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On the Glossy Podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and international reporter Zofia Zwieglinska break down some of the biggest fashion news of the week.
This week, we take a look at the consolidation of Teen Vogue under Vogue, including the laying off of all its politics writers. We also talk about the ongoing battle between Shein and French authorities over its newly opened store in Paris and the blocking of Shein’s website in France. Lastly, we discuss the departure of Olivier Rousteing from Balmain after he spent 14 years as its creative director.
Later in the episode, Danny is joined by Sarah Davis, co-founder and president of the luxury fashion resale company Fashionphile.
The break-in at the Louvre last month was a major scandal for France and led to tens of millions of dollars worth of jewelry going missing. While arrests have been made, the jewelry has yet to be recovered.
With millions of dollars worth of merchandise on Fashionphile’s shelves, Davis is familiar with both the intense security measures required to keep valuable products safe and the gut-punch feeling when merchandise goes missing. Below are a few highlights from the conversation with Davis about how Fashionphile and other luxury companies keep their stores safe. Her comments have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
The inevitability of theft
Davis: “It’s something I’ve thought about for 20 years, because it is a concern. And at the end of the day, unfortunately, it’s part of the business that there will be thefts, or at least attempts. At Fashionphile, we just focus on trying to minimize the damage, minimize what people can get away with.”
Fashionphile’s security measures
Davis: “Everything in the store is tethered down. We have a unique shelving design that we’ve co-created, and it’s a slot system where everything is tethered into a slot that goes into the wall. They can still try, but they need to bring tools, wirecutters and everything. And then, if you get into the cage, where we keep the really valuable bags, you basically need to blowtorch through it. From everything we’ve seen, whenever there’s been a break-in attempt, people are in and out in 45 seconds. If we can just make it inconvenient for them, it goes a long way.”
Keeping the team safe
Davis: “What I tell our team is: Don’t try to be the hero. We don’t care about the bags. They’re insured. It’s OK. I would not be able to sleep at night if any of our team got hurt. When we’ve had break-ins, we’ve had young employees traumatized by them. It’s a violating feeling to have someone come in and smash up your store. You don’t know what someone could do. We have SOPs [standard operating procedures] for situations like that, and I tell people to get behind the counter, go in the back room, and hit the panic buttons under the counters. Keep yourself safe. That’s most important.”
