All Caught Up: Coperni LAN party, Demna at Gucci, Brendidas

Kim KAHdashian

and

Mar 14, 2025

Hi! I have been cooking up a longer-form essay on wellness and wellness culture as it exists. I’m thinking of gating it in some way because, candidly, the wellness industry can be full of hell demons, so… stay tuned for that.

This week's picks include Point of View, SipMargs and Moon Punch.

Christina’s weekly scroll –

Gaming and fashion keep colliding: Coperni hosted a LAN party with over 200 gamers for Paris Fashion Week *and* debuted the TAMAGOTCHI SWIPE BAG!
Some fashion shakeups – Demna exits Balenciaga to lead Gucci. Donatella Versace steps down as Versace’s creative director.
The Perfect Magazine x Labubu Dover Street Market exclusive Zimomo figurine led me to
Ruby Redstone
’s piece exploring the monster (ba dum tss) of mimetic desire – through Labubu.
Crazy how a cute, quirky toy turned into a cultural phenomenon, generating $870M in sales in just EIGHT months + fueling an insane resale market.
Dazed launched a new online series to help aspiring creatives navigate jobs in the industry.
Christie's held its first auction dedicated to AI-generated art, despite opposition from thousands of artists.
Beveragino corner: Alix Earle is now an investor in SipMargs. Capri Sun released a glow-in-the-dark Moon Punch for the total lunar eclipse, encouraging kids to head outside (drinks in hand, ofc).
Moon Punch features eight different phases of the moon 🌕
Netflix plans to spend $18 billion on content this year.
Gigi Hadid teamed up with Vogue for a rendition of Can’t Stop the Beat, featuring Laverne Cox, Cole Escola, Marc Jacobs and Alton Mason. Love the concept, not crazy about the execution. As many have pointed out, casting the teeny tiny Gigi Hadid as Tracy Turnblad was an interesting choice:
e.l.f. continues to tap into women’s sports, becoming the first beauty sponsor for the National Women's Soccer League.
The White House (allegedly) offered Dave Portnoy a job at the Department of Commerce.
Similar to TikTok, Instagram is now using AI to suggest search phrases for content. Boooo! 🍅

Nikita’s weekly scroll –

Conservatism isn’t cool. Liberalism just has a branding problem. Cannot believe I have to say that we need to brand caring about people.
A sobering essay rooted in history, speaking to the current moment around tradwives, etc.
Women’s Soccer signed a deal with Alex Cooper. Obviously the play is for Gen Z fans, so I get it but it feels really starter-pack as a strategy, iyk what I mean… But hey, if Taylor Swift could raise NFL viewership… perhaps I don’t know anything anymore and I’m willing to take that on the chin. (jk, I know a lot of things I just don’t hashtag engage with a certain corner of culture!!!)
One of the designer shuffle stories of the week – Jil Sander has a new name at the helm, Simone Bellotti, formerly of Bally and Gucci.
Brenda Weischer (aka brendahashtag) has a collab with adidas. Curious to see what this means – is it a one-off collaboration? Or is it a series of deeper collabs with ‘niche’ creators?
Bookmark this for your strategy deck – 30 charts that show how life is different after COVID.
The big tech companies cannot figure out how to market AI. Maybe because the way people want to use AI – if at ALL isn’t the way they envision it in their weird little hive minds.
This week in ‘Nikita’s Sports Corner’ – a take from the ever-excellent
Daniel-Yaw Miller
and SportsVerse on how beauty brands are cashing in on sports culture.
Miss MikaylaJMakeup aka the woman who says ‘Kim KAAAAHdashian’ on TikTok has a new beauty line. Some interesting things here to note:
1. Launching a beauty prep line. Not skincare, not makeup, but prep-specific products. With the background activity of people paying more attention to professional MUAs (who often preach skin prep first!) this is an interesting ‘problem’ for her to solve.
2. The branding isn’t very TK by typical influencer vibes.
3. The formulations were developed in Korea.
WTF is happening at Pat McGrath Beauty? I’m sad! The brand’s POV has brought so many artistry-forward makeup brands to the fore. But that’s what’s always a tricky game to play. To scale you need to be mass, and there’s only so much you can charge for a foundation — even if you’re one of the best MUAs on earth. This puts last week’s Louis Vuitton announcement into tighter focus, but also shows why Isamaya (another MUA-led) brand went into SEPHORA with a tighter assortment that felt almost antithetical to the collection driven approach of the brand in years past. The beauty business right now seems like a cash grab, as it’s one of the few “affordable” luxuries. But consumer appetite will eventually soften.
The runways look like the resale market. I’m so bored of the safe nostalgia bets. Thanks to
Alyssa Vingan
for this one.