Danielle Bernstein is entering the beauty category.
WeWoreWhat's fragrance will soon be at Ulta.
Good morning everyone. Today’s letter includes a conversation with Danielle Bernstein about her new fragrance launch, Sweetgreen’s dedication to making people wear salad merch, and an outpouring of Thanksgiving recipe content.
Danielle Bernstein launched a fragrance.
And the bottle is inspired by her Tribeca Loft.
The reason this works is because Bernstein is excellent at world-building. Her home is a set on the greater stage of New York City, which is where the spectacle of her brand WeWoreWhat takes place.
This morning, WWD wrote that Bernstein is launching a scent called WeWoreWhat 001, which will retail at $28 for a travel spray and $79 for a full-sized bottle — first online, and in Ulta by 2025. Parlux, the fragrance portfolio that includes Paris Hilton and Billie Eilish, worked with Bernstein on production and Jerome Epinette, who has worked brands like Byredo and Sol De Janeiro, developed the fragrance.
I reached out to Bernstein this morning to find out why she was confident about fragrance as a new category for her business:
“We take our time when developing new categories and make sure that there is product market fit. We always aim to delivery quality, luxury-like products at an affordable price point — we have spent over a year developing this scent. Fragrance has been a question I’ve been getting asked about for years now, so I knew it would resonate with my community.
2025 will hold another new category launch but in a difference space - propelling WeWoreWhat to truly becoming a lifestyle brand.”
I’m guessing home decor is on the horizon.
Influencer and celebrity-driven brands have been hit or miss for investors over the years. We see many of these brands launch, get shelf space in retailers, and quietly vanish over the course of a year (Sephora dropped both Hyram Yarbro and Addison Rae’s brands last year).
But Bernstein, although divisive to her critics (which she discusses openly), seems to be building a profitable, multi-retailer business with dozens of employees. Investors are licking their wounds after iOS 14 updates — it’s harder than ever to acquire new customers, but WeWoreWhat has several existing revenue channels as well as stockists including Bloomingdales, Saks, and Shopbop, plus an engaged following of over 3 million on Instagram.
I’m fascinated by influencer businesses. I’ve written about Paige Lorenze, who has become a retail powerhouse (she’s launching cookware this weekend which will surely become a Christmas hit) while building a universe around countryside Connecticut. Pia Baroncini is doing something similar with her Italian-in-Pasadena brand, Baroncini Import and Co (she keeps hinting on her podcast that we’re about to see a lot more from that business).
Quality and innovation matters in all of these cases, but it’s clear that what the followers of these women really want is to step into their lives for a few minutes each day. In Bernstein’s case today, that means taking New York nightlife, the streets of Tribeca, the girlboss experience, sandalwood, amber, patchouli, and bottling it up.
If we had a water cooler, I’d talk to you about:
It’s time for legacy media to build a new social media playbook.
Some gossip from the West Coast: “Carbone taking over Catch Steak in LA, it bombed.” If true, that will be Major Food Group’s first spot in California.
FT’s editors launched their gift guides this morning. Laila Gohar suggests a $19,000 Tiffany cuff, Ajesh Patalay suggests £115 egg scissors (curious about these).
Sweetgreen is investing heavily in the merch game. This morning, they announced an $120 Kale Camo hoodie. I’ll let you guys discuss that in the comments.
New menswear column just dropped on Magasin! This is a byline I drop everything for — this week he wrote about the evolution of GorpCore, which is heading towards something softer and less technical. “If the man-made textures of Gorp are all about optimizing for the biggest life possible, there’s something soothing and depressurizing about being happy to stay warm in fabrics that—while not designed for scaling Everest—at least kept all of your ancestors warm as they walked.” Hobbit-mode activated.
This morning, NYT Cooking published their Thanksgiving pie package. This is always a really beautifully-shot story. Last year, Claire Saffitz developed all the recipes. The year before that, Genevieve Ko developed the recipes (I really liked the UI that year, and New York Magazine also crushed pie photography that year). The Times’ pie video with Vaughn on YouTube has only been up for a few hours, but viewers are already excited in the comments.
“A modern day Martha Stewart. Absolutely living for this. Give us more more more!”
is also getting great reception on her Friendsgiving YouTube video.
I enjoyed ’s October reading list, including some of her sentiments about delusional characters in the books she read. “There are times I wish someone would tell these characters that it’s probably wise to allow room for the possibility that they are indeed the problem. What’s so wrong with it being your fault? I find power in that—in considering that the problem might be me, and that I can therefore change my situation.”
Did you know that , founder of Bobbi Brown and Jones Road Beauty, also owns a hotel in New Jersey? The hotel, THE GEORGE, announced a partnership with Williams Sonoma Home today. I texted her this morning to learn more about the collection, which is described online as taking inspiration from menswear and British, and “dogs, dogs, dogs.”
“I’m beyond excited for this collab. Being a designed-focused creative and a practical hospitality and home designer, I’m excited to share these with everyone. And I like nothing better than doing projects I have no idea how to do.”
Really loved the piece you linked by Ochuko Akpovbovbo. The quote you selected specifically reminds me of a moment of clarity I had with therapy - my own personal experience with it and something I noticed with other people's therapy as well (based on what they tell you and how they act, because of course we can't know). I knew I was a problem going into therapy, and I wanted to understand why I acted the way I did and how I could stop. The world is never going to adapt to you - you must adapt to it. Literally every living thing lives and dies on this planet in an attempt to adapt to it. I don't know if it's just the way I see it, but it seems to be this idea amongst millennials and Gen Zs that, to some extent, the world needs to adapt to you, and any failure to do so is in dire need of correction. In some ways this is true: racism, sexism, any kind of bigotry... all that needs to change. But this seems to have been extended to people's mirco-needs as well: trigger-warnings, censorship of sex, Jonah Hill-type weaponized therapy speak. I think about all the comments from older generations about millennials and Gen Zs work place needs and demands too.
Anyway, my therapist was always taking my side, even when I knew I was in the wrong. It really bothered me, so I ended therapy and just... chilled out. Just like that. I stopped reacting to things the way I usually did and my life got better. I just... controlled myself. You do that enough and you do change, because you are your habits. Then I noticed just how many people I knew had problems that stemmed from the way they reacted to things instead of just adapting, whether that meant cooling off or simply changing their circumstances to avoid other bad situations (workplace, family, or romantic).
I think we all live in a little delusion. I think it benefits us! But you also need to know when to snap out of it and look at the world around you more carefully. It's a little drug, you just need to know the right dose. I think one of the best things you can do is keep a sober opinion of yourself and then surround yourself with people who are equally honest. Almost every famous artist eventually looses their touch, and I wonder how often that is because they are surrounded by "yes men" and therefore, give in to a delusion (look at Kanye and Madonna).
Sorry I feel like whenever I comment I ramble, but this was thought provoking! Thank you :).
I do wish our generations would be less enthusiastic about branded merch though. I do not like the kale camo... it feels like a punchline.
I have no constructive criticism on the SG merch and the continued Bushwickification of camo but in food related news, it's SO cool to watch wishbone kitchen thriving!!! I'm always surprised and never in a cringey way about how she's handled her growth and taken her audience with her...it feels exceedingly rare to feel genuinely happy for an influencer but I just adore her! (the way feed me literally is my watercooler haha)