Luxury Briefing: Is resort season a thing of the past? 

The pandemic expanded the resortwear opportunity.

That’s according to Michelle Kelly, CEO of 65-year-old fashion brand Lilly Pulitzer, which she described as the “originator of American resortwear.”

“In late 2020 and throughout 2021, we saw customers flock to warm weather locations — not just to travel, but to live there full-time,” she told Glossy this week. “As a result, the seasonal [travel-driven sales] rhythms we’d been used to were shaken up.” 

Esteban Cortázar also noticed the shift before developing his resortwear-focused luxury brand, Donde Esteban, which launched on Tuesday. 

“I saw a lot of people moving from New York, Paris and other European cities to warmer destinations, with more nature and more beautiful things to look at out the window,” he told Glossy. “It made me [realize] I’m not the only one searching for summer all year round.”

Cortázar himself moved from Paris during the pandemic to spend time in Columbia, Ibiza and Miami, each of which he’d called home at one point while growing up. 

“I used to be afraid of saying that I live for summer,  because it [seemed to say] that I wanted to always be relaxed and on vacation. But it’s really who I am,” he said. “When I’m in big cities, I find myself needing a dose of nature. …  In Paris, I wasn’t flourishing enough.”

So, after 20 years following traditional fashion industry norms — while helming a namesake brand and the Emanuel Ungaro brand, and working with collaborators including Colette and Net-a-Porter — Cortázar decided to take a fresh approach with Donde Esteban.

Along with exclusively focusing on resortwear, the brand’s operations take place in Miami and Cartagena, in addition to Paris. And, rather than abide by the long-established fashion calendar, defined by collections pegged to seasons, it will release “chapters” of looks, with additional rollouts this year set for June, late August and pre-holiday. Instead of department and select specialty stores, the plan is to supplement direct-to-consumer sales with distribution in hotels and resorts.  

“Back in the day, I would say, ‘We need to do a fashion show [to launch the brand],” he added. But, he noted, no shows are currently being planned.

Out of the gate, Donde Esteban will instead be promoted through organic social content, parties and other events, including a community trip to Columbia in the near future.

Cortázar described early fans of the brand as “life lovers and summer lovers.” He added, “They love to dance, watch the sunset or sunrise, and indulge in sharing beautiful moments with their friends.”

With the pandemic driving many people to reevaluate their priorities, more consumers likely fit this description today than pre-2020. 

Moving forward, Cortázar hopes to grow Donde Esteban into a lifestyle brand, complete with fashion styles for the whole family, hotels, restaurants, parties, music and other art forms. 

“I’m running my own race and playing my own game,” he said. “I’m not going to put myself into a box or feel pressured to follow a certain system. I’ll do whatever is right for the business.”

By the numbers

10%: The percentage of Larroudé’s business driven by its 4-month-old multi-brand online marketplace, Colléct

As luxury retail continues to transform, there are signs that brand-run multi-brand marketplaces could step in where the Farfetches and MatchesFashions of the world are leaving off. 

On Thursday, while recording this week’s episode of the Glossy Podcast, Ricardo Larroudé, CEO and founder of the 3.5-year-old footwear brand Larroudé, said the brand’s online marketplace, launched just ahead of the holidays, is already driving 10% of its sales. He and co-founder Marina Larroudé “see enormous potential there,” he said. Of course, it helps that Marina Larroudé, who curates Colléct, is a well-known tastemaker, formerly holding fashion director roles at Style.com and Barneys, among other influential fashion companies. Her Instagram following is upward of 80,000. 

$135,000: The trackable sales driven by Dorsey founder Meg Strachan’s Substack newsletter in the last year

On a similar note, Glossy Pop’s Sara Spriuch-Feiner reported this week that influencers — brands in themselves — are now earning big bucks through affiliate commissions on products sold through Substack newsletters. For example, Meg Strachan, the founder of jewelry brand Dorsey and an emerging “it” girl with 33,000 personal Instagram followers, has made “well over $135,000 in trackable sales” since introducing affiliate links in her “What I Put On Today” newsletter in April 2023. 

Why this European multi-brand e-tailer is thriving

According to Tarek Müller, personalization and inspiration are the secrets to doing multi-brand online retail successfully. He should know. Ten years ago, he founded About You, an e-commerce site available in 28 European countries that, selling $5 billion in gross merchandise value per year, does a larger local fashion business than Amazon. 

About You operates a hybrid business model, with 60% of revenue coming from retail sales and 40% through a marketplace. While its bestsellers are mass-market brands including Nike, Adidas and Levi’s, it also has a Premium vertical populated by the likes of Diesel, Boss and Calvin Klein. U.S. brands often look to About You to reach European shoppers.

Personalization is a strength of the company, Müller said. About You analyzes thousands of data points per customer, including where they click and don’t click within the shopping experience, and what source directed them to the site. It then uses AI to anticipate the shopper’s next action and recommend the best products. In addition, Müller noted, the “You” in the “About You” logo changes to a shopper’s name while they’re using the app. 

“Online shopping should be as fun as offline shopping,” he said.

Facilitating ample inspiration is another About You priority, Müller said. As such, the company has designed its website to mimic a shopping magazine, plus it regularly turns out product collaborations with influencers and celebrities. To date, those have included Katy Perry, Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid, among other American stars, plus 2,000 European influencers. Leveraging influencers for marketing is also a constant focus.

“We work a bit like Revolve does in the U.S., but we are much larger than Revolve,” Müller said.

In 2021, parent company About You Group leveraged About You’s years of e-commerce expertise to launch Scayle. The fastest-growing SaaS company in the world, according to Müller, Scayle is being marketed as a Shopify competitor better catered to companies doing at least hundreds of millions in online revenue and managing complex business models — a hybrid, omnichannel or multi-brand model would apply. Current clients include European companies Snipes and Manchester United. Spayce does $50 million in tech subscription revenue per month. 

In 2021, About You Group IPO’d at a $5 billion market cap, raising $800 million in the process. Scayle is now targeting U.S. clients — but American shoppers shouldn’t hold their breath for access to About You. 

“The U.S. is a very competitive market when it comes to … everything,” Müller said. “Expanding a software business is easier than an e-commerce [company] —- you just hire a few more people, you don’t have to set up warehouses.” 

Around the web

After partnering with Future, Lanvin enlists artist Erwin Wurm for its second edition of Lanvin Lab. 

Inside the conversations at Watches and Wonders, which kicked off in Geneva on Tuesday.

Rapidly growing sneaker brand P448 is hitting the gas on European expansion. 

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