The Fearless Fund will end its Strivers Grant Contest, which provided funds to Black women entrepreneurs, as part of a settlement reached this week with the American Alliance for Equal Rights.

The group, led by conservative activist Edward Blum, sued the investment firm last year, arguing the programme — which awarded $20,000 to successful applicants — was unconstitutional and violated the Civil Rights Act of 1866 because only Black women are eligible for the award.

In an interview this week with CBS News on Friday, Fearless Fund founding partner and chief executive Arian Simone, called the settlement a “win,” noting that the majority of the allocated funds had already been distributed before the AAER filed suit.

The fund has continued to allocate millions of dollars to women of colour founders, throughout the litigation process, Simone said, and that it would continue to do so.

“We were deploying grants just about two weeks ago … we have been operating, fully functioning,” she said, adding that “our commitment to women of colour is unwavering.”

Since its inception in 2018, Fearless Fund has invested in Black-owned beauty brands Bread Beauty, Brown Girl Jane and The Lip Bar among others.

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US Court Halts Minority Grant Programme at Centre of Legal Challenge

The Fearless Fund must pause its Strivers Grant Contest, which awards funds to Black women entrepreneurs, pending the outcome of a lawsuit from a conservative group alleging such grants are unconstitutional.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s luxury brand The Row has received financial backing from the families behind Chanel and L’Oréal, The Business of Fashion can report, confirming a Thursday story by Bloomberg.

Investment funds controlled by the families of Chanel’s Wertheimer brothers and L’Oréal’s Françoise Bettencourt Meyers have taken a minority stake in the brand at around a $1 billion valuation. Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet also joined the investment via her Imaginary Ventures fund, as did Moda Operandi co-founder Lauren Santo Domingo.

BoF breaks down the deal for the famously expensive and secretive brand.

What sets The Row apart?

Since being founded by former child stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in 2006, The Row has overturned expectations for a celebrity-owned brand with its exclusive positioning and rigorous approach to design (Hermès womenswear creative director Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski and Quira founder Veronica Leoni have both previously worked on its collections).

With ultra-high price points, luxe fabrication and a logo-free aesthetic, The Row has steadily emerged as America’s answer to Loro Piana — selling, for example, cashmere coats handmade in Italy, for $6250. Garments are designed with a contemporary edge that takes cues from Phoebe Philo-era Celine and Martin Margiela-era Hermès.

Since founding The Row, the Olsens have distanced their celebrity status from the brand’s identity. “It was a genius move,” Jess Graves, editor of the shopping newsletter The Love List said. “It clarified The Row as a serious fashion brand.”

To date, neither of the sisters is on social media, and The Row’s Instagram account posts mainly photos of art. The label recently reinforced its controlled image and air of mystery at its autumn-winter 2024 presentation, where it asked guests to refrain from using their phones to record photos or videos.

In the age of social media overload, such restraint has only fuelled the brand’s elusive buzz.

Who invested in The Row?

Chanel’s Wertheimer family, via their investment vehicle Mousse Partners and L’Oréal’s Françoise Bettencourt Meyers via the family’s Téthys fund, have invested in the brand at a valuation around $1 billion.

In terms of solidifying The Row’s image as a true luxury player, the investors could not have been more on brand.

“The Wertheimers and the Bettencourt Meyers are intimately familiar with the luxury industry, so this is an incredible vote of confidence,” New York-based luxury consultant Robert Burke said.

Imaginary Ventures, whose founding partner Natalie Massenet launched Net-a-Porter, also joined the investment.

Moda Operandi co-founder Lauren Santo Domingo invested as well, via her private investment fund St. Dominique Capital.

What made The Row an attractive investment?

Interest in The Row and its designs continues to climb nearly two decades after its founding, confirming the concept’s long-term potential.

“The Row is positioned as an extremely attractive opportunity for a long-term player” like the Wertheimers and Bettencourt Meyers families, Burke said.

A cashmere dress from The Row retails for $8900, sweaters are priced between $1420 to $3590.

By targeting ultra-high-net-worth individuals, The Row is well positioned to navigate the general malaise affecting the luxury segment. Top-end players with strong ready-to-wear offers like Zegna and Bruno Cucinelli have continued to grow this year amid a broader slowdown for the segment, while harder-hit players like Kering emphasised difficulties selling to less wealthy “aspirational” clients.

“If you’re collecting $3000 sweaters, fluctuations in the economy probably aren’t going to affect your discretionary income very much,” said Graves.

On The Row’s website, there is no option to organise items by price.

The Row saw increased brand momentum in recent seasons due to the “quiet luxury” discourse on social media, which expressed customers’ boredom with logo-driven merchandising.

How big is The Row’s business?

The Row does not communicate on its business, and did not respond to a request for comment.

Last year, Kering acquired 30 percent of Valentino at a valuation of roughly 16 times EBITDA and four times revenue.

A deal in line with those multiples would suggest The Row has revenues of at least $250 million and operating profit north of $60 million. That’s in line with a Financial Times report that estimated the brand’s sales between $250 and $300 million. Analyst Luca Solca estimated the brand’s business within a similar range.

But the luxury market has deteriorated over the past year, suggesting lower multiples (and potentially a bigger business) for The Row. The Row also has a significant exposure to wholesale, meaning the brand’s size in the market could be much higher than estimates for its revenue once stockists’ markups are taken into account.

What is the growth opportunity?

The Row has built its business almost entirely through women’s fashion — menswear remains a limited offer — and is sold through select wholesalers and just a handful of stores.

The brand has four retail locations: New York, Los Angeles, the Hamptons and London, with a Paris location announced last month.

Pushing further into retail could fuel higher sales and profit, as the brand gains visibility in key shopping districts and reclaims its markup from wholesalers.

“The brand has limited distribution right now,” said Burke. “There will probably be some strategic store openings; they know they can show the product in its spirit better than anyone … It has great appeal in Asia, even more appeal in Europe.”

Starting from a top-end positioning, the brand could expand into new categories: growing its menswear business or launching homeware, perfume and beauty.

“Whatever their growth plan, I don’t see it being a juggernaut,” said Graves, “Slow and steady suits them.”

Why was The Row seeking capital?

Projects like branching out into menswear, or the recent store expansions to Paris and Amagansett (in the Hamptons) are capital intensive. “Fashion is an expensive business, even when you’re growing and successful,” said Burke.

The Row likely plans to use the investment to further fuel the brand’s momentum.

The Row has also sought investors at a time when demand for high-end, logo-free fashion is still flying high after a post-pandemic surge, making it a savvy time for an exit. (The company did not respond to a request for comment on whether the deal was for new shares, the shares of existing investors, or both. The Olsens retain a large majority interest, a source familiar with the matter said.)

Alongside the financial stake, savvy investors like the Wertheimers, Bettencourt Meyers, Massenet and Santo Domingo can guide The Row as it works to grow its business while staying a luxurious course.

What are the risks for The Row?

Key to the brand’s long-term success will be juggling its exclusive allure with the right pace of growth for items like its signature Margeaux bag, a $7000 style that has been compared to Hermes’ Birkin.

“I think the adoption of mainstream influencers wearing the [Margeaux] will ultimately hurt its allure. They likely need to pull back on wholesale availability,” Graves said.

Maintaining an exceptional quality standard is also essential to the brand’s positioning — and to avoid repeating a recent flop.

Last summer’s $900 viral jelly shoes, “broke on nearly everyone who bought them,” said Graves. The brand ultimately stopped production.

An Indian antitrust investigation has found US e-commerce giant Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart violated local competition laws by giving preference to select sellers on their shopping websites, according to confidential reports seen by Reuters.

The Competition Commission of India in 2020 ordered an investigation into Amazon and Flipkart for allegedly promoting certain sellers with which they had business arrangements and giving priority to certain listings.

In a 1,027-page report on Amazon and a separate 1,696-page report on Flipkart, both dated Aug. 9, the CCI investigators said the two companies were found to have created an ecosystem where preferred sellers appeared higher in search results, elbowing out other sellers.

“Each of the anti-competitive practices alleged ... were investigated and found to be true,” said both reports, which are not public and are being reported by Reuters for the first time.

“Ordinary sellers remained as mere database entries,” the two reports said in identical conclusions on both companies.

Amazon and Flipkart, as well as the CCI, did not immediately respond to Reuters queries. They have previously denied wrongdoing and said their practices are in line with Indian laws.

The two companies will now review the report and file any objections before CCI staff decide on any potential fines.

The investigation’s findings are the latest setback for Amazon and Flipkart in a country where they continue to face criticism for their business practices from smaller retailers, who say their businesses have suffered in recent years due to deep discounts offered online.

The investigation was triggered by a complaint from Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, a group of brick-and-mortar retailers.

Amazon and Flipkart are leading players in India’s e-retail market which was estimated to be worth $57-60 billion in 2023, and set to top $160 billion in value by 2028, consultancy firm Bain estimates.

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission has sued Amazon alleging the company uses “anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power.” Amazon has said that the FTC lawsuit is wrongheaded and would hurt consumers by leading to higher prices and slower deliveries.

Indian investigators raided certain sellers of Amazon and Flipkart during the probe, following a Reuters investigation in 2021 which was based on Amazon internal documents and showed the company gave preferential treatment for years to a small group of sellers on its platform, and used them to bypass Indian laws.

The company has denied any wrongdoing but the CCI previously told an Indian court the Reuters special report corroborated evidence it had against Amazon.

The CCI investigation report on Amazon said preferred sellers on the platform “get the advantage in the (online) listing” and when a customer searches for any product, “his attention is drawn towards” those listings.

The practice of preferential listings and deep discounting of mobile phones - including selling products below cost price - causes a “catastrophic impact on the existing competition in the market.”

In the report on Flipkart, the CCI said preferred sellers were provided various services such as marketing and delivery at a “miniscule cost.” They were also enabled by Flipkart to sell phones with deep discounts which amounts to “predatory pricing” and forecloses competition, the CCI said.

“The anti-competitive practices are not limited to sales of mobile phones. They are equally prevalent in other categories of goods,” both reports said.

Flipkart and Amazon for months tried to block the investigation through legal challenges in courts, but the Supreme Court in 2021 allowed it to go ahead.

Last month, India’s commerce minister publicly called out Amazon by saying the company’s investments were often used to cover its business losses.

Amazon in June last year said it will increase its Indian investment to $26 billion by 2030, including for its cloud business. It is also targeting merchandise exports worth $20 billion from India by 2025.

By Aditya Kalra; Additional reporting by Aditi Shah, editing by Deepa Babington

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Amazon Opens Its Largest Campus Worldwide, in India

The Seattle-based company is making an ambitious push in India, the last major retail frontier still primarily reliant on small-scale neighbourhood and mom-and-pop stores.

Macy’s is looking to address gaps with its menswear customers by launching a new private label aimed at contemporary males shoppers.

On Thursday, the retailer unveiled “Mode of One,” a menswear line spanning styles from relaxed suiting to casual streetwear offerings, such as graphic T-shirts and baseball jerseys, and ranging in price from $25 to $160. Macy’s designed it based on research it conducted among its 25 to 40-year-old customers and is aiming it towards an evolving menswear shopper who’s also tightening their wallet.

“He’s really someone who’s a modern contemporary guy who wants to embrace a bolder and more expressive style,” said Macy’s SVP of private brand strategy, Emily Erusha-Hilleque. “So we doubled down on statement-making designs and really anchored the brand into those principles and values that are centred around individuality.”

Mode of One aligns with Macy’s efforts to reinvigorate its men’s business. On the company’s earnings call in August, Macy’s chief executive Tony Spring said it was “addressing the weaknesses in men’s apparel” and that contemporary styles were “a bright spot” for its men’s business.

It also fits into the retailer’s strategy to scale private labels to 25 percent of sales by 2025, up from 15 percent in 2023. The company has been phasing out older private labels to usher in new ones, dropping women’s ready-to-wear brands such as Charter Club and Karen Scott while introducing lines like sleepwear label State of Day and relaunching kids brand Epic Threads. Currently there are 26 private labels in Macy’s portfolio, with Mode of One arriving shortly after the launch of Macy’s newest women’s line, On 34th, which debuted in July 2023.

“It was less about saying goodbye to some brands and more about saying hello to what’s new, fresh and relevant,” said Sam Archibald, Macy’s general business manager of apparel.

Erusha-Hilleque added that those brands “needed to be put in a modern context as it relates to connection to culture and what customers care about now.”

Mode of One doesn’t just offer trendy products but also refreshed menswear marketing that follows the playbook of buzzy brands like Aimé Leon Dore. The looks were styled by Ouigi Theodore, founder of menswear label The Brooklyn Circus. Ambassadors tapped for its social-first campaign include Knicks basketball players Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, the viral Atlanta-based barber VicBlends and James Beard Award-winning chef Kwame Onwuachi.

Archibald says Macy’s is also addressing younger male shoppers by reintroducing Nike into its product assortment as the sneaker giant leans back towards wholesale after a radical direct-to-consumer shift and expanding its business with brands like Fanatics, Hugo Boss and Karl Lagerfeld.

But will Macy’s push into contemporary menswear translate on the sales floor? Jeff Sward, co-founder of the consultancy Merchandising Metrics, says Mode of One’s diverse and large product assortment could blur out the brand’s larger story, which he believes drives private labels today more than replicating trendy products.

“There’s no real compelling story being told like there is with On 34th,” said Sward. “Today’s market demands that retailers do private label, but they have to execute it like a real live brand. Macy’s can do it and has done it before, but they need to up their game a little bit with the men’s efforts for sure.”

The restructuring of Macy’s private-label business comes at a critical moment when the company is shuttering 150 stores by 2026 as a part of its “A Bold New Chapter” turnaround plan. Despite a tough macro-economic environment, Erusha-Hilleque doesn’t think the private label business has really changed since her time at Target, a private-label trailblazer where she worked as the design director of ready-to-wear from 2017 to 2022.

“My philosophy around building successful private brands is the same. You have to build brands that are customer centric and human-centred,” said Erusha-Hilleque. “If they can see themselves in the brand that you’re creating, you will continue to win.”