The Debrief

Luxury’s best salespeople have always been in demand, but the stakes have changed. As AI automates more of the shopping experience and price hikes strain loyalty, retailers are leaning harder on the one thing a machine can’t replicate: a human salesperson who knows exactly what their clients want. From Nordstrom’s uncapped commissions to Bloomingdale’s dedicated personal shopping suites, the perks on offer for top sellers who can single-handedly move millions of dollars in merchandise show just how valuable the talent has become.

In this episode, senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young is joined by BoF’s retail editor Cathaleen Chen to discuss why luxury’s top salespeople have become some of the industry’s most coveted talent, the lengths retailers are going to attract and retain them and what the high-profile move of stylist Catherine Bloom from Neiman Marcus to Nordstrom reveals about the increasingly competitive market for elite sellers.

Key Insights:
Nordstrom’s recruitment of former Neiman Marcus stylist Catherine Bloom illustrates just how valuable top salespeople have become to luxury retailers. Nordstrom co-chief executive Pete Nordstrom personally courted Bloom, whose longstanding relationships with wealthy clients made her a particularly coveted hire. As Chen notes, retail remains “one of the last industries where you can start at the entry level and work your way up,” with loyalty and long tenure often rewarded.

Saks Global’s financial troubles, which intensified in 2025 following its acquisition of Neiman Marcus, created an opening for competitors looking to recruit top talent from both retailers. With inventory shortages making it harder for stylists to serve their clients, rival department stores spotted an opportunity to lure away established sellers and their valuable customer relationships. “If you’re not giving your clients top tier merchandise, then you really are not fulfilling your duties and serving them as their stylist,” Chen says, adding that several department store executives described the situation as a hiring opportunity.

Retailers typically take two approaches to building a high-performing sales force: developing talent internally or recruiting established sellers from competitors. Butler-Young, citing luxury recruiter Caroline Pill, notes that the essential hard skills are “experience and the client book,” while the soft skills include “charisma ... diligence ... someone that listens maybe more than they speak.”

Even as AI automates more of the shopping experience, the relationships top salespeople build with their clients remain difficult to replicate. “It’s a people business, it’s AI-proof, it’s a relationship business,” Chen says, noting that the value of top sellers lies in “the books that they keep, their Rolodexes.” Some are even invited to their clients’ birthday parties and travel with them.

Top luxury salespeople can command extraordinary perks, including, in Catherine Bloom’s case, a standalone, appointment-only store at Nordstrom. Butler-Young recounts Pete Nordstrom’s enthusiasm for rewarding high performers: “I think it’s great that commission is uncapped, they deserve to make hundreds of [thousands] of dollars.” But Chen questions whether giving star sellers so much preferential treatment risks creating a “shopper monopoly,” with top associates potentially cannibalising sales from their colleagues.

Additional Resources:
Inside the Battle for Luxury’s Million-Dollar Salespeople | BoF
Pete Nordstrom on the Enduring Power of Retail’s ‘Best Mousetrap’ | The BoF Podcast
Olivier Bron on Making Bloomingdale’s Desirable Again | BoF
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For years, a coveted pair of Air Jordans could send sneaker fans into a frenzy. But when Nike brought back the black-and-blue Air Jordan 1 Royal this month, the response was muted — days after release, the shoe was still available in several sizes, with some pairs reselling below retail.

BoF correspondent Mike Sykes, who has been reporting on Nike’s search for its next big hit, joins senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young on The Debrief to break down what the tepid reception reveals about the wider company, and whether chief executive Elliott Hill’s pivot toward sport — in women’s basketball, running and recovery — can translate into lasting growth.

Key Insights:

The muted reception to the Air Jordan 1 Royal exposes a deeper problem than one slow-selling shoe. “There is a very obvious downswing that has happened with… the most popular Jordan silhouettes, these retro Jordans that usually work,” Sykes says. “They don’t really know what it is that people want from them right now. The classic retro styles that worked five years ago, ten years ago just don’t work right now.”

Nike is pulling back on Jordan drops to restore exclusivity, but Sykes doesn’t think supply discipline alone fixes the brand. “Scarcity is not the magic pill that will solve all the problems that Jordan Brand has,” he says. Virgil Abloh’s “The Ten” is held up as proof of what real cultural impact looks like — and how hard it is to manufacture on demand: “Nike could use another version of The Ten right now, but you can’t just pull The Ten out of thin air. That’s something that happens over time.”

CEO Elliott Hill’s bet on women’s basketball and running is showing early signs of life. “With Nike basketball on the women’s side specifically, I think there is a lot of energy right now,” Sykes says of signature shoes for A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark and Sabrina Ionescu. Running, meanwhile, is up double digits — though far from uncontested: “I would categorise this as one of the bright spots, but there is a lot of competition in the marketplace.”

Products like the Nike Mind 001 clog and Hyperice gear target the booming wellness category, even if the price tags give Sykes pause. “Would you buy a $250 pair of slides? Probably not,” he says. “But I think that every little bit counts for the space that the brand is in right now.”

Asked for the one signal that would show Nike is turning a corner, Sykes points to resale. “The aftermarket shows me how much people actually covet these shoes,” he says. “And I don’t really see people valuing the brand a lot as it is right now.”

Additional Resources:
Has Nike Done Lasting Damage to Jordan Brand? | BoF
Nike Kicks the Can Down the Road Again | BoF
The Debrief | Is Nike Finally Winning With Women? | BoF
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Fashion has long been obsessed with youth, treating young shoppers as both trendsetters and the engine of growth. Yet brands including Evereve, Ulla Johnson, Frances Valentine and Poppy & Peonies are finding opportunities in catering to women in their 40s, 50s and beyond, a demographic with significant spending power and brand loyalty that rarely features prominently in fashion campaigns.

On this week's episode of The Debrief, senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young and US editor Diana Pearl examine why brands are still afraid to make the older shopper the face of a campaign, what “multi-generational selling” actually requires, and how founders, sales associates and even a customer’s own social circle can become a brand’s most powerful marketing tool.

Key Insights:

Young consumers may drive fashion’s cultural conversation, but older shoppers wield significant purchasing power. As Pearl puts it: “What [youth] don’t often have is the spending power... there’s so much discussion about how boomers are the wealthiest generation.”

Brands will chase an older customer’s wallet but hesitate to put her face on a billboard. Pearl traces this to “a lot of ingrained misogyny in not just fashion, but in our society,” where women over 40 are seen as less interesting to market to — even though, she argues, “when [we] see older women who are chic, who are beautiful, stylish, who are successful, there’s an aspirational element to that.”

The brands succeeding aren’t just targeting a specific age cohort— they’re building for mothers, daughters and grandmothers at once. “If you can sell to the mother, the daughter, the grandmother... that just gives you access to such a wide swath of consumers,” Pearl says, dubbing it a brand’s “superpower” because it builds “long-term loyalty and deep connection with the brand.”

Long before the creator economy, community tastemakers shaped what women bought — they just weren’t on Instagram. “There’s always been that girl... who always had the best product recommendations, always knew of the hot new cool brands,” says Pearl. Those women, she says, were the nano-influencers of their time — holding “an immense amount of sway over their friends and their communities.”

Many of the brands successfully courting older shoppers are founder-led, with personal connections playing a central role in building customer loyalty. For brands looking to replicate those relationships at scale, store associates can play a critical role. Pearl’s advice: “really educating... store teams, particularly store managers, and empowering them to empower their associates, to build those relationships.”

Additional Resources:
Fashion’s Next Growth Opportunity Isn’t Gen Z | BoF
Fashion Wakes Up to the ‘Silver Generation’ Opportunity | BoF
Why Brands Cast Older Celebrities to Court Younger Consumers | BoF
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A $15,000 mechanical bird named Molly has become an unlikely flashpoint for retail. After pop star Kelly Clarkson accused Brooklyn boutique Art of Play of treating her “like Julia Roberts’ character” in Pretty Woman, the dispute ignited a much bigger debate about customer service, training and who bears the brunt of bad retail experiences.

In this episode, senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young is joined by Jessica Kwon, who recently examined why poor customer service remains so pervasive across retail, and retail editor Cathaleen Chen, who spearheaded BoF’s coverage of the world’s best independent stores. Together, they explore why retailers struggle to get service right — and what it takes to deliver a better shopping experience.

Key Insights:

Kwon connects the Clarkson incident to a longer pattern of retail profiling. “There’s a reason there’s this dedicated phrase, ‘shopping while Black’, that points to this phenomenon of Black customers being disproportionately scrutinized and surveilled,” she says, noting Oprah, Cardi B and Savannah James have all described similar treatment.
Chen is skeptical of the theory that cold treatment drives luxury sales. “I personally find that very hard to believe,” she says, arguing the opposite is now true: “I don’t think that a true luxury shopping environment should make anyone feel intimidated or condescended upon.”
For Chen, salaried-plus-commission models — like those at Elyse Walker — build loyalty because staff see a path up. “The CEO of Aritzia – she started at that company as a sales associate,” she says, tying good service to employees who “feel like they have a stake in the store.”
Chen points to average tenures of five to six months as the real culprit behind inconsistent service. “It’s really not enough time... to soak up the culture of the brand and feel like you are a part of this environment,” she says.
Kwon links pandemic-era social isolation to a generational shift in what good service looks like. “A lot of young people want to be left alone,” she says, adding that attentive service can now read as “a little obsequious.”

Additional Resources:
Why Is It Still So Painful to Shop in Stores? | BoF
The Best Fashion Stores in the World | BoF
How to Build the Retail Customer Service Dream Team | BoF
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Fashion's biggest wave of creative-director musical chairs is now a year or so in, and the early read is starting to emerge. Over a dozen major houses have brought in new leadership, and while the broader luxury market is still sluggish, the areas designers can actually move — product, image, storytelling — are showing real signs of life. On a global scale, Chanel is seeing an immediate commercial payoff under Matthieu Blazy, Gucci looks to be stabilising under Demna, and at Dior, Jonathan Anderson's vision is starting to take shape.

In this episode, senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young is joined by BoF's Chief Luxury Correspondent Robert Williams, who has spent the last few weeks on the ground in Milan and Paris covering the shows. Williams runs through the designer reboots at Chanel, Gucci, Dior, Celine, Loewe, Givenchy, Balenciaga and Saint Laurent — and separates the resets that are paying off from the ones still searching for a formula.

Key Insights:

Williams calls Chanel's revamp under Matthieu Blazy the standout of the cycle, with sales up around 16 percent in the first half of the year. "It's very easy to understand, to digest. It's very visually him, it's very Chanel," he says. The house’s next challenge, Williams says, is balancing the consistency Blazy has established with newness and innovation: :"There needs to be some kind of a formula... at the same time, they need to always make sure they're investing in having new ideas."

After a polarizing debut in February, Demna's September show for Gucci clicked. "He was able to bring what he's really good at, which is documenting the way people dress in real life," Williams says, though he's candid that the product left a bit more to be desired: "I'm not sure that the product has caught up with the vision... the collection still has a little bit of a ways to go."

At Dior, Jonathan Anderson has sharpened the brand's image quickly, but the clothes are proving trickier to land. Where previous collections felt overcomplicated to some, he sees progress this season: "It felt more cohesive to me and it felt refreshingly just pretty."

At Celine, Michael Rider has taken a more evolutionary approach to the house after Hedi Slimane. Williams says Rider has brought “something looser, more playful … a bit more of a focus on design.” Loewe’s JackMcCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, meanwhile, also resisted a wholesale reinvention after Jonathan Anderson: “They've managed to keep the brand pillars going, but rather than the focus being so much about innovation and intellect, they've moved it to the body, to the senses,” Williams says.

At Balenciaga, as reports mount that Pierpaolo Piccioli could already be on the way out, Williams argues the house got its strategy inverted: "They kept a lot of the merchandising plan, but they changed the message, the values."

At Saint Laurent, with Anthony Vaccarello reportedly exiting after nearly a decade of laser-focused vision, Williams calls it one of the most compelling stories to watch: As luxury fashion became obsessed with relatability and lifestyle, “Vaccarello was running in the opposite direction" The opportunity, and the risk, lies in broadening that identity: "How to build on that without upsetting the apple cart is going to be really risky but also hugely interesting to watch."

Additional Resources:
Fashion’s Designer Reset (Kind of) Worked | BoF
Luxury’s Mid-Year Review | BoF
Has Demna Solved Gucci’s Identity Crisis? | BoF
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