Sephora, Shopify, and Crumbs.

And I'm considering going to Miami.

On Saturday I gave a talk at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where I graduated from in 2016. The panel had people who work on creative teams from places like Google and J Crew. The reason we were there was that it was Family Day, so in addition to students having questions, many concerned parents did too. They wanted to know how their kids would get jobs after graduating, they wanted to know how we deal with competition, they wanted to know what we’d all look for when hiring new talent.

My advice is consistent to everyone who asks me (whether that’s someone at a panel or someone in my DM’s or someone at work). I like staying late at the office. I like expanding my definition of work horizontally — that is to say I don’t depend on a day job to keep me paid. I told the room on Saturday that one strategy I implemented to get paid internships during the school year was to take night classes so I was more available than other candidates who could only work in the summer or 1-2 days a week. I think if I was a current student at FIT in a business major and an awareness of the job market, I would probably go work on the floor at Sephora start an anonymous newsletter or pitch an anonymous column reviewing products. I’d also probably try to build a robust Instagram presence for all the brands looking for mobile content creators.

Some news.

• Sephora (owned my LVMH) is relaunching in the UK this month. Research indicates that “in August this year, Sephora foot traffic in the US was up in the beauty and spa sector by 33.3 per cent on the same period in 2019. Some Sephora stores have seen increases in foot traffic as high as 45.5 per cent, compared to the same month in 2020, data estimates suggest.” This follows the retail trends I wrote about last week in relation to Target and Walmart’s expansion. Also similar to Walmart’s pop-up story from last week, Sephora’s president Sylvie Moreau said they’ll continue incubating small brands within retain stores. “Moreau says the company wants to find another ‘10 or so’ very small brands and give them a launch platform with Sephora. ‘We are making big bets on these brands,’ she says.”