Now, it’s Khaite’s turn. The Cate Holstein -designed label is now under the watch of Stripes, one of the few investment firms that regularly takes bets on fashion. Backstage at that show, I asked Holstein how the money has empowered her: I expected her to mention supply chain upgrades or more freedom with show budgets. (The Park Avenue Armory... See more

Then there are new shopping and buying models entirely, such as Stitch Fix’s human-and-algorithm-personalized recommendations, and Rent The Runway’s subscription rental concept, to compete with.

Shein shows one way this can go - it’s built a smartphone-only fast fashion brand that appears to be bigger than H&M and Zara combined in the USA. Part of the Shein story is the pace of inventory and the use of data (it claims to add 8-10k new SKUs every single day) but the other is that it has built this business with cheap shipping and (like... See more