This week, we’ll share how the Hamptons is becoming a retail staple for brands, as well as a guide to taking better financial control of your brand, a new funding round, and leadership changes you need to know about.
A variety of new luxury and niche fashion brands have opened in the Hamptons for summer, including celebrity favorites Staud, Kaito, Gucci, which is renovating its nautical-themed store, and a sustainable fashion line that will be sold at Road to Nowhere. Me&M, Veronica Beard, and Balmain have also made inroads, with resort-worthy pop-up stores at the Pridwynn Hotel. Staud, Gucci, Me&M, and Veronica Beard plan to stay open year-round.
“The makeup of the Hamptons has changed significantly since COVID,” said Pierre Duprel, managing director and partner at the Boston Consulting Group, a consulting firm. “It’s become a primary residence for many people and a more valuable year-round destination.”
The shift has created an environment for luxury brands to set up shop and activate local communities through targeted events, Dupréel said. “These activations are meant to engage specific micro-communities,” he said. For example, Hermès launched its saddles in the Hamptons in 2023 through a gathering at a horse farm, inviting equestrian enthusiasts and celebrities.
Meanwhile, Handvaak, the 11-year-old luxury apparel brand co-founded by Esteban Saba and Petra Brycnakova, opened its first flagship store in Southampton in May in a 600-square-foot space. It was a strategic move, Saba said. “Our customer base includes business owners, CEOs and tech professionals, many of whom spend time in the Hamptons. [location] It fits well with our product lineup.”
“A lot of people have vacation homes here in the Hamptons,” Saba said of the decision to open year-round rather than seasonal stores.
“Our research shows that people still want to shop in stores and touch and feel the products, so going to where your customers are, like the Hamptons, is really important,” said Josh Kampel, CEO of media platform Worth Media Group. “A lot of people are moving there based on the new nature of work, and it’s become a key market within an hour of a major city.”
“Customers who previously only knew us through online purchases or third-party retailers will have the opportunity to touch and feel our products, [engage] “It’s a direct interaction with the brand,” Saba said. This direct interaction, he said, leads to higher customer satisfaction and loyal relationships.
Going forward, Handvaerk plans to open more stores in New York City and Japan.
The secret to Handbark’s sustainable growth
Financial discipline has been crucial to Handbaak’s growth; the brand had revenue of $4.55 million last year. Saba said his investment banking experience at Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan gave the brand a strong foundation to operate from. “We have no venture capital funding, no debt, and our disciplined operations have helped us weather difficult times. My financial experience has been extremely helpful in managing the company’s continued growth,” he said.
“Careful planning of cash flows and forecasted earnings is crucial. Avoiding overinvestment and maintaining financial flexibility are key to our stability and growth,” he added.
Handvaerk’s retail partners include Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Mr Porter.
“This year, wholesale business is expected to grow at a single digit rate due to the overall industry situation, but growth is still expected. Online business is expected to grow by 10 percent this year due to investments in online marketing and opening more retail stores,” Saba said. “Most of the growth this year will come from [owned] There were no retail sales last year, so retail was down.”
According to fashion strategy consultant Naeem Kashmiri, ” [brand founders] “The more you understand financial concepts, the better you can make informed decisions, establish clear spending guidelines, track expenses and avoid impulse buys,” she said, advising brand leaders to “conduct monthly or quarterly financial reviews to monitor performance, identify areas for improvement and adjust your plan as needed.”
New Research: Marketing That Resonates with Gen Z
According to a new Gen-Z Marketing Report from Launchmetrics, winning over Gen Z today requires a nuanced marketing approach that emphasizes inclusivity, sustainability, and authentic storytelling.
“It has been eye-opening to see that inclusivity and diversity in our product offering resonates so strongly with consumers. [Gen Z] “Gen Z’s favorite brands are the most popular with our audience,” said Alison Bringé, CMO of LaunchMetrics, pointing to the report’s rankings of Gen Z’s favorite brands. Skims, which sells styles in sizes from XXS to 5X and in 10 colors for every skin tone, ranked as Gen Z’s favorite premium brand.
Skims has capitalized on a culturally significant moment. [football player] Neymar [da Silva Santos Júnior] upon [the brand’s men’s underwear launch in October] “We’re leveraging the correlation between sports and mental health to generate buzz and effectively engage our audience,” Bringé said. In 2023, Skims’ net sales are expected to reach $750 million, up from about $500 million last year.
The Launchmetrics report also shows that comfort-focused product categories, such as athleisure and sneakers, drive higher media impact value for brands. MIV is a Launchmetrics proprietary algorithm that quantifies the impact of media coverage and mentions across channels in the fashion, lifestyle and beauty industries.
Based on MIV, Gen Z’s top five favorite premium brands were Calvin Klein, Levi’s, Lululemon, and Coach.
“Kids aren’t kids anymore,” said Tom Garland, co-founder of creative growth firm Edition Plus Partners. “The big shift is that Gen Z cares more about product quality than marketing. They research and compare to find the best products, so it’s crucial that brands creatively tell their stories and highlight the excellence of their products.”
Fashion Funding
Julie Bornstein, along with co-founders Matt Fischer, Dan Carey, Lisa Green, and Richard Kim, have raised $50 million in a seed round co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Index Ventures, with participation from Google Ventures and True Ventures, to launch Daydream, an AI-powered platform that is revolutionizing online shopping. Launching in beta this fall, Daydream says it uses advanced AI, machine learning, and computer vision to deliver a personalized shopping experience across a vast catalog of high-quality designer fashion.
“By starting with the core problem of developing search that actually understands the nuances of fashion, Daydream makes it easy for people who love to shop and people who hate to shop to find what they’re looking for,” said Lisa Green, co-founder and chief commercial officer at Daydream. “Customers have spent the last decade inventing hacks to work around the shortcomings of online shopping, and now we finally have the technology to solve all these problems and create a shopping process that’s both fun and helpful.”
Change of officers
Barry Vaughn has stepped down as CEO of Footasylum to take a consulting role at the company’s owner, Aurelius. Vaughn joined Footasylum in 2018 after more than 30 years at JD Sports, including 14 years as CEO. British footwear and accessories brand Russell & Bromley has appointed Daniel Beardsworth Shaw as its first creative director, meaning the brand is moving to in-house design for the first time in its 144-year history. Beardsworth Shaw’s first collection will debut in fall 2025. Saucony has appointed Joy Allen Altimere as its new global CMO. She will be responsible for global branding, direct-to-consumer strategy, advertising, digital strategy, international growth and the expansion of the brand’s traditional lifestyle business. Allen Altimere will report directly to Global Brand President Rob Griffiths. Rowing Blazers has appointed Laura Wilensky as its new CEO. Wilensky’s leadership experience includes roles at Madewell, Janie & Jack, Away and J.Crew.
