’t moving.”
“I mean, it’s a business at the end of the day and we’re all hyper-focused on our specific roles in order to achieve the ultimate goal of creating a loyal customer base, which drives sell-through and increases distribution,” Summers said. “This is only obtained through a strategic and collaborative partnership between the brand and their assets, seamlessly delivered to the front lines, which are your brand ambassadors, creating your signature brand experience in-store.”
Sonia Summers and Suhair Nimri
Christina Fair Amanda Fitzpatrick
continues to hold it together. It’s where the product, brand and customer converge with the knowledge and expertise of the sales associate.
For Summers and Beauty Barrage, it’s a team effort that also includes loyalty programs from retailers, and events as well as product
Allison Slater Ray
10
MARCH 13, 2020
DEEP DIVE
OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD Some beauty looks took on an
otherworldly air for fall 2020.
The hairstylist Duffy said Haider
Ackermann gave him the artist
Constantin Brancusi as the reference
point. “They are very pure shapes,
very defined graphic lines, which I
think are resembled in the clothes,”
Duffy said. “So for the head, I wanted
to give this idea of the shape, the
form that leads into another form
that maybe jolts slightly, but has a
beauty, a purity, a fluidity [although]
there is a disconnect with them.”
Duffy worked with balloons, papier-
mâché and a lot of hairspray for the
gravity-defying coifs. He said: “The
hairlines are very, very short. We
ended with a small dome. It was an
egg, with an edge cut off. Everything
is quite aggressive, but perfect, pure
and simple.”
Lynsey Alexander said Ackermann
wanted models to seem like statues.
“It’s very alabaster,” she said of the
makeup. “We’re going quite pale…so
everything is very luminous and light.
Then we made bespoke gloss. We’re
painting it all over the eyes, a little bit
on the cheekbones and [applying] a
nude lipstick. We’re pushing back all
the features, so there’s no warmth in
the skin. It’s very ethereal and silver.”
At Yohji Yamamoto, Pat McGrath
said the creative director "loved
that there would be impressionistic
individuality expressed in abstract
black lines on satin, matte skin.” For
the show, she drew squiggly black
lines over one eye of each model and
also painted a small section of their
lips black.
At Thom Browne, where some
models walked the runway two by
two, Eugene Souleiman created black
bobbed wigs, partially covered with
black latex. He explained there was
“duality, couples going on together.
I wanted them to almost be mirror
images of one another, so we did wigs
that are mirror images.”
Isamaya Ffrench created the
makeup look, which involved blocking
models’ brows and making their skin
ultra-sculpted, with a matte finish. In
the center of their lips, she dabbed a
bit of gloss to mirror the hair’s shine.
“[Models] look really striking,
nubile and slightly alien,” she said.
In interpreting Moschino creative
director Jeremy Scott’s wish to mix 18th-
century and rock vibes, Paul Hanlon
become like a modern-day Léonard-
Alexis Autié — the famed hairdresser
behind Marie-Antoinette’s looks — and
created exaggerated, pastel-toned wigs
that took a week to make.
He said the hues of the voluminous
coifs “took inspiration from the colors
of macaroons, making everything a
little more punk.”
Julien d’Ys splashed colored paint
and metallic glitter all over the gelled
hair and face of models at Marni.
For Antonio Marras, James Pecis
masterminded an intricate look,
sewing extensions together to create
“a piece of fabric of hair” with colored
stitching popping up. Out-of-the-box
beauty appeared on the runways
also of Maison Margiela, Atlein, Rick
Owens, Junya Watanabe and Noir Kei
Ninomiya. ►
The Bold and The Beautiful The fear factor rose during the month-long run of fall 2020 fashion shows in Europe, but runway beauty stayed strong. Here, key trends from the runways of London, Milan and Paris. BY JENNIFER WEIL AND SANDRA SALIBIAN
Marni
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Haider Ackermann
Junya Watanabe
Maison Margiela
EMBELLISHED EYES CRYSTALS, FOIL, THREAD —
makeup artists plied their trade with
various materials this season.
At Giambattista Valli, Isamaya
Ffrench encircled six models’ eyes
with Swarovsky crystals.
“The inspiration is a continuation
of the embellished eye theme that
we’ve been doing for the last couple of
seasons,” she said, referring to flowers
for spring and the more recent show
with H&M, “where all the girls had
these really cool kind of punky, edgy,
crystal things on their eyes. Now, we
wanted to do it again and make it
really feel like high-end, luxury jewelry
that you could wear on your face.”
At Off-White, Fara Homidi opted for
a flourish of fluorescent pink mascara
as a detail on some models’ lashes.
“[It’s] from the mid-lash, pulling
outward and a little bit of fluorescent
mascara tacked onto [a] part of the
lid, so that as you’re looking in every
direction you’re getting a hint of
fluorescent,” she said.
At Erdem, Lynsey Alexander
reinterpreted Cecil Beaton’s work and
nodded to the recurring silver theme
in the fashion collection by applying
on models’ eyelids silver leafs that
were then set and broken with a brush
to create delicate, fragmented patterns.
Thomas de Kluyver pressed and
cracked thick red-, black- and pink-
toned foil on the eyelids of 10 models
at Simone Rocha.
“I was looking at the way Simone
adds pops of colors within the
collection and approached the
makeup in the same way,” said de
Kluyver, who was also inspired by
Irish artist Dorothy Cross’ work.
Tom Pecheux applied black, dusty-
pink and burgundy threads around
models’ eyes or on their upper
cheeks. He cut 12-inch-long threads,
rolled and pulled them to make a
haphazard motif that was then set
with hairspray and affixed on faces
with eyelash glue at Antonio Marras.
“We’re creating a secret language
written with a thread,” said Pecheux,
explaining he was inspired by Sardinian
artist Maria Lai. “She used to write
with thread, and it reminded me of
how Antonio also draws and writes….I
wanted to create a makeup that’s
almost a secret alphabet between them.”
Eyes had it, as well, at Valentino,
Guy Laroche, Stella McCartney, Lutz,
Paula Knorr and Halpern.
SLICKED-BACK HAIR Grease was the word for fall 2020, as
many a model had their hair slicked
back on the catwalks.
“There is not a lot of romanticism
in the hair at all,” said Anthony
Turner at Rochas, explaining the
house’s creative director Alessandro
Dell’Acqua wanted the models to feel
empowered, strong and confident.
“It’s very strict, serious, with a very
strong side part, combed over using
a wide-tooth comb. You get the comb
marks, so it feels very much like these
girls mean business.”
At Giambattista Valli, Paul Hanlon
sought to juxtapose the sweetness
of the bows and veils, as well as
the heavily charged clothes, being
worn by models with the hairstyle’s
toughness. As such, he gave models’
tresses a wet look using L’Oréal Paris
Studio Line gel and a touch of oil.
Hanlon combed hair back — again
with the comb marks remaining
apparent — into an imperfect bun.
A bit of gel was wiped on hair just
before models hit the runway.
At Prada, Guido Palau ironed
tresses into a graphic coif. After
applying Redken No Blow Dry Hair
Cream, he brushed models’ hair from
faces, added extensions to mask layers
and topped the style off with metal
headbands, giving a sci-fi halo to the
“futuristic classicism” of the look.
"It's severely simple…almost like a
computer [made] idea of hair, like a
drawing, very linear,” Palau said. “It
has a little nod to sort of naïveté, but
strength at the same time, like a sort
of weird classicism to it.…It has that
slightly strange normality, which is a
very Prada thing.”
The Tigi Power Play gel used at
Marco de Vincenzo was meant to
evoke the fashion collection’s bright
textures. Massimiliano Mattei wet,
middle-parted and slicked back
models’ hair before shaping it into
two small buns at the nape. He
applied gel in abundance for an extra-
shiny, lacquered finish.
Slick hair was also spotted at shows
including Balmain, Gauchère, Sacai,
David Koma and Sportmax. ►
11
MARCH 13, 2020
DEEP DIVE
Christopher John Rogers
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Prada
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BOLD-COLORED LIPSFall 2020 wasn’t just about
supernatural looks — there was a fair
share of bold-colored lips that popped
on the European runways.
“We’re doing a bit of an ombré
fade from the corners of the lips —
different colors for different girls,
depending on what they’re wearing.
It’s real individualization,” said Fara
Homidi at Mugler. She explained that
hue-wise, her team was using oxblood
red, a black and a dark brown.
“It’s a detail that’s somehow strong
and sexy at the same time,” continued
Homidi, adding models’ skin was to look
dewy on the high points of their faces.
At MSGM, Lynsey Alexander
designed a bold, lacquered lip using
MAC Cosmetics Redd lip pencil
coated with Patent Paint Lip Lacquer
in Red Enamel, an orange red shade,
to evoke the heroines from Dario
Argento’s horror movies.
“It’s quite a dangerous red and, like
a varnish, it gives a PVC finish to the
lips," she said.
At Fendi, Peter Philips gave models
a dramatic, prune-toned lip with a
smudged effect. He applied Diorific 991
Bold Amethyst lipstick on the inside of
their lips, then extended the color and
softened its edges with a Q-tip.
“They showed me a certain shoe, and
I thought that would be a nice color
reference,” said Philips, adding the
hue was applied like a stain. “So that
it looks like the lips [you have] after
kissing somebody or having a bit of
wine — or both,” he said with a laugh.
Lippy looks also took center stage
on catwalks for Hermès, Chloé, Saint
Laurent, Nina Ricci, Lanvin, Roksanda,
Roland Mouret and Jil Sander.
CAT EYESPeter Philips, creative and image
director for makeup at Dior, crafted
three different eye makeup looks
for models after the house’s creative
director Maria Grazia Chiuri gave
“Seventies intellectual” as a cue. One
iteration had a take on a cat eye, with
black lines extending from the outer
corner of peepers.
“It’s about pigment in motion,
ultra-femininity with a little
masculinity inside,” said Pat McGrath
of the futuristic cat eye she created at
Prada with an iridescent gradient effect.
Lynsey Alexander at Missoni drew
a graphic, conceptual black line
starting from models’ lower lash line.
She described it as “a little flash of
black line, which for me is a little bit
Japanese-y…and a nod to the Nineties.”
At Moschino, Tom Pecheux used
a black pointy eyeliner to telegraph
“a little bit of toughness” and
counterbalance the Marie-Antoinette-
inspired rosy cheeks and peachy-
colored eyelids.
“I didn’t want to bring too much
eccentricity in the makeup because
I don’t want the girls to become
caricatures,” he said.
Dominic Skinner was inspired
by the rounded toe of a shoe in the
Marco de Vincenzo collection for
the chubby take on a cat eye he
crafted there.
“The end result is playing on this
idea of a young girl dressing up as
her mother, but she’s not allowed
makeup. So she’s gone through her
pencil case and got a marker pen to
draw the eyeliner on,” Skinner said.
Cat eyes took wing at other
fashion displays, including Miu Miu,
Altuzarra and Richard Quinn. ■
12
MARCH 13, 2020
DEEP DIVE
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Dior
Hermès
Miu Miu Altuzarra
Lanvin
Missoni
DIGI TA L EV EN TSW E B I N A R
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Becht worked to build.Kylie, which just hired Christoph
Honnefelder as ceo, has the potential
to go global, which could drive growth,
but Denis is still inheriting a brand
portfolio with some sizable problems.
In February 2019, Coty revealed it
was taking a $965 million non-cash
impairment charge related to the
consumer division and Cover Girl and
Clairol trademarks. Coty sales dipped
by 6.6 percent, to $2.3 billion in the
quarter ended Dec. 31, hurt by the
slumping Consumer segment.
That division has struggled before
and during Coty ownership, and
brands have lost shelf space. A Cover
Girl re-brand has required further
re-branding. The luxury segment
has fared better, but still has issues,
including Gucci owner Kering
publicly vocalizing that the beauty
operation hasn't met expectations.
Coty insiders are hoping that Denis,
who has experience with designers
and licensing agreements, will be able
to smooth things over. One source
said that the current plan is for
Denis, 55, to stay in place for a while
— longer at least than the past few
ceo’s — and establish a more stable
working environment for employees.
"A leader who talks the same
language, knows the same people,
knows the industry, knows the
processes is certainly going to make
things easier and to accelerate
the decision process and to make
everybody converge to want the same
goal," Térisse said.
Harf described Denis as "a culture-
builder who is fiercely protective of
his people and the company."
Denis joins as the fourth Coty ceo in
five years, a level of executive turnover
that rivals that of Revlon, which had
five different ceo’s between 2013 and
2018, when Debbie Perelman took the
helm. Swift executive turnover can
cause alarm for employees, and Coty
has seen its fair share of departures
across all levels of the business,
adding another layer of instability.
Shella Abe, partner at True Search,
said frequent ceo changes can stress
employees out, especially when
mixed with market competition,
M&A and an overall volatile world."
"These stresses are very real, and
are dramatically exacerbated when
there isn't a steady and convincing
presence at the top," Abe said.
"Habitual turnover in the office of the
ceo negatively impacts a company's
performance, because there is no
sustained rhyme or reason to how
roadmaps are constructed and
decisions are made. In many situations,
you as an employee don't know
where you need to go or how to get
there because your leadership keeps
changing. Many employees will simply
freeze and bottom-line results suffer."
Coty's New CEO Has Beauty Experience. But Is That Enough? Coty has hired Jimmy Choo's Pierre Denis as chief executive officer, hoping he can boost sales. BY ALLISON COLLINS
Ph
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Tk Caption
Coty’s Revolving DoorSince announcing the acquisition of 41 beauty brands from Procter & Gamble for $12.5 billion in 2015, Coty has had four ceo’s:
Pierre Denis: Summer 2020 - ? Pierre Laubies: November 2018 - Summer 2020
Camillo Pane: July 2016 - November 2018
*Elio Leoni Sceti: Announced April 2015; retracted June 2015
Bart Becht: September 2014 – July 2016
17
MARCH 13, 2020
LAST CALL
Leslie Blodgett's Life LessonsAfter stepping back from beauty for a couple of years, Leslie Blodgett is back with a book sharing the essential wisdom she gleaned from building a multibillion-dollar business. BY JENNY B. FINE
LESLIE BLODGETT BUILT BareMinerals into a billion-dollar beauty brand by tapping into the power of community — long before social media was even a thing. Her story is the stuff of lore: Inspiration struck in the middle of the night, when, sleepless, she tuned into QVC, bought a set of three stacking rings, and decided she had found
the perfect platform to sell makeup. Blodgett became a star, both in business and in front of the camera, eventually stepping back after Shiseido bought the brand for $1.7 billion. For the past few years, she’s been out of the beauty limelight investing in female-led brands and teaching some classes at Stanford Graduate School of Business. This
spring, she’s back with the publication of her first book, “Pretty Good Advice.” Consisting of 97 lessons about life (#23: You owe it to your coworkers not to be boring), love (#96: Marriage is a multiplex) and beauty (#41: The stuff washes off), the book is pure Blodgett: funny, frank and thrumming with energy. P
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Tip #81: Risk-Taking for the Fearful: After learning to live with her fear of public
speaking, Blodgett decided to tackle her fear of heights by parachuting out of an
airplane. This shot shows her successfully sky-diving — after her first chute failed
