Finally here!

Zara turns 50, quiet luxury is “over,” resale wins Q1, Gucci goes home

Author

Olga Merzlyakova
May 12, 2025

Finally here!

No, I’m not talking about the new pope (though the memes and TikToks to Papa l’Americano did turn that election into a funny and somewhat surreal pop culture moment).

I’m talking about this: my first ever newsletter.

Why now?
After months of thinking about it — and years of obsessing over business, branding, and fashion — I’ve finally decided to start writing publicly. Part of that decision comes from a simple truth: if you want to understand something better, start sharing it with others. And as I start building a personal brand in this space, I thought: why not bring you along for the ride?

This newsletter, delivered every Monday and called Pre‑Read, is exactly what it sounds like: a weekly read-in of ideas and trends to get you going before the week kicks off.

I’ll be playing with the format as we go — experimenting, evolving, and hopefully making this something worth opening every week.

Let’s make it a two-way street: I’d love your thoughts, feedback, or ideas and I invite you to pick my brain, too!  Hit me up in polls in the newsletter, on IG, TikTok, or wherever we bump into each other on this big internet.

Thanks for letting me into your inbox.

Here is your first Pre-Read.

Caught my eye

Zara turns 50

To celebrate, Zara called up a stacked cast of 50 top models — Naomi, Linda, Christy, the whole crew — for a birthday campaign shot by Steven Meisel.

This week’s deep-dive

GenZ inheriting millions and investing in fashion

Hand‐Me‐Down Billions

The Great Wealth Transfer is reshaping fashion investment

the-pre-read.beehiiv.com/p/hand-me-down-billions

Trends — what’s bubbling underneath the headlines

  • Pinterest just became Gen Z’s shopping mall…
    Revenue up +16 % and CEO Bill Ready literally told Wall Street, “This is where Gen Z goes to shop.” Pin-boards ➜ product pages ➜ purchase. Nice run—until ChatGPT comes in: OpenAI rolled out in-chat product finders last week, and Microsoft is teasing “buy-it-from-your-Inbox” features for the new Outlook and Phia (startup co-founded by Bill Gates’ daughter) instantly suggests the best price. The product discovery land-grab is on.

  • Resale getting more popular (and profitable)
    Resale platform The RealReal posted its first-ever positive net income on Q1 sales of $160 M (+11 %), while ThredUp’s top line hit $71.3 M (+10 %) thanks to a surge in active buyers. And over in luxury, 1stDibs added 7% more buyers this quarter, showing demand for pre-owned and vintage is strong across price points.

  • The “most boring” Met Gala ever? Let’s revisit in three months.
    This year’s theme — “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”. I think we already can expect to see slick menswear-inspired silhouettes, monochrome tones, and pearl piping migrate into pre-fall collections in the summer.

  • Just take a look at this yacht designed by Giorgio Armani - It’s his latest move in the long game of building a full lifestyle brand beyond fashion: from Armani/Casa interiors to branded residences in New York and Miami.

  • $11k for the ticket from Paris to NY? Travel is getting more premium, as carriers make room for luxe cabins with higher margins. Another proof point that experiences > stuff.

  • WeightWatchers hits the wall as weight-loss goes pharmaceutical.
    Brand just erased $1.15 B in debt to stay afloat—proof that when dream bodies come by injection, lifestyle change goes out of fashion.

  • Porsche teams up with Norman Foster as part of its Art of Dreams series, to create a kinetic bridge in Venice — blending design, tech, and sustainability to rethink urban transport.

  • LVMH declares “quiet luxury” is… over? “I think—hopefully—we’re past that term; it was getting pretty annoying,” joked Anish Melwani, LVMH’s U.S. CEO, onstage at Milken.

Business moves, big numbers & “wait, what?”

  • Probably the second-largest acquisition in fashion history (after Tiffany): Skechers is set to go private in a $9.4B deal with Brazilian-American firm 3G Capital. A strong exit for founder Robert Greenberg, who still owns 12%. Read how this compares to other footwear deals here.

  • De Beers is shutting down Lightbox, its lab-grown diamond brand, following a 90% drop in wholesale prices since its 2018 launch. The move signals a retreat from what’s become one of the category’s most debated trends. 

  • Travel retail is back - CVC Capital is weighing a £6B bid for Avolta (better known under its old name Dufry), the Swiss duty-free operator.

Results in 30 sec (or less)

Company

Q1 2025 / YoY

Notes

Hugo Boss

€968 M / -2%

still “above plan,” per management (whatever it means). China soft, but looks like suits still sell well.

Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman)

$1.6 B / +7%

Coach - Gen Z newly discovered obsession - keeps carrying the group, guidance nudged north.

Aeffe (Moschino / Ferretti)

€61.7 M / -23%

Moschino’s reboot under new creative lead still underway.

Peloton

$624 M / -4%

churn drops to 1.2 %, outlook raised. Hardware sales declining, subscriptions keep the bike spinning

Framework of the week

Inversion: Solve problems by flipping the question. Instead of asking, 'How do we succeed?' ask, 'How do we definitely fail?' Then, avoid those failure paths.

Inversion and The Power of Avoiding Stupidity

Inversion is a powerful mental model to improve your thinking because it helps you identify and remove obstacles to success. Most of us tend to think one way about a problem: forward. Inversion allows us to flip the problem around and think backward.

fs.blog/inversion

Wish I were there - pop-ups,  collabs, etc.

Pencil in, book the ticket, or just follow on social media — choose your option and let’s discuss afterwards!

Next steps

Please feel free to get in touch. I’d love to hear from you!

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