Coach’s leather goods were on display on two very different runways on Monday.

In the afternoon, models walked along the north end of New York’s High Line park, decked out in looks from the brand’s spring/summer 2025 collection — oversized jackets and blazers, distressed graphic t-shirts, leather mini-skirts and more — to an audience of celebrities and fashion industry insiders. Meanwhile, just hours earlier and three miles to the south, the brand’s parent company, Tapestry, rolled in racks of handbags at the US District Court in lower Manhattan for a very different, and perhaps more consequential, kind of spectacle.

The trial between Tapestry, which also owns Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman, and the Federal Trade Commission, which has sued to block its $8 billion acquisition of its rival, Michael Kors owner Capri, citing potential antitrust violations, kicked off on Monday. In the coming days, the two will present opposing evidence as US District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon determines whether to accept the FTC’s argument that a Coach and Michael Kors tie-up would eliminate competition in the accessible luxury handbag market and unfairly increase prices. Tapestry’s rack of handbags, which included various brands beyond its portfolio, was meant to demonstrate that consumers have more than enough options. Closing arguments are slated for Sept. 30.

There’s plenty at stake. A merged Tapestry and Capri (which also owns Versace and Jimmy Choo) has a combined $13 billion market cap. Together they perhaps represent the American fashion industry’s best chance at creating a conglomerate to rival French giants LVMH and Kering, which dominate the global luxury market.

“We haven’t had that kind of large luxury or even high contemporary conglomerate in the United States,” said Susan Scafidi, academic director at the Fashion Law Institute. “This kind of a merger would be not anti-competitive but procompetitive when you look at the global picture.”

“We remain fully confident in the merits of this transaction and the ways in which it will benefit consumers,” a Tapestry spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

A Semantics Battle

In court on Monday, Tapestry and the FTC duked it out over what is and isn’t accessible luxury.

Nicole Lindquist, an attorney with the FTC, took the stand to establish that Coach and Michael Kors are directly competitive in this market — which the agency defines as items priced between $100 and $1,000, made in separate factories from higher-end goods and sold to customers that can’t afford pricier alternatives. As well, she argued the two brands are not in competition with luxury brands like Louis Vuitton or mass-market sellers that offer lesser quality goods at lower prices.

“This case is about working and middle-class women,” Lindquist said, “who are looking for something nice and not willing to break the bank.”

Tapestry’s legal counsel Lawrence Buterman was steadfast in debunking that notion, saying there’s no easy definition of accessible luxury since typical handbag shoppers buy high and low-priced bags.

“Consumers don’t wake up and say ‘I want to buy an accessible luxury handbag,’” Buterman said.

Buterman also reiterated Tapestry’s main argument that there are innumerable direct-to-consumer start-ups that sell handbags for less than $1,000, including Telfar, Cuyana, Brandon Blackwood and Senreve. If Tapestry were to raise prices on bags under a combined Coach and Michael Kors, shoppers could easily migrate to one of those other brands. Lindquist didn’t mention any of these brands in her own opening statement.

Determining antitrust shouldn’t be based on “exercises in semantic gotchas,” Buterman said.

The FTC’s argument that Michael Kors, Coach and Kate Spade dominate the off-price handbag channel — outlet stores — has also received pushback from legal experts. There are countless accessories brands that sell in off-price retailers like TJ Maxx and Nordstrom Rack, and consumers can as easily find good deals on bags ranging from Chanel to Coach online and in-person at resellers like Poshmark, Vestiaire Collective and The RealReal, Scafidi said. As evidence, Buterman presented a Chanel bag the company recently purchased for $900 from an undisclosed reseller during the trial on Monday.

“If you define a market in a small enough way, you’ll ultimately find monopoly power,” Scafidi added. “The fact that consumers can both shop new off-price product and the secondhand product at around the same price point really upends this kind of logic that the FTC has.”

Still, the FTC could get a favourable ruling if the court agrees that Coach and Michael Kors would overwhelmingly dominate the accessible luxury market under the agency’s specific definition. That victory, were it to happen, could send a discouraging message to American brands looking to challenge LVMH, Kering and the Swiss hard luxury player Richemont.

“It would actually limit the development of the fashion industry in the US and limit its growth in that direction,” Scafidi said.

Coach in the Spotlight

In recent years, Coach has transformed its business from a rampant discounter to a go-to for younger shoppers who are willing to buy its $400 Tabby bags and newer silhouettes like its $500 Brooklyn hobo bag — which several guests had on their shoulder at Monday’s show at full price. Coach’s sales jumped 3 percent to $5 billion in its fiscal year that ended in June 2024.

Coach’s runway on Monday certainly made that transition apparent. Nearly everything about the show felt targeted at Gen-Z, from the celebrities who lined the front row (actors Charles Melton and Kathryn Newton, plus “The Summer I Turned Pretty” star Lola Tung) to the models (25-year-old second daughter Ella Emhoff) to the styling of the garments (satin mini dresses were paired with metallic sneakers and crew socks; models wore bag charms shaped like a cassette tape or taxi cab on their shoes).

It also made the argument that its bags appeal to a different cohort than Michael Kors’. Nearly every model in the show carried a bag, but rather than the sleek clutches and carryalls that Michael Kors sent down his last runway (he presents his Spring/Summer 2025 collection on Tuesday), Coach showed a wide array of pieces that were part whimsical, part standard leather goods. There were large backpacks covered in cartoonish stickers (shapes included unicorns, ladybugs and strawberries), shoulder bags affixed with leather charms and covered in quippy doodles like “high level devil” and “dollhouse dreams” and oversized bags in the shape of a teddy bear or Rexy, Coach’s dinosaur mascot.

If the deal goes through, the hope is that Tapestry can deliver the same sort of turnaround for Michael Kors, which saw its revenue drop 14 percent to $675 million in its fiscal first quarter that ended in June as it struggled to maintain demand for its goods amid a broader luxury slowdown.

Now, it’s all a matter of whether or not the court agrees with the FTC.

Additional reporting by Diana Pearl.

Marseille-based fashion brand Sessùn has sold a majority stake to Italian fund Quadrivio, BoF has learned.

Founded in 1996, Sessùn encapsulates a Mediterranean aesthetic inspired by its Southern French roots. Think terracotta and cream tones, breezy versatile clothing, and minimalist handcrafts like ceramic candle holders and wooden spoons. The brand defines itself as “accessible and refined,” favouring consistency over trends.

“We don’t follow the easy road of being presented as a French brand with Parisian style, we do things more subtly,” said Laure Olivier, Sessùn’s chief marketing officer, “but we have a French soul.”

Most dresses from the brand are priced between €175 to €245. As the cost of luxury ready-to-wear surges, interest has been growing among customers and investors alike for more accessibly-priced brands with a French point-of-view. In August, L Catterton acquired a stake in Paris-based leather goods brand Polêne, while the Bettencourt family’s Tethys fund took a stake in French DTC darling Sézane in 2022. Sessùn has tripled its sales from €20 million to €70 million ($77 million) per year since selling a minority stake to Experienced Capital in 2017, with a steady annual growth rate of around 20 percent, the company said. Sessùn has sprouted a network of 80 retail stores and corners, in addition to 400 wholesale stockists.

Now Italian fund Quadrivio has acquired a majority share in Sessùn, snapping up Experienced Capital’s 42.5 percent stake as well as additional shares from the brand’s founder to build a majority position.

Under new ownership, Sessùn hopes to accelerate its international expansion: France accounts for 60 percent of their sales, though within five years Sessùn wants to flip this percentage, aiming for 60-70 percent of their sales to be generated abroad. The expansion will mainly focus on growing its retail business outside of France, although “wholesale is a strong part of the business,” said Olivier.

While Germany and Spain are currently its two biggest international markets, Sessùn has recently gained a foothold in the UK — opening four London boutiques since 2019. Continued growth in the English-speaking world is crucial for the brand’s next phase, with a keen eye on the United States as well. The company launched in the US last season in partnership with Nordstrom.

Experienced Capital previously invested in French womenswear brand Soeur and eyewear label Jimmy Fairly, both times exiting around a similar scale to Sessùn’s. “It is our business model,” Experienced Capital partner Virginie Birade explained. “With their next investors, our brands pursue international growth. It’s a new chapter.”

Quadrivio plans to invest in growing brand awareness and communication, particularly internationally, as the first order of business. “Sessùn is quite well-known in France, but there is a lot of room to grow abroad. Nowadays, people want to be part of a community, we need to create that,” Quadrivio CEO Alessandro Binello said.

Founder Emma François-Grasset will remain the brand’s CEO and artistic director following the deal.

“We will be careful to maintain their DNA, as we believe they have great potential to make a mark in the increasingly important affordable luxury segment,” Binello said.

On the product side, the new investor aims to increase the share of leather goods, with a focus on broadening its offer of shoes and bags. The label just launched the Diviluz bag, which retails from €325, comparable to the price-point of similar bags from brands like Sézane and Polène Paris.

By 2028, Sessùn’s goal is to generate €130 million yearly revenue, without raising prices. “We don’t want to lose anyone. Emma [François-Grasset] does not come from a rich family. Keeping our products accessible is at the brand’s core,” said Olivier.

Known in the past as a key launchpad for luxury beauty labels like Dr. Barbara Sturm, Net-a-Porter’s beauty vertical is switching to an editorial-style affiliate model.

Under the new format, which will begin in 2025, products will be listed on the site through editorial content that will link to brands’ sites to purchase. The Richemont-owned luxury e-tailer will no longer stock beauty products.

Among the brands on its roster that intend to stay on with the new platform are Vintner’s Daughter, U Beauty and Emma Lewisham, with the latter planning to keep a selection of products rather than their full line. Some brand founders said they had not yet been notified of the changes.

As of April 2024, Net-a-Porter had trimmed its brand roster from more than 200 in 2022 to 70, according to reporting by Business of Fashion. Many of the beauty brands removed generated less than $150,000 a year each on the platform. Currently, there are 57 brands listed under its beauty section, including lines such as Westman Atelier, Aesop, Gucci Beauty, Charlotte Tilbury and Byredo.

Learn more:

Beauty E-Commerce Is Broken

Once thought of as long-term disruptors who would change the way we shop forever, multi-brand online retailers that sell cosmetics, skincare and fragrance are facing multiple headwinds.

Former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard was sentenced to 11 years in prison by an Ontario judge after being found guilty on four counts of sexual assault.

Nygard received a sentence of 3.5 years on one of the convictions and 2.5 years on each of the other three charges. Prosecutors had been seeking a total of 15 years.

“Peter Nygard is a sexual predator,” Justice Robert Goldstein of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice said as he outlined his reasons for the rejecting the disgraced former executive’s request for a more lenient six-year sentence. Nygard, the judge said, used his wealth and power to prey on women, then used aggressive tactics and degrading language that left his victims humiliated.

Nygard, 83, was wheeled into court wearing a black jacket with a black hood pulled over his head. He was given a chance to speak in court, but declined.

Nygard faced six different criminal charges in a trial last year. A jury in Toronto convicted him in November of assaulting a number of women, beginning in the 1980s. He was found not guilty on one count of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement.

The women accusing Nygard ranged in age from 16 to their late 20s at the time the attacks took place. The prosecution alleged Nygard had used his wealth and influence in the fashion industry to lure women to his company’s Toronto headquarters, where he assaulted them. Nygard met some of the women on trips to the Bahamas.

Nygard’s sentencing was delayed as he turned over his legal team. During the trial he was represented by Brian Greenspan, who spent weeks challenging the women on their accusations during cross examinations. He quit in January, citing ethical reasons.

Toronto attorney Megan Savard, known for representing musician Jacob Hoggard in a sexual assault trial, took on Nygard’s case until she, too, resigned. Nygard is now being represented by Gerri Wiebe, who told reporters her client will appeal the sentence. She will represent him on criminal charges he faces in the province of Manitoba, she said.

In 2020, Nygard was arrested in Winnipeg on US charges that he trafficked women and girls for sex over a period of 25 years, and the following year he agreed to US extradition on those charges.

He’s been in jail for years and will be given credit for time already served, making him eligible for full parole in 27 months.

Nygard founded Nygard International in the 1960s, which grew to be one of the largest Canadian-owned sellers of women’s clothing. It filed for bankruptcy protection in March 2020.

By Stephanie Hughes

Learn more:

Canadian Fashion Mogul Peter Nygard Guilty of Four Counts of Sexual Assault

Former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault by a Toronto jury on Sunday, according to CBC News.