Return to form
L'Oréal's major acquisition, the return of Victoria's Secret, and ShopyMy's bet on curation
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October 24, 2025 | Edinburgh, UK
Hi - and welcome back to this week’s Brandsider Briefing.
I’m back in Edinburgh after a few days in the Cairngorms with my parents. I usually work through these kinds of holidays, but I decided to unplug — and it was glorious. I read two books, climbed my first Munro, and enjoyed way too many Scottish dinners (no small feat for someone intolerant to potatoes).
If you ever find yourself in the Highlands, I highly recommend:
Time away always brings clarity. Last week’s Side of Desk piece put words to the principles I’m using to shape The Brandsider’s business model. This week, distance helped me see where my focus should go next.
Building in public with an existing audience is vulnerable, challenging — but deeply satisfying. I’m grateful to share this process with you, and even more grateful to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I’d planned to publish the Byredo Strategy Dossier today, but it deserves a proper debut — video and all. So that will be next week’s headline piece.
For now, as I catch up on the week, here are a few stories that stood out — and what they reveal about how brands build belonging.
Thanks for reading,
Tamara
Watchlist
Legacy
L’Oréal is acquiring Kering’s beauty portfolio for $4.6b, marking the conglomerate’s first major move under new CEO Luca de Meo. This acquisition will give L’Oréal the right to produce beauty products for Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, YSL (ongoing) etc.
This is nothing new for L’Oréal: brand licensing makes up a large part of the group’s revenue. But while it might be a lucrative business, it’s rarely the best move to sustain brand belonging.
While there are guardrails in place for brand management in licensing agreements, it’s common to see the soul of a brand splinter off into two different directions. Think of Maison Margiela and their fragrance line Replica. The relationship between both entities still baffles me.
Grace Wales Bonner was appointed creative director of menswear at Hermès. With her Jamaican heritage, this makes her the first black woman to lead design at a major fashion maison - even more notable when you look at the state of the industry.
Based in London, Bonner is both beloved and celebrated for her impressive CV: she launched her namesake after graduating from CSM, has dressed Lewis Hamilton, and has collaborated with major brands like Dior and Adidas. I’m sure her appointment will draw in a range of new menswear customers who identify with the shift she represents.
Rebrands + revivals
Last week, Victoria’s Secret held its first fashion show under new Executive Creative Director Adam Selman. This marks (yet) another attempt at a brand repositioning and quest for relevancy. But this time, they’ve stopped trying to be anyone but themselves.
If you remember, the brand repositioned for the DEI era around 2021, following allegations of a toxic culture that promoted “misogyny, bullying, and harassment”. They even staged a mini fashion show / documentary — Victoria’s Secret World Tour ’23 — which replaced the brand’s iconic Angels with a message centred on diversity and female empowerment. But in the process of rejecting everything the brand once stood for — glamour, fantasy, seduction — Victoria’s Secret lost its sense of self. It no longer occupied a clear space in people’s minds.
Now, their latest show — showcasing glitz and supermodels galore — reflects that realization. VS wants to reclaim what made the brand magnetic, while framing what that means in 2025: blending ‘OG’ angels, a 9-mo pregnant Jasmine Tooks, and a diverse cast of gorgeous women clad in massive wings and lingerie.
Reactions have been mixed, but the general theme seems to be a significant improvement over last year. Regardless, the show certainly drove engagement for the brand (currently sitting at 31m views on YouTube).
Leave it to Alex Cooper to report that Kim Kardashian will be making a beauty comeback under the Skims brand. KKW beauty (renamed SKNN BY KIM under Coty) closed down operations in June, and it was just a matter of time before Skims expanded in what seems to be one of the Kardashian’s favourite verticals.
Oh right, because apparently King Kylie is also making a comeback. Remember when she was on the cover of Forbes?
If you saw my video on Skims, you can probably imagine how they’ll position their new beauty line. Watch → Body as performance (The Brandsider)
Campaigns
Researching my Who makes a brand? piece got me really excited about Pierpaolo Piccioli at Balenciaga, and I loved seeing his first campaign for the maison. It echos his softer, more romantic vision for Balenciaga — “a reflection of the new Balenciaga woman”.
Moncler understands that the best way to attract insiders is to show who’s already in the fold. The brand’s autumn campaign blends fashion and friendship, showcasing Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, whose relationship has spanned over five decades.
The campaign centres around “expanding the definition of warmth” — beyond outerwear, and into the love experienced between friends and loved ones.
Showcasing the actors in a casual setting — on a New York City rooftop — we are made to feel the genuine camaraderie and creative respect that exists within the Moncler universe.
Signals + noise
Consumers are pushing back again AI, and brand are cashing in. You probably saw the Friend ads that took over the NYC subway last month, and confusion / uproar / disbelief that went alongside the stunt. Now, a few brands like Heineken and Aerie are tapping into this consumer sentiment
Heineken took a clever stab at Friend with an OOH campaign touting “the best way to make a friend is over a beer” and that they’ve been responsible for “social networking since 1873”.
Aerie took a tougher stance. Much like its decision to avoid retouching models in 2014, the brand announced that it wouldn’t use AI-generated content in marketing. A timely and on-brand move, it reinforces Aerie’s ‘real’ positioning and the belief system that the brand’s insiders have bought into.
ShopMy, the influencer curation platform, has raised $70 million in funding at a $1.5 billion valuation. This represents a bold bet on community and taste in the age of algorithms — as the platform lets you shop your favourite creators’ favourites.
For influencers, it’s a powerful way to turn an audience into insiders. And for brands, it represents an opportunity to publicize the insiders who love and recommend your products (e.g., Sofia Richie Grainge, Hailee Steinfeld). From a belonging POV, it’s a win-win.
A24 is going all-in on books, and I feel bad for Simon and Schuster. With their focus on creative authorship and boundary-pushing storytelling, it’s hard to imagine A24 Books not becoming a prized fixture on readers’ shelves. Count me in.
Until next week!
xo,
The Brandsider