014. On my mind | A very late Q1 earnings roundup, my trip to CDMX, and a cart that runneth over
a three part list of things I've been meaning to tell you...
My dear readers,
Happy Monday! We are gathered here today to empty my brain of its current obsessions, wants, and whims.
I’ve been derelict in my duties as your newsletter editor extraordinaire. I’ve been busy (sorry). But I return with gifts: a peek inside my summer shopping cart, a Mexico City hit list, and — because I can’t help but yap — a few unsolicited industry thoughts before this Sunday’s May roundup.
P.S. this is a long one — if you’re reading via email, you may need to go to the web version (or the Substack app) to get all the goodness. I promise it’s worth it !!!
Thirteen CDMX recommendations,
Of all the cities dominating the travel zeitgeist lately, two come up incessantly among my peers: Tokyo and Mexico City. I visited the latter for a long weekend and left, unsurprisingly, a card-carrying member of the fan club.
What struck me most was its elasticity. CDMX can stretch to fit almost any kind of traveler or occasion, easily accommodating a girls’ trip or bachelorette, something romantic, a solo weekend, and so on. Few cities feel this expansive without also being exhausting.
My list, satisfyingly, came out to thirteen stops in chronological (not hierarchical) order. NOTE: we had a driver for the weekend, which made it easier to jump between neighborhoods and leave bags behind as needed. That said, this is fully doable without one.
Soho House. I’ve heard this is one of the most beautiful Houses, and as a guest of a member, I can neither confirm nor deny — but I can tell you it’s stunning. The Pool House menu was exactly what we wanted in our first stop off the plane: refreshing drinks, fries, burgers, tacos, etc. Highly recommend for that awkward in-between window (ours was 11 am landing to 3 pm Airbnb check-in to 9 pm dinner).
Our AirBnb. Perfect. No notes. A gorgeous 3-bed, 2.5-bath with 24-hour security and a lovely host.
Máximo Bistrot. Tied with Contramar for most recommended, and deservedly so. Every dish was excellent, the interior was warm and cool at the same time, the staff was lovely, and I left with a camera roll full of plate/glassware/silverware inspo. This meal set the tone for the rest of the trip.
We stopped at Licorería Limantour before Máximo — they’re across from each other, so I’d recommend pairing them and ask to be seated upstairs if you can. The setting isn’t much to write home about, but the drinks are great. We went to Tokyo Music Bar after dinner, mostly to avoid a per-person cancellation fee and because we had someone who could drop us off and pick us up within ten minutes. Can’t speak to the menu, but the layout felt awkward. Baltra, though, had a truly excellent, conceptual drink menu. It’s also just around the corner from our beloved Airbnb. That one’s a must.
Odette Condesa. The line is intimidating but it moves quickly, the pastries are worth it, and the matcha was the best I’ve ever had. I would recommend grabbing something and walking to Parque México to eat and people watch (especially on a Sunday morning).
Banzo + Cardōn. I went into the trip knowing a big shopping day was on the table — which I was okay with as long as I shopped Mexican designers and picked up interesting pieces I wouldn’t find at home. I got an amazing Banzo blazer at Cardōn, then circled back the next day and picked up a second piece from their main shop in Roma Norte. And yes, I know they’re stocked in multiple places in the city (tumbao, MAIMOUN, and Grace Land)... but my rules, my exceptions. Also tried on great pieces at Rumor x Cueva, Irene Buffa, and Campillo.
Jenni’s Quesadilla’s. Another long-but-fast-moving and worthwhile line. Get the red salsa, it’s spicy but exceptional.
BOTÁNICO. Perhaps the most beautiful location of the lineup. We went for lunch post-shopping and I had a short rib sandwich I’m still thinking about. I also enthusiastically recommend their Caesar salad as well as the mussels.
Club Sorbet. We had to be up early in the morning (for the next thing on the list) so just popped by for a glass of wine and two scoops (lemon + pear, both excellent). We didn’t have a reservation, but were seated right away despite it being decently busy. Shoutout to Tik Tok for this one.
Teotihuacán Hot Air Balloon Ride. Yes, the wakeup time is brutal, but well worth it. The view is surreal and I found the ~35 minutes of airborne time to be incredibly peaceful. We booked this one, skipping transportation and breakfast, and the morning was excellently run.
Taqueria Orinoco. We tried to walk into Contramar for lunch and weren’t willing to endure a 2+ hour wait, so pivoted here and I was very, very pleased with this more casual choice. The chicharrón taco I had was genuine perfection.
Sartoria. Our final dinner. Beautifully prepared, but it didn’t measure up to the others. Maybe a victim of sequencing.
Salón Palomilla. The space was gorgeous, but the menu wasn’t great and the music was distractingly loud (and bad). We didn’t stay long.
The verdict: This trip was about eating well and walking a lot (both delivered). I will happily return and revise the itinerary based on my desired focus area. Next time, I might go more museums-heavy / fashion-focused.
thirty seven things to consider,
Onto the clothes. I’ve always had a lot of them — the kind of volume explained only by a collegiate shopping compulsion and a (short-lived) post-grad “plans tonight = new outfit today” mentality. Some of those impulse buys, mostly from Zara, have earned lifetime tenure in my closet. Others have found new homes — so if you ever find yourself at 2nd Street Hoboken, you may be flipping through my former life.
At the top of the year, I instituted a no new clothes rule — which I abided by for all of Q1. Three months of pre-loved, vintage-only, planned-out purchasing reminded me that I love style more than I do shopping and forced me to take stock of what I was selling, keeping, and searching TRR for. Cataloguing my outfits on Instagram helped, too.
I share this not as personal style propaganda — NO hidden capsule sermon here, unless you’re looking for one — but as a prelude to the selects that follow. I know I’m a simple dresser. I don’t do much in the way of accessories. I like color but would sacrifice it for an interesting texture or silhouette.
Today’s lineup comes from that school of thought: cool tops & tees, baggy bottoms, fun shoes, and it’s all pretty interchangeable. If I bought everything, I’d have a hell of a wardrobe and endless spring/summer looks for years to come. And if you do? Well… I wouldn’t blame you.
My standouts include the structured sheer sequin (a dream trio of words to me btw) top, balloon pants with shirt buttons at the ankle (cheers to
for drawing my attention to them), Bottega mules, undies clutch (currently on sale), and green wedges (courtesy of ) — but truly, this is an all-star lineup, even if I say so myself.
ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE (pre-loved) | SIX | SEVEN | EIGHT | NINE | TEN | ELEVEN | TWELVE (on sale) | THIRTEEN (pre-loved) | FOURTEEN | FIFTEEN
ONE (on sale) | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE | SIX (pre-loved) | SEVEN | EIGHT (pre-loved) | NINE (on sale) | TEN
& some old news.
And for my last trick…. I will talk about the market!
Yes, Q1 earnings season wrapped a few weeks ago — but what my thoughts lack in timeliness, they make up for in pattern recognition. Luxury’s first-quarter results didn’t just reflect three months of sales, they hinted at something more enduring: a shift in the mechanics of aspiration.
Watch the throne.
For the past decade, LVMH has worn the crown of global luxury with little contest. But this spring, the kingdom wobbled. Even with a multipart Louis Vuitton × Murakami reboot fronted by Zendaya, global exhibitions at Dior, and Fendi tributes in Milan, the group’s fashion and leather goods sales still dipped 5%. By every metric — €84.7 billion in sales, nearly €20 billion in operating profit — the conglomerate remains enormous. But its core houses are in flux, with Dior having a particularly hard time.
Per LVMH, the brand “maintained its creative momentum… Dior Toujours and D-Journey bags saw a promising start.” Which reads like a gentle spin on flat performance, even with new launches and product refreshes. Said “momentum” warranted a call to Mr. Jonathan Anderson (confirmed for menswear, replacing Kim Jones; TBD on the women’s side, as Maria Grazia Chiuri remains).
Meanwhile, Hermès — LVMH’s longtime rival and former acquisition target — quietly overtook it to become France’s most valuable company. On April 15th, Hermès’ market cap hit €243.65 billion, narrowly edging out LVMH’s €243.44 billion. Its Q1 revenue grew 17%, with double-digit gains across every geography. And yet, Hermès brings in less than a fifth of LVMH’s revenue (€15.2 billion vs. €84.7 billion). The math doesn’t flatter Hermès on scale — but that’s not the point. It’s being rewarded not for reach, but for control. Its business model — grounded in scarcity, heritage, and price insensitivity — appears to have immunized it from the aspirational wobble hitting other houses.
Kering, with group revenue down 14%, remains preoccupied with getting Gucci in order. First-quarter sales at the brand fell 25% — a steeper drop than any of its peers — putting all eyes on Demna, whose appointment as creative director pissed off unsettled investors enough to wipe nearly $3 billion off Kering’s market value the day it was announced. Elsewhere in the group, results weren’t much brighter. Saint Laurent fell 9%, Balenciaga and McQueen underwhelmed, and only Bottega Veneta managed to post a gain — up 4% overall and 7% in retail. Pierpaolo Piccioli has since been tapped to lead the post-Demna Balenciaga (more on that in a moment).
In contrast, Prada Group revenues rose 13% to €1.34 billion, with Miu Miu once again outpacing expectations — up 60% year-on-year. While flagship brand Prada held steady, Miu Miu has become the group’s not-so-secret growth engine, translating cultural cachet into endlessly rising revenue. Versace is also set to join the party, with the Group’s acquisition announced last month and expected to close later this year.
Elsewhere: Valentino, mid-Michele metamorphosis, reported a 2% dip in full-year revenue to €1.31 billion, even as retail sales climbed 5%. Brunello Cucinelli is holding steady, up 10.5% in Q1. Burberry is digging itself out of a failed upmarket pivot. In chasing elevation (via price increases), the brand lost its grip on what consumers actually wanted to buy, resulting in a 22% dip in sales. That said, the MET looks (André 3000, Angela Bassett, Jalen Hurts and Bryonna Hurts, Cardi B, Jodie Turner-Smith, Law Roach, Liu Wen and Roberto Bolle) felt like a promising sign of what Daniel Lee’s Burberry is capable of (greatness).
A world to walk into, not something to walk out with.
Looking at Miu Miu’s rise, what’s most compelling isn’t that the clothes are selling — it’s how the brand has become a master class in selling vibe over category. Rather than segmenting by product or demographic, they’re exporting an aesthetic — one that seems to travel cleanly across fashion, film, art, and culture. **I’d place Loewe in this camp, too**
Last month, the brand staged Tales & Tellers, an immersive installation-slash-performance-slash-film thing that reimagined past runway moments in a Chelsea warehouse. It felt like an art school final project — and notably, nothing was for sale. A rare chance to engage with the brand and the clothes up close, no sales associate’s time wasted or Parisian re-see invite required.
Valentino recently explored a similar move with L’Atelier Sonore, a listening room installed in its Madison Avenue boutique. Curated with Terraforma and architect Francesco Lupia, it traded mannequins for modular velvet seating and ambient vinyl. Though I did not attend the latter, both activations reflect the same shift: fashion as an experience open to both customers and Instagram story savants just passing by.
Perhaps Balenciaga will be taking a similar approach in its post Demna era. As
noted in her sharp read on Pierpaolo Piccioli’s appointment, the clothes are only the cornerstone of the world-building experience. The retail environment must also have a point of view beyond being a point of sale — possibly privileging emotion and experimentation over sales per square foot (à la Printemps).
Piccioli, whose vision at Valentino was often maximalist and overtly sentimental, could bring a new visual language to Balenciaga — one that relies less on memes and more on Cristóbal Balenciaga’s original codes. If his retail world matches the fantasy imagined above (“somewhere between Pee Wee’s Playhouse and the Victorian mansion from Phantom Thread”), we might be entering a new era of designer-led spatial storytelling.
What ties these activations (and imagined stores) together, and what makes them so crucial to this moment in luxury, is how they rethink entry. The (young) aspirational consumer, who once saved up for a Gucci this or a Dior that, is not luxury’s center of gravity. Power is consolidating at two poles: the ultra-wealthy (Hermès, Cucinelli, Richemont), and brands that trade not on product tiers, but on vibe.
The latter does so with a kind of social fluency that enables seamless movement between cultural capital and commercial cool — balancing community-meets-inaccessibility in a way that’s just as challenging as explicit exclusivity but similarly lucrative.
If the old entry point was a lipstick or a sub-$1k bag, the new one might be a room in which fashion is the medium, not the product. Ultimately staging belonging before selling status. Producing a world you walk into, not something you walk out with.
Thanks for letting me empty my brain.
Hope it filled yours with something good.
LOVE YOU, MEAN IT
BECCA
Thoroughly enjoyed this
love love love this <3