The Glossy Podcast

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The end of the shopping calendar Jul 24, 2026

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The shopping calendar isn't what it used to be.

Prime Day has become Prime Week, Black Friday has become Black Friday Month, back-to-school shopping now starts in June, and holiday shopping is starting in October. As brands and retailers compete for an edge during these lucrative periods, the traditional shopping calendar is getting elongated and spread out.

According to Kelly Pedersen, global retail lead at the professional services firm PwC, these shifts are being driven by both businesses and consumers. On the Glossy Podcast this week, Pedersen shared that PwC's research on back-to-school shopping shows that the average family is spending around $920 during the back-to-school period. Those customers are continuing to spend around $630 a month on their kids throughout the school year.

"It starts with the brands," he said. "The retailers always want to capture consumers during these moments, and they want to be first. It's not just about revenue during those windows, but [it's also about] customer acquisition, capturing those customers and using that momentum to carry spend on throughout the entire year."

Pedersen said today's consumers are being trained to expect holiday sales and back-to-school sales earlier, meaning they're waiting to spend until those periods start. That further incentivizes brands to elongate the period as much as possible.

The natural question becomes whether a longer shopping event leads to consumer fatigue and risks robbing those periods of their urgency. But Pedersen said he doesn't think that is the case.

"Theoretically, it could actually increase overall spending because people get paid in cycles," he said. "They're going to spend a certain percentage of their paycheck on holiday shopping. But if you elongate that period, you have more opportunities to pick up on that cash flow from the consumer."

Ultimately, Pedersen recommends that brands think about these shopping periods — like holiday, back-to-school and Mother's Day — as opportunities to capture a customer in the long term, not just as a one-off revenue driver. He also pointed to PwC data showing that almost 0% of surveyed customers said they planned to use AI to help them shop for holidays last year, but that number jumped to 73% this year.

"Consumers are using technology to become smarter about how they shop with a retailer, and retailers really need to think about this new channel," Pedersen said. "And it's not a channel in the traditional sense, meaning they're not transacting via AI, but it's a discovery channel, and it's a price-checking channel."

Victoria's Secret Pink's Gen-Z-focused holiday strategy, with president Ali Dillon Jul 17, 2026

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Pink wants to be the first stop on a Gen-Z shopper’s trip to the mall this holiday season. To get there, the Victoria’s Secret-owned brand is expanding beyond the pajamas, fleece and intimates it is best known for, using accessories, denim, beauty and collaborations to position itself as a broader lifestyle brand for 18- to 24-year-old women.

The strategy follows a period of renewed momentum. Pink delivered low-double-digit growth in the first quarter of 2026, supported by its core apparel and intimates businesses, improved regular-price selling, and new customer acquisition among 18- to 24-year-olds.

According to president Ali Dillon, the brand’s turnaround has been driven by a renewed focus on “clarity, customer and connection.”

“Today, Pink is evolving into a digitally native, socially driven lifestyle brand with a bold, playful and irreverent point of view,” Dillon said on the podcast. “Our product, our voice, our marketing — they’re all uniquely Pink.”

Dillon said Pink had previously lost sight of its core customer as the brand aged alongside its original shoppers. Now, it is specifically targeting 18- to 24-year-olds rather than broadly marketing to Gen Z, a generation that will continue to age out of that bracket.

Recent efforts have included working with K-pop group Twice around the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and Valentine’s Day, launching a festival campaign with “Love Island USA” star Gabby Mora, and opening a dedicated store in New York’s Soho neighborhood. According to Dillon, customers began lining up outside the Soho store at 1 a.m. on its opening day.

The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show held last October was also an important catalyst. Dillon said some bras featured during the event sold out almost immediately, supported by TikTok videos showing customers running into stores to buy them.

“That moment of true brand health, of this feeling like, ‘I have to go get it right now,’ is definitely something that we’ve been really proud of,” she said.

Pink is now looking to carry that urgency into the holiday 2026 season. Rather than treating the season solely as a period for traditional gift exchanges, the brand is building around what Dillon described as “treat culture”: the tendency among younger shoppers to buy smaller gifts for themselves and their friends to mark everyday achievements.

“She’s not necessarily waiting for major milestones to celebrate,” Dillon said. “She’s creating these real reasons to celebrate all the time.”

The holiday assortment, spanning a range of price points, will include everything from accessories and beauty to fleece, sleepwear, bras and matching sets. Accessories are becoming particularly important as younger shoppers remain price-conscious, though Dillon said value is not simply a matter of offering cheaper products.

“Value isn’t just about price. It’s about feeling like what you’re buying is worth it, too,” she said.

One example is Pink’s Campus Tote, which generated approximately 115,000 backorders. Dillon said the bag initially took off organically after appearing in the background of social content, rather than through a major marketing campaign. Store employees soon began reporting that shoppers were repeatedly asking when it would be restocked.

The response has encouraged Pink to further expand accessories and personalization. Dillon said the brand remains interested in charms and other customizable elements across categories including intimates, swimwear, fleece and beauty.

“Our girl loves to personalize,” she said. “She loves to make something unique.”

Sleepwear will remain central to Pink’s holiday business, but the brand is increasingly presenting it as part of an all-day wardrobe. Dillon pointed to shoppers wearing pajama-inspired clothing from bed to brunch or the beach, allowing Pink to merchandise sleepwear alongside bras and casual apparel.

That cross-category approach was recently used for the Marshmallow bra, which the company launched last week alongside a modal sleepwear collection. Pink developed the bra after research found that 60% of women ages 18-24 wanted a more comfortable option.

Denim and beauty are also areas of expansion. Pink has tested trend-driven jeans, shorts, skirts and jackets, and Dillon said the company has “a lot of exciting things in the hopper” for beauty.

Collaborations will remain part of the strategy, but Dillon said they are intended to amplify Pink rather than define it. The brand’s first LoveShackFancy drop last November generated what she described as the strongest five minutes of sales in the history of Pink’s website, with shoppers gravitating toward established Pink products reworked through the collaboration.

Pink is also trying to build a healthier business by relying less heavily on discounts. Dillon described the approach as prioritizing “emotion over promotion,” while acknowledging that the company will still need to deliver competitive value during Black Friday this season.

By the end of the season, Pink will be looking at customer acquisition, regular-price demand, and whether holiday shoppers continue to engage with the brand into 2027.

“We often say, ‘Meet me at Pink,’” Dillon said, talking about where teens meet up in the mall. “Where are you meeting when you’re starting your shopping trip? We want her to go there first.”

The new rules of denim (RERUN) Jul 10, 2026

Show notes

On the Glossy Podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and international reporter Zofia Zwieglinska are joined by Glossy editor-in-chief Jill Manoff to discuss the new rules of the denim market.

Denim is a perennially popular category, and there’s more diversity and competition in denim than ever. We talk about the trends that are dominant and the ways the denim customer is changing, plus we group together some of the current top brands to provide a better sense of how the sector is evolving.

Oner Active's Krissy Cela on leveraging ambassadors to surpass the $200 million mark Jul 03, 2026

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Krissy Cela, the fitness influencer and founder of the activewear brand Oner Active, spent 10 years building up her expertise as a creator before finally launching her brand.

That time spent researching, getting to know the community, and building an audience has paid off. Just six years of the brand's existence, it has already reached nearly $200 million in annual revenue.

For this week's Glossy Podcast, Cela joined Glossy editor-in-chief Jill Manoff for a live recording from the stage of the Glossy E-Commerce Summit in Miami, where the discussion centered on how she's been able to scale up her brand so quickly.

Part of that comes from her knowledge of the community. Oner Active's ambassadors program opens for applications once a year and routinely gets around over 30,000 applicants.

“All of them are vetted, and then we send them a free set from the latest collection — no one else will have access to that collection," Cela said. "And in return, they’ll create content. I think we’ve created 16 million impressions across social when only gifting 100 sets,” she said, explaining the program’s high ROI. “The girl with the content that performs the best then becomes affiliated with the brand. [She can then

What defines 'American fashion' today? – with Articles of Interest host Avery Trufelman Jun 26, 2026

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As we approach the 250th anniversary of the United States' founding, we're living in a fashion world that's more globalized than ever. K-pop stars mix with American celebrities and European designers to form a diverse and international fashion consensus.

But there's still something ineffably unique about American fashion. From New England prep to country Western and urban hip-hop, there is no shortage of subcultures and aesthetics that originated in America and have become global phenomena.

On the Glossy Podcast this week, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and editor-in-chief Jill Manoff speak with Avery Trufelman, the journalist and host of the fashion and social history podcast Articles of Interest, about what American fashion truly is. We also break down which designers and brands today best emblematize what American fashion means today.

Trufelman said American fashion is defined by a chameleonic approach to style and reinvention. America has a long history of people reinventing themselves through fashion and aesthetics, from George W. Bush reinventing himself as a Texan rancher to Jay Gatsby adopting the fashions of New England to hide his background.

"There's this refrain that America is constantly learning to live up to the ideals that it set out for itself," Trufelman said. "This was pushed by waves of activism over the years. Black jazz musicians started wearing New England prep clothes in the 20th century, and it spread this message that anyone can dress that way. It's fulfilling this idealistic, not-quite-yet-lived experience of an equal society."

Trufelman said several major brands today are defining American fashion, from classics like Ralph Lauren to new designers like Emily Bode. But she specifically singled out Brooks Brothers as playing a pivotal role in defining what American fashion could be.

"Brooks Brothers is the oldest surviving clothing brand in the United States and really exemplifies everything about this country, good and bad," Trufelman said. Brooks Brothers has clothed every American president except two -- too fancy for Carter, not fancy enough for Reagan -- and helped popularize the very concept of a recognizable, mass fashion brand.

"America's gift to the world is brands," Trufelman said. "And Brooks Brothers was a big part of that. We invented mass-produced clothing, which is now such a big part of the fashion industry."

Is Saks safe again for brands? Jun 19, 2026

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Quince head of brand strategy Dakota Kate Isaacs on how the brand is capitalizing on its $10B valuation Jun 12, 2026

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Fresh off a $10 billion valuation, the direct-from-manufacturer online retailer Quince is on a hot streak. It's been testing physical retail with pop-ups and expanding into new categories, from furniture to caviar.

But while the company had no shortage of sales, what it was lacking was a coherent brand story. Dakota Kate Isaacs, formerly a senior director at The Ordinary, started at Quince in February as the company's first head of brand strategy and narrative. Her goal has been to help Quince build an emotional connection with its customers, for reasons beyond just the low prices that attract them in the first place.

Isaacs spoke with senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi at the Glossy E-commerce Summit in Miami this month to discuss what strategies she's been adopting to build those relationships.

"My goal is not to create a new story for the brand, but [instead] to articulate the story to everyone," she said. "The narrative around Quince often gets condensed just to price, but the price isn't the story. The price is the result of the system, and the system is the story."

To that end, Isaacs has been pushing for more initiatives, including a recent furniture pop-up in Los Angeles. Isaacs said pop-ups allow new categories like fragrance and wellness to be introduced in a more comprehensive, aesthetically cohesive way, with accompanying imagery and branding. For example, another recent pop-up for its fine jewelry category was held in a coffee shop in Manhattan.

"I'm working to tell the true story of the business," Isaacs said. "What makes this business unique is the technology and the system behind the business

Who will win the World Cup battle between Nike and Adidas? Jun 05, 2026

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The World Cup is in the United States this year for the first time since the 1990s, which creates massive opportunities for many sportswear and apparel brands.

Perhaps no brands are as heavily invested in the World Cup as Nike and Adidas. Together, they sponsor many of the teams and have rolled out several large-scale campaigns tied to the tournament. On the Glossy Podcast, international reporter Zofia Zwieglinska spoke with Daniel-Yaw Miller, award-winning writer and creator of the bi-weekly SportsVerse newsletter, about these two sportswear giants and their strategies for the World Cup.

Miller said the fact that the World Cup is in North America this year has given many brands the license to step up their games.

"We haven't seen a World Cup of this scale in many years," Miller said. "It's well-positioned for the biggest companies and brands in the world to make the most of it and justify the case for investing in it. Previous World Cups in Qatar and Russia had their own complications. It's been a while since it was in a location that was home to many huge companies."

Already, Nike has rolled out collaborations with many celebrities and brands tied to the World Cup, including with Jacquemus, Palace and Drake. Miller said Nike, under the leadership of CEO Elliot Hill, has been working to regain ground in its soccer division.

"In 2024, [Nike] came out with a strategy called Sports Offense, which was based around these five pillars, and one of them is football," Miller said. "We've seen that bear out with how the brand has invested marketing dollars in the lead-up to the World Cup."

But Adidas has nostalgia on its side, Miller said, as it's the brand most heavily associated with soccer and dominated the sport for a long time before Nike got involved. The Adidas Samba has been around for decades and recently went through a resurgence just in time for the World Cup.

"Adidas has so many legends like David Beckham, various Brazilian superstars from the ‘90s, Italian legends like Alessandro del Piero," Miller said. "And Adidas has done a good job of keeping them all in their universe and under endorsement contracts usually reserved for active athletes. But the people with the most spending power are people who grew up watching these players."

What are men wearing right now? May 29, 2026

Show notes

Pitti Uomo, the largest menswear trade show in the world, is coming up this month. Brands from around the world will show off their newest collections of suits, shoes and elevated basics. But many of the most stylish men aren't wearing new clothes.

Vintage and secondhand fashion is having an explosive moment, and menswear content creators are particularly in love with high-quality vintage goods from years past when clothes were made to last. Not only do menswear brands have to compete with each other, but they also have to compete with the decades' worth of vintage clothing still on the market. Why buy the latest from Corso Mille when there are mountains of vintage Ralph Lauren available on eBay?

On the Glossy Podcast this week, we spoke with Albert Muzquiz, the menswear writer and content creator better known as @edgyalbert, about exactly this phenomenon.

Muzquiz said menswear enthusiasts tend to obsess about quality, and while there are brands making good clothes now, they're often the exception rather than the norm.

"There are the lowest common denominator brands that are pushing everyone further down," Muzquiz said. "And then there are these American companies controlled by private equity that have no soul or substance. And when you touch good fabric, it's like night and day. You can tell the difference. But this is why the JFK Jr. trend happened. There were eras where basically any clothes from the department store were that good."

Shein bought Everlane. What does it mean for sustainable fashion? May 22, 2026

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Earlier this week, Glossy wrote about Everlane’s reported sale to Shein, a deal that will put one of the defining sustainability-adjacent DTC brands of the 2010s inside the world’s most scrutinized ultra-fast-fashion machine.

The headline was a shock to many, as the two companies represent almost opposite ends of the modern fashion conversation. Everlane has built its identity around “radical transparency,” elevated basics and factory disclosure since its 2010 founding by Michael Preysman and Jesse Farmer. On the other hand, Shein, founded in 2008, has become known for rock-bottom prices, rapid production, and ongoing criticism from fair labor and sustainability advocates. It is also known for its $66 billion valuation in 2023, when it was reported that the company had started to chase an IPO.

On this week’s Glossy Fashion Podcast, Jasmine Malik Chua, climate and labor editor at Sourcing Journal, joined the conversation to talk through what the deal says about brand values, investor pressure and the future of sustainability-led fashion.

Chua has reported extensively on Shein and Temu, forced labor, textile waste, garment worker protections, sustainability regulation, and climate risk. Her first reaction to the Everlane news, she said, was visceral.

“I think I just screamed inside for like two hours,” Chua said.

The reported deal follows a difficult period for Everlane, which had been carrying significant debt and not been profitable for some time. But for Chua, the story points to a fundamental tension between slow-fashion values from brands like Everlane and the kind of fast-growth that venture-backed brands are expected to deliver.

“Due diligence is a cost,” Chua said on the podcast. “Doing the right thing doesn’t come cheap.”

As VCs demand more from the brands they invest in, consumers expect to pay less — in Everlane's case, that's because of competitors like Uniqlo and Quince, for example.

Everlane was never purely a sustainability brand — Preysman often framed it around transparency, rather than sustainability. And the company built real credentials on both fronts, Chua said, with factory disclosure and a 52% reduction in absolute carbon emissions.

The question now is whether those values will survive under Shein's ownership.

Chua said Shein may be interested in Everlane because of its reputation, its supply chain and its position as “almost the antithesis” of what Shein represents. The numbers for Shein’s own impact are not pretty. According to Reuters, citing Shein’s own 2024 sustainability report, the company’s transport emissions rose 13.7% in 2024 to 8.52 million metric tons of CO2e, more than three times the transport emissions reported by Zara owner Inditex. According to NielsenIQ, Shein launched 315,000 new items in 2022, compared with 6,850 for Zara and 4,400 for H&M. And according to Italy’s competition authority, AGCM, Shein’s sustainability messaging has also faced regulatory challenge: In 2025, the watchdog fined the company €1 million ($1.17 million) for misleading and omissive environmental claims. Shein says it is investing in logistics changes, renewable electricity and supplier solar capacity, but those efforts sit against a model built on low prices, rapid product testing and constant newness.

Everlane has disclosed supplier information, while Shein has faced criticism for not publicly listing even its first-tier suppliers. First-tier factories, Chua explained, are the cut-and-sew facilities that have direct relationships with brands, making disclosure there a baseline expectation.

Shein has been trying to improve its image, including releasing sustainability reports, making sustainability executive hires and giving the Or Foundation three years of funding for its textile-waste work in Ghana, amounting to $15 million, announced in June 2022. Chua said Shein’s funding has been meaningful for the organization’s cleanup and research work, even as the company’s broader scale and rising emissions remain difficult to square with sustainability claims.

But for Everlane, the risk is that the same brand equity Shein may be buying becomes harder to defend once the acquisition is complete. It would not be a stretch to say that the brand's ethos will disappear under its new ownership.

“Is Everlane going to influence Shein to do more of what the sustainability movement wants it to do?” Chua said on the podcast. “Or is Shein going to work its own pressures on Everlane?”

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