Five years after Virgil Abloh’s death, the biggest show of his work yet is opening in New York: nearly 1,000 objects, a recreation of his Paris office, and a room where you can open his actual design files. General tickets went on sale Friday, and if you’re a student or an educator, entry is free. Here’s what you need to decide whether to book a December trip.
What happened
The basics. The Virgil Abloh Foundation, in partnership with Nike, will present Virgil Abloh: The Codes at The Shed in New York from Dec. 10, 2026, to Jan. 18, 2027. That’s according to the foundation’s announcement and Nike’s newsroom.
Scale. The show spans 28,000 square feet in The Shed’s McCourt and Darla Moore gallery, with nearly 1,000 objects, curated by Chloe and Mahfuz Sultan.
What’s inside, per the foundation:
A recreation of Abloh’s Pont Neuf office in Paris.
A media lab giving “open access to a selection of Virgil Abloh’s raw design files.”
A retail space co-curated by Justin Saunders, founder of JJJJound.
A month of public programming, with details still to come.
Tickets, per the foundation:
General admission: $25
VIP: $85
Students and educators: free with valid ID
Under 18: free
All ticket proceeds go to the Virgil Abloh Foundation, a 501(c)(3).
General sales opened Oct. 23, after a Shed member presale on Oct. 19 and a Mastercard presale on Oct. 21.
Why now. Shannon Abloh, the foundation’s founder, said: “As we mark the fifth anniversary of Virgil’s passing, this exhibition is an opportunity to honor his tireless spirit and how he changed the way people think about creativity, collaboration, and what is possible.”
Status: CONFIRMED. We used the organizer’s own announcement and Nike’s newsroom, and the two match.
Why people care, and what creators are saying
Abloh’s influence runs from the runway to the club. He was a DJ as well as Louis Vuitton’s menswear artistic director and the founder of Off-White, and his ideas about access still shape how brands talk to young creatives.
– On X:
– Modern Notoriety posted the dates and ticket day.
– Sneaker News asked, “Could a Nike/Jordan release be in the works?” Treat that as speculation. Neither Nike nor the foundation has announced a product.
– Sneaker Freaker noted that the show is coming to New York “after launching in Paris late last year.”
– On YouTube:
– The best primer is still GQ’s Inside Virgil Abloh’s 20,000-Piece Archive, which has more than 530,000 views.
– Nike’s own Virgil CODES series explains the thinking behind the title.
– Creator Nellya Schumpert’s walkthrough, Virgil Abloh: The Codes — Exhibition at Grand Palais Paris 2025, is the closest thing to a preview, though the New York version will be laid out differently.
What it means for you
Should you fly? If you design, style, make content, or study any of it, yes.
The media lab is a rare chance to see a famous designer’s working files, not just finished products.
For a $25 ticket, or free if you’re a student or educator, it’s a strong career investment on top of the flight.
Timing hacks:
The run spans the holidays, so LAX-to-New York fares will spike around Christmas and New Year’s.
The cheaper windows are typically the first two weeks of December and the week after Jan. 4.
Book your timed ticket first, then the flight.
Members and Mastercard holders already had presales, so popular weekend slots may go first.
Students and educators: Bring valid ID. Free entry is part of the foundation’s Open Access initiative.
Shopping: Details of the JJJJound co-curated retail space haven’t been announced. Don’t pay resale for “exhibition merch” listings until the official items are revealed.
Not flying? Watch the GQ archive tour and Nike’s series this weekend, and follow the foundation for the public program, which could include livestreams. Livestreams haven’t been announced.
Our take (opinion)
From first principles: most fashion exhibitions show you the result. This one promises to show you the method, and the method is the valuable part. Abloh’s central idea was that culture is a set of codes anyone can learn and remix, which is why he kept his door open to young designers. A media lab with raw files is that idea turned into a room.
That’s also the risk. A show about access, sponsored by a global brand, with a VIP tier and a retail space, can drift toward being a shop with a museum attached. The free entry for students and educators is the strongest counterweight, and it’s real.
Our test: if the media lab becomes the room people post about, more than the sneakers or the merch, the exhibition did what Virgil would have wanted. We’ll report back from New York if we go.
Willy Chavarria’s adidas collaborations are some of the hardest sneakers and tracksuits to get. Now he’s shaping a permanent adidas line at regular prices, and his name isn’t on the tag. If you’ve ever lost a Chavarria drop to bots, this is the version designed for you to actually buy.
What happened
The launch. adidas Originals launched adiSignature on Friday, Oct. 23, through adidas.com, adidas stores and select retailers. Chavarria is the line’s creative advisor. It’s not a co-branded collab, so his name isn’t on the product.
Reworked Firebird and SST tracksuits in a 420-gram brushed-back fleece.
A New York block pack.
1980s-style color blocking.
A campaign shot by Brianna Capozzi and styled by Georgia Pendlebury.
Chavarria explained the difference himself, to WWD:
“The collabs are built with scarcity intentionally… AdiSignature is not filled with scarcity. This is for longevity. We will replenish when it sells out, but also the price points are super accessible.”
“You’ll see my design approach in the collection, just not my signature.”
He told Wallpaper that “adiSignature is a framework that Adidas and I developed together that will evolve over years.”
US prices we checked on adidas.com Saturday morning:
Both pages say the items are “excluded from most promotions” and run “true to size.”
Status: CONFIRMED. We used the designer’s on-record interviews in two outlets and adidas’ own product pages.
Why people care, and what creators are saying
Chavarria is one of the most-discussed American designers right now. The appeal is a designer with a cult following deliberately making something un-hyped.
– On X:
– Sneaker media flagged the line early: House of Heat posted “adidas Originals Presents Retro-Inspired adiSignature Collection,” and MMSCENE shared the launch.
– One shopper, @juanchulas, wrote in Spanish: “Esa nueva colección de Adidas ADISIGNATURE la quiero toda” (“I want that whole new adidas adiSignature collection”).
– On YouTube:
– Creator coverage of adiSignature itself is thin so far. When we searched Saturday morning, the newest Chavarria videos were about his co-branded sneakers, such as eight one three seven’s Adidas x Willy Chavarria Megaride Bones On Feet.
– For context on why he matters, the channel What’s Contemporary Now? posted How Willy Chavarria Went From Being an Outsider to a Cultural Phenomenon earlier this month.
Expect try-on videos once the fleece reaches people’s closets.
What it means for you
This is the low-stress Chavarria buy.
He said on record that adidas will replenish sold-out styles, so you don’t need to camp on release day or pay resale.
If a size is gone, wait for the restock instead of paying a markup.
Don’t wait for a sale. The product pages say “excluded from most promotions.” The price you see is likely the price you’ll pay for a while.
LA styling:
420-gram fleece is heavy, and that’s the point for LA nights that drop into the 50s.
Wear the Firebird half-zip ($75) as your outer layer with straight dark denim and a clean low sneaker.
Or go full tracksuit with a structured jacket over it, a very Chavarria move: sportswear dressed up, not down.
Fit tip: adidas says it’s “true to size.” Chavarria’s own collections lean oversized, so if you want that silhouette, size up one.
Career and culture angle:
Chavarria spent time at the adidas LA office while developing the line, WWD reported.
For LA designers and product people, the “creative advisor” title is a growing career model: shaping a brand’s permanent line instead of only one-off collabs.
Our take (opinion)
From first principles: scarcity is a marketing tool, not a product feature. Collabs sell the feeling of getting something few people can. That works for buzz, but it frustrates the fans who made the designer famous.
adiSignature flips the model: the designer’s taste, at scale, without the name tax. It’s a smart way for adidas to turn hype into repeat business, and an honest deal for shoppers, since a Firebird made in heavier fleece at $75 is a fair price for what you get.
The risk is that without his name, people may not notice. Our test: if adiSignature restocks show up on adidas.com within a month as he promised, and the line is still around next fall, the “longevity” claim holds. If it disappears after one season, it was a collab with a new label.
Chavarria told WWD he hopes the pieces show up “on eBay like 50 years from now, looking so cool and washed-out.” That’s the right goal for a tracksuit.
Victoria Beckham’s second Gap collection went live Friday morning, and some pieces were gone within the hour. If you missed the first wave, this is your service guide: what it costs, which pieces reviewers liked after trying them on, how the sizing runs, and how to wear it on an LA night that starts warm and ends cold.
What happened
The release. Gap’s announcement (a company statement; prices and dates below are Gap’s figures):
37 pieces, priced $28 to $368.
Launched Oct. 23 at 6 a.m. PT on Gap.com and in select stores. Gap’s Encore cardmembers got early access on Oct. 22 at 9 a.m. PT.
Sold in North America, the UK, Japan, China, Europe, Australia and the Middle East.
The price points Gap listed:
Merino turtleneck: $118
CashSoft high-neck pullover: $148
Wool-cashmere zip sweater: $228
Outerwear (oversized parka, satin bomber, wool-blend Chesterfield): $198 to $368
Denim and corduroy: $118 to $128
The design brief. In the release, Beckham said: “For this second drop, we wanted to build on the design language we established in the first collection, with a stronger focus on texture, proportion and layering, while keeping the ease and versatility that feels so intrinsic to Gap.” Gap says the palette was inspired by the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at SFMOMA.
The campaign: model Mona Tougaard, photographed by Glen Luchford, styled by Alastair McKimm.
The sell-out.The Hollywood Reporter reported “select pieces selling out within the first hour of release.” It described a palette of brown, black, army green and burgundy. WWD and Complex also covered the launch.
Status: CONFIRMED. The launch is in Gap’s own release and independent coverage. The sell-out claim is THR’s reporting.
Why people care, and what creators are saying
The first drop proved that a designer known for $1,000-plus tailoring could make $100 basics people line up for. Round two is the test of whether that was a one-off.
– Hands-on reviews.
– The Cut’s Jaharia Knowles tried pieces on and called the dark-green corduroy set “the star of the collection.” She said the corduroy pants “fit like a glove” and ran true to size.
– She called the high-rise straight jeans “the perfect jeans,” but noted Gap denim usually needs sizing up. She went from her usual 27 to a 28.
– Her warnings: the wool-blend herringbone skirt ran “too big and too long,” and the mid-rise ponte pants weren’t thick enough to hide the pocket lining.
– On YouTube:
– Harper’s BAZAAR posted Victoria Beckham on British Style, Wearing Sneakers, and Gap Collab | Burning Questions. It had about 28,000 views a day after posting.
– Creator Its Chelsea J posted GAP x Victoria Beckham Is Back: 5 Elevated Basics You Need.
– On X:
– Red Magazine called it “winter’s most polished collab.”
– Harper’s BAZAAR UK led with Beckham’s line: “These pieces make you feel confident.”
– THR framed it as Gap “running back” a sold-out collab.
What it means for you
Buy first:
The corduroy crop shirt ($98) and matching high-rise corduroy straight pants ($118), per The Cut’s prices.
The merino turtleneck ($118).
These are the pieces that reviewers liked after wearing them, and that work in LA’s 60-degree evenings.
Size smart:
Size up one in the denim, based on The Cut’s experience.
Size down in the herringbone skirt and plan on a tailor if you’re average height or shorter.
Check the length on the ponte pants.
Sold out? Don’t pay resale yet. Check Gap.com over the next week before you pay a markup. Returns and any restocks show up there first. Gap hasn’t announced a restock, so this is our advice, not a promise.
Store strategy: Gap says the collection is in “select stores.” Use Gap’s store locator to check LA-area stock before you drive across town.
The LA night-out formula:
The oversized parka or Chesterfield over the merino turtleneck, straight jeans, and loafers or clean sneakers.
Peel off the coat inside, and you’re still dressed.
At $118 to $368 per piece, the whole look costs less than one designer coat.
Our take (opinion)
From first principles: a designer collab works when it sells what the mass brand can’t sell on its own, which is a point of view. Gap sells denim and hoodies everywhere. What Beckham adds is proportion and restraint: a cleaner collar, a better length, a quieter logo. The Cut’s note that the hoodie logo is tucked into the upper corner is the whole strategy in one detail.
The risk is that a second chapter feels like a restock instead of a new idea. Our read is that the corduroy and the wool coats give round two its own reason to exist.
Our test: if Gap still has full size runs of the outerwear in two weeks, the hype was the drop, not the clothes. If the basics are gone and the statement pieces linger, people bought the Beckham fit, not the Beckham name.
Status: REPORTED, NOT CONFIRMED. Kering and Balenciaga have not announced this. Read everything below with that in mind.
The hook
For years, part of the fashion internet has said the same thing: Martine Rose should run Balenciaga. This week, the most connected reporter in the business said it’s actually happening. If it’s true, the brand behind the oversized hoodies, chunky sneakers, and Paris-meets-rave look you see in every LA club line would be handed to one of the people who helped invent that look.
What happened
Piccioli is out (reported): On Oct. 22, Puck’s Lauren Sherman reported that Balenciaga employees had been told creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli was leaving “after less than two years.” Kering had announced his appointment on May 19, 2025, effective July 10, 2025.
Rose has signed (reported): In her Line Sheet newsletter, Sherman wrote: “This week, I’m told, Rose signed the deal to replace outgoing designer Pierpaolo Piccioli.” She noted that “a rep for Kering declined to comment” and that Rose “did not respond to a request for comment.” She also wrote that a formal announcement isn’t expected for weeks.
The amplification:Ebony ran the story on Oct. 23, citing Puck. That’s amplification, not a second independent confirmation, which is why our label stays at “reported.”
Background from Puck’s report:
– Rose advised on Balenciaga menswear under Demna for three years.
– Her own label’s backer, the incubator Tomorrow, had acquired 60% of the brand. Puck says Tomorrow later “imploded” and was “purchased out of distress” earlier this year.
– Kering CEO Luca de Meo wants Balenciaga to be “Gen Z’s entry point.”
– Kering shares fell nearly 18% after its latest earnings.
Rose founded her label in 2007, according to Ebony, and has collaborated with Nike and Supreme. Her Supreme collaboration for Fall/Winter 2026 dropped Oct. 15 in the UK, EU and US.
Why people care, and what creators are saying
This is one of the rare fashion rumors where the audience had already picked a winner:
– The long-running wish: In 2024, Culted reported that Fashion Roadman posted “Please, Martine Rose at Balenciaga” on Threads. His YouTube explainer, How Martine Rose Influenced Balenciaga & Demna Gvasalia, is four years old and has about 33,000 views. It’s background, but it shows how long this idea has been building.
– Reaction on X since Puck’s report. These are small accounts, but the tone is consistent:
– @_Trend_Setta: “Martine Rose At Balenciaga? Now That Makes Sense.”
– @whoisaro: “Martine rose at balenciaga means I’ll wear it now.”
– @eripurry: “Martine Rose at Balenciaga is a timeline jump.”
– The wardrobe app Whering framed it more carefully: “Streets are saying Martine Rose might be returning to @balenciaga.”
– The Supreme drop as a lead-in. Her Supreme collaboration is the creator conversation right now. Recent YouTube coverage includes SupThomas’ Supreme x Martine Rose: The Mike Tyson Collab! and 8oone’s Is Supreme Martine Rose Good or Terrible? (Best Resell Week 9), which had about 14,000 views when we checked.
We found no major creator video yet that’s specifically about the Balenciaga report.
What it means for you
Don’t buy on the rumor.
Balenciaga pieces from the current season won’t change in value because of a report.
If you’re eyeing archive Demna-era menswear on resale, prices may get chatter-driven bumps. Wait for the official announcement before paying a premium.
Martine Rose’s own work is the speculation play. Her Supreme pieces and her own-label items are what people will reach for if the news is confirmed. That’s our inference, not a market fact. If you already own them, there’s no reason to sell yet. If you’re buying, buy what you’ll actually wear.
Styling read for LA nights:
Rose’s language is tailoring with a twist: big shoulders, tucked football shirts, sharp shirting worn loose.
It works for LA because it’s dressy without being hot.
Try a boxy blazer over a vintage sports jersey with straight trousers. You don’t need any logo to get the look.
Career signal: De Meo has put women designers in key Kering roles. Puck lists Virginia Burlina at McQueen, and Chemena Kamali is widely expected at Saint Laurent but not confirmed. For designers coming up through menswear and streetwear, that’s a real shift in who gets hired.
Our take (opinion)
From first principles: Balenciaga’s commercial peak came from making luxury feel like a subculture. Hoodies, sneakers, irony. Piccioli is a brilliant couturier, but couture elegance was never what Balenciaga’s newer customers came for. Rose is one of the people who built that subculture vocabulary, so the logic is strong.
The open questions are the hard ones:
1. Can a menswear-led designer run a house where womenswear and accessories pay the bills?
2. Can Kering give her time after cycling through designers quickly?
Our test: if the first collection under Rose sells out in sneakers and outerwear but not in bags, the hire worked creatively and failed commercially. We’ll update this post when Kering confirms or denies.
Most fashion headlines are about designers. This one is about the person who decides what every Louis Vuitton campaign, billboard, and social post will look like. Louis Vuitton has created a role it never had before, and the hire tells you how the world’s biggest luxury brand plans to win back attention.
What happened
The hire: Louis Vuitton named Hector Muelas its first Chief Brand Creative Officer. He starts Nov. 1, 2026 and reports to deputy CEO Damien Bertrand. WWD broke the news on Oct. 23 (WWD, mirror on Yahoo Finance). CPP-Luxury and The Impression independently confirmed it.
What the job covers: According to Louis Vuitton’s statement quoted by WWD, Muelas “will define and steer our creative storytelling across all touch points, thereby ensuring strong overall image consistency.” Bertrand added that “he will oversee all brand campaigns,” with the art buying team (led by Magena Chansarel) and the content factory team (led by Carole Fuchs) joining his organization.
Where he’s coming from:
Tiffany & Co., where he has worked since August 2023.
Rimowa, from 2015: first as global VP of content and creative, then as chief brand officer. WWD says he “spearheaded the brand’s global relaunch and repositioning.”
Earlier: Apple, Vice Media, Canal+, Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, and CAA in Los Angeles.
Status: CONFIRMED. The company statement is quoted in WWD, and two further trade outlets independently reported the appointment.
Why people care, and what’s being said
This is an executive move, so it isn’t YouTube material yet. When we searched YouTube this morning, we found no creator videos about the Muelas hire; the top results were Louis Vuitton’s own show films. Creator coverage hasn’t caught up. The conversation is happening on X, mostly among luxury-business watchers:
– @ArnaultTracker, an account that analyzes LVMH, wrote: “Louis Vuitton just created a new job: one executive over every campaign and image. Hector Muelas joins from Tiffany on 1 November.” It added its own read: “Vuitton doesn’t have a product problem, it has a desirability one, and this hire says it knows.” That’s the account’s opinion, not a company statement.
– A Thai-language explainer by @jblprofessor called it “ข่าวใหญ่วีคนี้” (“this week’s big news”). It had 76 reposts when we checked on Saturday morning.
– Japanese luxury-industry accounts @dokodemoikiru and @koso also posted summaries of the move.
The reason people care: Louis Vuitton is the anchor of LVMH. When it reorganizes who controls its image, the rest of luxury tends to copy the structure.
What it means for you
If you shop LV in LA: Nothing changes at the Rodeo Drive flagship tomorrow. But campaigns and in-store visuals from early 2027 onward will be the first work under one creative owner. If the windows and campaigns start to feel more unified (fewer one-off collabs, a more consistent look), this is why.
If you work in creative, styling, or content: This is the most important part.
The art buying and content teams now sit under one creative leader. That usually means fewer, bigger productions with tighter briefs, and a stronger preference for crews who can deliver a consistent look across film, stills, and social.
Muelas came up through agencies and talent (Wieden+Kennedy, CAA LA). That suggests he values people who think in campaigns, not single shoots.
Update your portfolio to show series work, not just hero images.
If you’re building a career: The title itself is a signal. “Chief brand creative officer” is now a job at the biggest luxury brand in the world. Expect other houses to create similar roles, and expect more postings that blend creative direction with brand strategy.
Money angle: None for shoppers right now. This is about long-term brand heat, not prices.
Our take (opinion)
First principles: a luxury brand sells meaning, not leather. Meaning is built by repetition, the same idea expressed the same way across thousands of images. A brand as big as Louis Vuitton produces so much content that its message can fragment, with the menswear world, the womenswear world, the sports partnerships, and the celebrity ambassadors each pulling in its own direction.
Putting one person over every campaign is a bet that consistency beats variety. It’s a sensible bet, and Muelas’ record at Rimowa, where WWD credits him with the relaunch, is the right kind of proof.
The risk is the flip side. Consistency can become sameness, and sameness is what makes luxury feel corporate. Our test: look at the first two campaigns of 2027. If you can identify them as Louis Vuitton with the logo covered, the role is working. If they look like any other luxury brand, it isn’t.
Puck’s Lauren Sherman noted the hire in her Line Sheet newsletter and said she plans to write more about it. We’ll follow up when there’s more detail.
Louis Vuitton poached Tiffany’s image-maker, Balenciaga’s next designer may already be picked, and Victoria Beckham’s Gap knits started selling out inside an hour. Here is what moved in fashion and luxury from Friday morning to Saturday morning, Oct 24, 2026. Every item is checked against its source and linked.
Louis Vuitton named Hector Muelas chief brand creative officer, effective Nov. 1, a brand-new role reporting to deputy CEO Damien Bertrand. He has led brand and creative at Tiffany & Co. since August 2023, and before LVMH he worked at Apple, Vice, and CAA in Los Angeles. Vuitton says he “will define and steer our creative storytelling across all touch points.” Source: WWD
Balenciaga’s next designer, reportedly
Puck reported Friday that Martine Rose has signed a deal to replace Pierpaolo Piccioli as creative director of Balenciaga. Neither Balenciaga nor Kering has confirmed it. Treat it as a strong report, not a done deal, until the house speaks. Source: Ebony, citing Puck
Vuitton unveiled a custom trophy trunk for this weekend’s Formula 1 United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, with red and blue racing stripes and a checkered V. A new “Victory patch” is engraved with the winning driver’s initials. LV became an official F1 partner in 2025. Source: CBS Austin
Vuitton also made two trophy trunks for the Ballon d’Or, handmade in its Asnières workshops and finished with a gold V. They go on stage Monday, Oct 26, at the London Palladium for the award’s 70th anniversary. Source: L’Officiel
Why it matters for LA: Vuitton is putting a creative chief with real LA agency roots in charge of every campaign, and it keeps owning the trophy moment in sports. If Martine Rose lands Balenciaga, expect a menswear wave in Silver Lake and Fairfax.
Brunello Cucinelli raised its full-year outlook after a 14% rise in third-quarter sales, and Zegna’s revenue grew 8.2% in the quarter. Bottega Veneta outperformed across its main markets, and LVMH says Loro Piana has “very strong growth.” Meanwhile Miu Miu posted a 3% drop in third-quarter retail sales after four years of growth. Source: BoF
China was the word on every earnings call. Kering CFO Armelle Poulou said, “China is definitely what’s weighing most on Gucci’s retail.” BoF also notes that only LVMH did better in the third quarter than in the first half, a sign the US shopper is slowing too. Source: BoF
Why it matters for LA: The logo-free cashmere crowd in Brentwood and Montecito is the most reliable spender in luxury right now. Brands that chased hype are the ones cutting stores.
The 37-piece fall collection went public Friday, priced $28 to $368, and The Hollywood Reporter says select pieces sold out within the first hour. Beckham says this drop has “a stronger focus on texture, proportion and layering.” Source: The Hollywood Reporter
An eight-piece capsule dropped Friday at 7 AM PT, from $48 to $398. The top piece is the $398 OG Active Jacket, sold on Carhartt WIP’s US site. Source: Just Fresh
Zara and the musical CATS launched a 20-piece collection worldwide on Zara.com, just in time for Halloween. Costume problem, solved. Source: LW Entertainment
Why it matters for LA: Celebrity-designed basics at mall prices keep selling out in hours, which is why LA’s sample sales and resale racks will be full of VB-for-Gap by Thanksgiving.
Fashion x Superintelligence
Foot Locker builds your outfit from your closet
Foot Locker launched Fits, a closet builder inside its app made with Stylitics. You photograph something you own, get complete outfits built around it, and see them on a virtual model before adding to cart. Source: Retail Technology Innovation Hub
Primark tests its warehouses before it builds them
Primark partnered with Kallikor to build digital twins of its distribution centers, so it can test new layouts and flows in simulation before spending capital. Source: Retail Technology Innovation Hub
Why it matters for LA: Styling from the clothes you already own is the feature LA boutiques should copy first. It sells the second piece, not the first.
Runway Magazine Watch
No new dated story overnight
Runway Magazine posted no story we could date inside this window. Its homepage still leads with its Summer 2026 edition and the Dior Cruise 2027 LACMA campaign we covered this week, followed by its Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2026 story. Source: Runway Magazine
Why it matters for LA: Dior’s LACMA campaign is still the magazine’s top LA story, and a quiet news day there means we’ll be watching Monday.
Go deeper
Five of this week’s biggest fashion stories, with full sourcing, what creators are saying, and what each one means for you in LA.
Spotted a Halloween fashion party, a sellout or a new store on Rodeo or Melrose? Send it with a photo and a time stamp. We verify before we print. editor@nightlifereport.app
nightlifereport.app | Tips: editor@nightlifereport.app | 1049 Havenhurst Dr, Unit 67, West Hollywood, CA 90046
The report that sparked this piece: LAist, Oct. 19, 2026. Card design: Nightlife Report.
The Editor’s Take · Los Angeles Nightlife
Three of the region’s best-known late-night rooms are pointing to the same date: Oct. 31. LAist asked whether the gay bar is disappearing. The evidence says the Los Angeles night is being rebuilt, and not everyone is invited to the new version.
By Anthony Perlas · Nightlife Report. Fri Oct 23, 2026 · 8 min read. Every fact below links to its source.
LOS ANGELES — Halloween in this city has always been a beginning. It is the night the shy become fabulous, the night West Hollywood fills Santa Monica Boulevard, the night a costume buys you a new personality until sunrise. This year, for a striking number of Los Angeles rooms, it is also an ending.
In Pasadena, the only gay bar in town is scheduled to pour its last drink on Halloween unless a sale comes through. In Santa Monica, a party mansion that ran for two decades has booked its final party for Oct. 31. In Silver Lake, a Latinx-owned, queer-led bar that traces its lineage to 1973 is due out of its building on Nov. 1. Line them up and you get a calendar no promoter would choose: the biggest costume night of the year doubling as a wake.
The question LAist asked
The spark for this piece came from LAist’s AirTalk. On Oct. 19, LAist asked why the Southern California gay bar scene “isn’t what it used to be,” and talked with Joseph Hawkins, former director of the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries. His diagnosis was structural.
Masses of people who can go to a bar and sustain it over a long period of time has become more and more difficult.
— Joseph Hawkins, to LAist’s AirTalk
“Some bars don’t have the clientele that they used to because of the internet,” Hawkins said. Then he offered a turn that gives the segment its title: “Maybe we’re not losing gay bars; what we’re doing is opening up other spaces where gay people can be included.”
Hold on to that sentence. It is the most hopeful thing anyone said about Los Angeles nightlife this month, and it is also, if you are a 69-year-old bar owner in Pasadena, the most painful.
Pasadena: “Right now it’s 50-50”
The Boulevard sits at 3199 E. Foothill Blvd. Visit Pasadena calls it the city’s only gay bar, and it is scheduled to close on Halloween unless owner Steven Terradot can complete a deal to sell it to a new operator, Pasadena Now reported on Oct. 17. Terradot put the odds plainly: “Right now it’s 50-50.”
“I’m going to be 70 next May, and I’ve been doing this for a long time,” he said. “I have over 40 years in the bar between bartending and owning it, and it’s just time to move on.” He leases the building and owns the liquor license, and said the bar could continue “if the landlord is able to work out a lease that’s beneficial to all parties.” So far, he said, that hasn’t happened.
The bar has outlasted other Pasadena gay bars, including Encounters, Copa and Nardis, and survived the pandemic shutdown, when a regular started a GoFundMe in 2021 seeking $50,000 to keep it open (same source). Visit Pasadena says it was established in 1979. (Other local coverage gives a different founding year, so treat the exact date with care.)
What Terradot said next is the whole debate in miniature. “It’s given a safe place, I hope, for people in our community where they can go and be themselves without fear of being mistreated or even attacked.” And: “The world’s changed a lot. A lot of our young people go to straight bars or go to other places. They don’t have to stay just in a gay bar. So we’d like to keep a safe place, but there also has to be a demand for it.”
Hawkins and Terradot are describing the same change from opposite ends. To the historian, a younger generation that feels welcome everywhere is a victory. To the owner, it is an empty Tuesday. The staff is down to “two part-time bartenders,” Terradot said, and the drag performers “lose their Friday night and their weekends here.” His last line was almost cheerful: “Well, the final night will be Halloween, so we should be jam packed.”
Silver Lake: “It has to remain in the neighborhood”
Across town, El Condor tells the rent side of the story. The Silver Lake bar started as El Conquistador in 1973, and through its many names it has stayed Latinx-owned and queer-led, the Los Angeles Blade reported in September. The original owners sold in 2013 because of high rent, and current owner Dustin Lancaster is now giving up the lease. The Blade reported the bar would close at the end of October and vacate on Nov. 1.
“A lot of people call it gentrification,” Lancaster told the Blade. “As buildings, commercial spaces, and homes are bought and sold, those prices just come up. And for a lot of the working people, it becomes unsustainable.”
But El Condor is not giving up the idea. “The goal is to have it live on in a different space — but it will certainly be in Silver Lake,” Lancaster said. “By the time we get to October 31st, we should be able to announce where the next location is, and where people can continue to support and love the space that they’ve loved for the last 52 years.” (Some later neighborhood listings give an earlier closing date; we are going by the Blade’s reporting and will update when a new address is announced.)
Photo by Anthony Perlas for Nightlife Report.
West Hollywood: the cocktail bar that couldn’t outrun the math
The closures are not only queer bars, and they are not only old ones. Employees Only, the celebrated cocktail bar, opened in West Hollywood in 2018 and served its final night on Sunday, Sept. 27, Los Angeles Magazine reported. Tom Sopit, speaking for the bar, pointed to inflation, the cost of goods, the minimum wage and GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
His most striking line was about the city’s main industry: “The film industry has completely left our city, so those budgets have disappeared.” And then, an unusually candid admission from an operator: “I’m hoping that the new era…I unfortunately did not have the answer for it.” The bar auctioned its neon sign, with proceeds going to staff (same source).
Santa Monica: from party mansion to family club
Then there is The Victorian. For 20 years the Main Street mansion was one of the Westside’s best-known party venues. Its final party is set for Oct. 31, and the Los Angeles Times reported the operators owed $278,094 in back rent. The Times placed it in a run of Santa Monica losses: Misfit closed in April after 15 years, and the Britannia Pub closed in July after about 30.
What replaces it is the tell. Under a deal the City Council approved unanimously on March 24, the city-owned building will reopen as The Santa Monican, a family membership club run by the same operators, Garner Gerson and Adir Tal, with up to 20% of memberships offered free and an opening targeted for mid-2028, the City of Santa Monica announced on Oct. 9. City Manager Oliver Chi’s explanation was blunt: “their nightlife model had run its course.”
Read that phrase twice. It is the closest thing to an official obituary that Los Angeles nightlife has received this year. The building survives. The night does not.
The drinking numbers behind it
Underneath the rent and the regulars is a national change in habits. Only 54% of U.S. adults now say they drink alcohol, a record low in Gallup’s polling, and 17% say they have substituted nonalcoholic drinks, according to a Gallup survey of about 1,200 adults conducted July 1 to 19 and published in August.
A bar’s business model is drinks. When fewer people drink, and the ones who do drink less, the bars with the highest rent and the narrowest audience feel it first. Then there are the creative rooms that never ran on volume at all: Intercrew, the Koreatown supper club and live venue that LA Local called an “essential spot” for Asian American creatives, closed at the end of February after five years.
Our take: the night is being rebuilt, not erased
It is tempting to write this as a eulogy. We are not going to. Read the four stories together and a pattern appears that is more interesting than decline.
The old model was a room that sold drinks to a loyal crowd that came for identity, safety and each other. It depended on volume, cheap rent and an audience with nowhere else to go.
The new model charges for belonging up front: memberships, ticketed nights, pop-ups, sober parties, members clubs. The Victorian becoming The Santa Monican is the cleanest example in the region.
The gap is everyone the new model prices out. That includes the drag performer who loses her Friday, the bartender who loses his shifts, and the 22-year-old who cannot afford a membership but still needs a door to walk through.
Hawkins may be right that “other spaces” are opening. But spaces are not the same as institutions. The Boulevard has been somewhere people could “be themselves without fear,” in Terradot’s words, for decades. A rotating pop-up cannot promise that. A bar with a neon sign and a regular bartender can.
What you can do before Oct. 31
If this city wants these rooms, the most effective policy is a Friday night. Go to The Boulevard before Halloween. Ask El Condor where it is going next. Tip the drag performers in cash. And if you have the means and the know-how Terradot is looking for, he has said publicly that he is talking to buyers.
For our part, Nightlife Report will keep a running record of every Los Angeles room that closes, sells or reinvents itself this season, from Halloween to Valentine’s Day. That 106-day stretch is the busiest season this city has, and we explain why in From Halloween to Valentine’s Day. The night is not over. It is being rebuilt, and someone has to write down who it leaves out.
Own or work in an L.A. bar, club or venue that is closing, selling or reinventing itself? Tell us. Tips: editor@nightlifereport.app.
Sources
LAist, Faheem Khan, AirTalk, “The Southern California gay bar scene isn’t what it used to be. There might be a silver lining,” Oct. 19, 2026: laist.com
Pasadena Now, Therese Edu, “Pasadena’s Only Gay Bar, The Boulevard, Faces Oct. 31 Closing,” Oct. 17, 2026: pasadenanow.com
Los Angeles Blade, Joel Medina, “LGBTQ+ friendly bar El Condor will close its doors after a decade of community,” Sept. 5, 2026: losangelesblade.com
Los Angeles Magazine, Taylor Parise, “Employees Only Is Closing,” Sept. 17, 2026: lamag.com
Los Angeles Times, Ella Chakarian, Santa Monica party mansion set to shut down, Oct. 8, 2026: latimes.com
City of Santa Monica press release, Oct. 9, 2026: santamonica.gov
Gallup, “Americans’ Drinking Remains at Record Low,” August 2026: news.gallup.com
The report that sparked this piece: Vanity Fair’s Fit Check, Oct. 16 and Oct. 21, 2026. Card design: Nightlife Report.
The Editor’s Take · Fashion
A former Angel trained all summer, waited six weeks for an answer, and then told the internet what happened. The brand says it released her on Sept. 6. The real story is the gap between those two facts.
By Anthony Perlas · Nightlife Report. Fri Oct 23, 2026 · 8 min read. Every fact below links to its source.
Vanity Fair · Fit Check by José Criales-Unzueta · Oct. 16, 2026, with a follow-up on Oct. 21
LOS ANGELES — There is a particular silence in fashion that everyone who has ever cast, been cast, or waited by a phone knows by heart. It is not a no. It is the absence of a yes, stretched out for weeks, until the date passes and the answer becomes obvious to everyone except the person who has been waiting for it. The industry has always run on that silence. This month, one of its most famous faces broke it on camera.
Romee Strijd, the Dutch model who became a Victoria’s Secret Angel in 2015 and walked the finale of the 2018 show in 27-pound Swarovski wings, posted two TikToks the week before the brand’s Oct. 18 show in Los Angeles, The Daily Beast reported. In them she explained that she had trained all summer, flown to a casting in New York in early September, and then heard nothing for five to six weeks. Then she told her followers she was out.
“They kept me in the dark… Not knowing for so long… I got a lot of mental stress from it,” she said, per The Daily Beast. And then, the sentence that turned a casting decision into a cultural event: “I don’t think I’m gonna cast anymore in the future, because I don’t like the way it went.”
What the brand says
Victoria’s Secret’s answer was precise, and it is worth reading in full. A representative told Vanity Fair that the brand and casting director Piergiorgio Del Moro “communicated directly to her representation and formally released her from the casting process on September 6.” The statement added: “While we cannot speak to the communications between talent and representation, Victoria’s Secret values and respects all talent partners—past, present and future.”
Put the two accounts next to each other and you have the whole drama in a single gap. The brand says it said no on Sept. 6. The model says she was still waiting in October. Somewhere between a casting office and a phone call, five weeks of a person’s life went missing. Neither Strijd nor her agency, IMG, responded to Vanity Fair’s request for comment by its press time.
Then she kept talking
Here is where it gets interesting, and where it stops being a celebrity spat and becomes a case study. Vanity Fair’s José Criales-Unzueta returned to the story on Oct. 21. By then, Strijd had commented on Vanity Fair’s Instagram post and followed up with a statement. And a new date had surfaced: Strijd, Vanity Fair reported, did not attend the casting until Sept. 10, four days after the brand says she was released. Whether that is “a simple mix up regarding dates or a more complicated issue remains a mystery,” Criales-Unzueta wrote.
“I had been on option since early summer,” she said, per Vanity Fair. Then she laid out her request plainly: “If the decision was that I should no longer be considered, I would appreciate an explanation of what happened and why I still attended.”
They have every right to decide whom they invite or book, but after that preparation and planning, I think clear communication is a reasonable expectation.
— Romee Strijd, via Vanity Fair, Oct. 21
“I asked IMG for clarification but still haven’t received an explanation,” she said. Vanity Fair said IMG again had not responded, and Victoria’s Secret did not reply to a follow-up. Then came the lines that should be pinned in every agency in New York, Paris and Los Angeles: “If there is still uncertainty, say that honestly. Keeping someone hopeful because a decision might change isn’t fair when they’re making plans and putting their time and energy into something. That has always been my point.”
Vanity Fair’s verdict was blunt: “This is an age of social-media-induced radical transparency, and Strijd appears to be coming out on top by pure virtue of laying it all out.”
Photo by Anthony Perlas for Nightlife Report. The model pictured is not connected to the Victoria’s Secret casting.
The internet’s jury
The public did not need persuading. Under one viral Instagram post, a fan wrote that “Romee wasn’t just a girl who walked the VS runway; she was an Angel,” and the comment drew more than 35,000 likes in under 24 hours, The Daily Beast reported. Fans in TikTok threads and Victoria’s Secret’s own comment section pushed for other 2010s favourites, including Taylor Hill and Lais Ribeiro, and complained about influencers being cast in their place, Vanity Fair noted.
Bethenny Frankel weighed in on TikTok, and one comment under her video, quoted by Vanity Fair, captured the nostalgia perfectly: “I love inclusivity, we need models that all look different, but there’s something ethereal about the early VS shows, every girl had that IT factor that’s what made it so iconic.”
The Daily Beast reported that some commenters also turned on celebrity offspring in the cast, naming Amelia Gray, and noting that Iris Law and Lila Moss had walked previous shows. It is the same argument that greeted the $50 million Fantasy Bra when it went to Kylie Jenner on show night. Fame, the fans say, is being cast ahead of the work.
The show that needed the drama
Here is the irony. The casting fight may have been the best thing that happened to the show’s visibility all month. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show returned in 2024 after a six-year hiatus, with Tyra Banks back as a closer, and the brand has spent the time since trying to marry nostalgia to a new generation, per Vanity Fair. The cast now mixes Candice Swanepoel and Adriana Lima with Alex Consani, Paloma Elsesser and Anok Yai. There is a YouTube docuseries about casting, Angels Among Us, featuring creative director Adam Selman. This year’s performers were Tate McRae, Megan Thee Stallion, Katseye and Megan Moroney.
Yet Vanity Fair observed that the internet seemed more interested in which 2010s models were missing than in who was there, and that Strijd’s posts “ignited interest in the show that did not appear nearly as fervent over the past few weeks.” Its kicker: “Maybe all press is good press, or maybe it is 2012 again after all.”
When the show finally aired from Los Angeles on Oct. 18, with Bella Hadid opening the runway, some viewers called looks “cheap” and wings “extremely tacky,” Fashion Times UK reported, even as others praised Tate McRae’s wings, the gold-wing segment and Elsa Hosk’s look. A conversation that began with a missing Angel ended with a referendum on whether the brand still knows what it is.
Our take: the end of the polite no
Strip away the wings and the diamonds and this is a story about a workplace. Fashion runs on options, holds, “maybes” and silence, and for decades the people at the bottom of that chain absorbed the cost of the ambiguity privately. Models cleared calendars, turned down other jobs, trained for months, and found out from a call sheet or a group chat that they were not in the show.
What Strijd did was not a tantrum. It was documentation. She gave dates. She named the agency. She said she accepted the brand’s right to choose, and she asked for one thing: clarity. And the brand, to its credit, answered with a date of its own. For the first time in a long time, a casting dispute played out in public with both sides on the record.
That is the change. In an age when every model has an audience of her own, the polite no is over. The old silence only worked because nobody outside the room could hear it. Now the room has a comment section.
What Los Angeles can learn from it
We see the other side of this every week. At The Bureau Fashion Week in Los Angeles this month, the models we interviewed described exactly the kind of work that rarely gets credit. Kevin Fernandez told us that “some of us also have full time jobs outside of this.” Sofhia Flores said the job “takes confidence, patience, rejection, and the courage to keep showing up even when things don’t go as planned.” Sophie Rann said it takes “the ability to keep showing up as yourself in an industry that constantly challenges you.” (Their full answers are in our What You Missed chapter.)
None of them said the industry owed them a yes. Neither did Strijd. What they describe, and what she asked for, is a basic professional courtesy: if the answer is no, say no, and say it in time to matter.
Here is a simple standard that every brand, agency and casting director in this city could adopt tomorrow, and that we would happily report on:
Release in writing. When talent is released from consideration, the talent hears it the same week, not just the agency.
Date every option. An option without an end date is not an option. It is a waiting room.
Say “undecided” out loud. If the answer is still uncertain, say so honestly. That is Strijd’s point, and it is a good one.
The verdict
Victoria’s Secret was within its rights. Strijd was within hers. But only one of them understood that the audience is now in the room for the whole process, not just the final walk. The brand gave Vanity Fair a date. The model gave the public a story. In 2026, the story wins.
The next time a casting office goes quiet, someone will post about it. The smart brands will already have answered.
Know something about how casting really works in Los Angeles? We protect our sources. Tips: editor@nightlifereport.app.
Sources
Vanity Fair, José Criales-Unzueta, “The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Casting Drama, Explained,” Fit Check, Oct. 16, 2026: vanityfair.com
Vanity Fair, Fit Check follow-up, Oct. 21, 2026: vanityfair.com
The Daily Beast, Roosa Rahkonen, “Victoria’s Secret Hit With Wild Nepo-Baby Casting Controversy,” Oct. 13 (updated Oct. 14), 2026: thedailybeast.com
Fashion Times UK, Jastine Beatrice Yap, “Victoria’s Secret 2026 Fashion Show Faces Backlash Over ‘Cheap’ Looks and ‘Tacky’ Wings,” Oct. 19, 2026: fashiontimes.co.uk
USA Today, Fantasy Bra, Oct. 19, 2026: usatoday.com
Interviewee answers: Nightlife Report questionnaire, submitted Oct. 19–21, 2026, under signed release
Join the inner circle.
Nightlife Report is a nonprofit news desk funded by readers. Back the reporting at patreon.com/aperlas.
A $50 million bra, a war over one word, luxury’s worst week in a decade, and a Halloween that already sold out of witches. Then we asked the people who actually walk the runway who deserves it.
By Anthony Perlas · Nightlife Report. Fri Oct 23, 2026 · 8 min read. Chapter 1 of a story that builds to February 14. Every figure below links to its source.
LOS ANGELES — Every fashion week ends with a single image that the internet decides to fight about. This week it was 1,373 carats of diamonds, one famous face, and a comment section that refused to move on. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show came to Los Angeles on Oct. 18, the Fantasy Bra came back for the first time since 2018, and it went to Kylie Jenner. Within hours, the fans of the women who built the brand’s mythology had filed their objection.
That is the headline. The story underneath it is bigger, and it runs through a diamond trade at war with itself, a luxury market that just had its worst day in memory, a Paris that spent the week behind plywood, and a Los Angeles that is quietly preparing for its own runway: Halloween. Here is what you missed, and why it matters to anyone who goes out at night in this city.
The bra
Start with the object, because the object is absurd in the way only fashion objects are allowed to be. Jacob & Co.’s Fantasy Bra holds more than 4,410 natural diamonds centred on a 75.54-carat Fancy Vivid Yellow, and fifteen artisans spent more than 1,000 hours making it, according to JCK. USA Today puts the total at 1,373.39 carats and the value at $50 million, and confirms it is the first Fantasy Bra since 2018.
The numbers, per JCK and USA Today.
Then came the recount. On Reddit, the refrain was “The OGs deserved it,” and commenters nominated Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio and Barbara Palvin, career Angels who in their view had earned the piece long before a reality-television dynasty did, IBTimes UK reported. On X, “Fantasy Bra” drew 22,630 posts in the week to Oct. 23, and 17,835 of them landed on Oct. 19 alone (X post-count search, pulled by Nightlife Report on Oct. 23). That is not a news cycle. That is a referendum.
It was not the only casting fight of the week. The Dutch model Romee Strijd, a 2010s Angel, told her followers she had prepared all summer and was left waiting for an answer that never came. We unpack that one, and what it says about how fashion says no, in a separate report.
The internet couldn’t stop saying it. X post counts pulled Oct. 23.
The word war
Here is the twist the comment sections missed. The most consequential diamond fight of the week was not about who wore the stones. It was about what you are allowed to call them. CIBJO, the world jewellery confederation, now recommends the word “synthetic” for man-made stones. The Diamond Producers Council calls that mandate “biased and deceptive,” and cites a 2016 survey in which 56% of consumers read “synthetic diamond” as imitation or fake, JCK reported. The miners’ marketing group, meanwhile, has renamed itself The Diamond Collective.
Read that twice and you understand modern luxury. The product is chemistry. The price is vocabulary.
The word war, per JCK.
Follow the money
The money, for now, is following the laboratory. IGI’s lab-grown jewellery certification revenue rose 47% in the third quarter, against 3% for natural stones, on 4.35 million grading reports, up 26%, according to Something About Rocks. Zales launched The 26.2 Edit, a lab-grown line priced from $149 to $7,999 (same source). And the miners are not exactly starving: De Beers’ third-quarter rough volume rose 71% to 9.8 million carats, Rapaport reported.
So the $50 million bra is, among other things, an argument. It is natural stones making their case on the most-watched runway of the season, in the same week that the cheaper stones are winning the Christmas shopping list.
IGI and De Beers figures, via Something About Rocks and Rapaport.
Luxury’s bad week
While Los Angeles argued about carats, Europe’s luxury houses were counting losses. Gucci’s third-quarter revenue came in at €1.3 billion ($1.46 billion), a figure that has halved in four years and is the brand’s lowest third quarter since 2016, worse even than 2020, The Business of Fashion reported. Kering scrapped its guidance for a return to growth in 2026 and lifted its target for net store closures this year from 100 to 125 (same source). Kering shares fell as much as 16% on Friday, on course for their worst day ever, Reuters reported via Investing.com.
The timing was exquisite. Demna’s “GucciCore” campaign went live on Wednesday, the same week the numbers landed, per BoF. Gucci accounts for more than half of Kering’s profit, and “as Gucci goes, so goes Kering,” as BoF put it. Chief executive Luca de Meo called the transformation “a multi-season undertaking.”
Per The Business of Fashion and Reuters.
Paris, behind plywood
Our Fashion City of the Month spent the week with its shutters down. Art Basel Paris closed two days early over fears that France’s civil unrest would return over the weekend, a week after nationwide protests over affordability and public services devolved into rioting and looting, according to BoF. Jacquemus, On, Audemars Piguet and Amex cancelled events, and luxury stores were boarding up their windows (same source). The fair had shown a $100 million Modigliani. Attendees described the mood as dancing on the Titanic.
That phrase is worth sitting with. The same industry that can sell a $50 million bra in Los Angeles cannot keep a gallery weekend open in Paris. Luxury is not one market anymore. It is a set of rooms, and some of them are locked.
The Tuscan Mom
On the street, the mood is the opposite of austerity. Quiet luxury is out. The Tuscan Mom is in: flared jeans, silky tops, animal print, chunky gold and oversized sunglasses before noon. “After years of dressing down as a kind of virtue, there’s something quietly rebellious about putting on earrings to go on a coffee run,” Anushka Gupta, founder of 31 Labels, told Harper’s Bazaar India.
Per Harper’s Bazaar India.
Halloween 2026: the dossier
Which brings us home, because in Los Angeles the most democratic runway of the year is eight days away. The numbers say America is dressing up in record style.
The money: The National Retail Federation forecasts $13.5 billion in U.S. Halloween spending, with $4.4 billion of it on costumes and 74% of people celebrating. The top adult costumes are Witch (4.8 million people), Vampire (4.2 million), Batman (2.0 million), Spider-Man (1.5 million) and Ghost (1.4 million).
What Google says:Frightgeist’s top five are Buddy the Unicorn, NeeDoh, Nikki from Obsession, Agamemnon from The Odyssey and Lily Love Braids from Poppy Playtime. Dolly Parton is No. 12, and Thriller-era Michael Jackson is No. 18, at a 10-year high. The Google blog adds that “witches brew punch” is the top trending Halloween drink.
What the store says:Spirit Halloween is betting on KPop Demon Hunters, god-tier mythology, the Certified “It Girl” and Toy Story.
How to still get one: Spirit’s online shipping chart puts Overnight at about two business days, Second Day at about three, Standard at four to six and Economy at seven to nine, processing included. Spirit also delivers in about an hour via Instacart in eligible ZIP codes and lists 1,550+ seasonal stores. Target says Order Pickup and Drive Up are usually ready within two hours, and it carries an exclusive KPop Demon Hunters Rumi costume. These are estimates, not guarantees.
Where to be seen: Adventure360’s party-city scores rank New York first (91.1), then Chicago (80.1), Edinburgh (79.2), Dublin (73.0) and Tokyo (72.3), out of 113 cities, per Euronews. Closer to home: West Hollywood’s Halloween Carnaval, Sat. Oct. 31, 6 to 11 p.m., on Santa Monica Boulevard from Doheny to La Cienega. Free. Clear bags only.
Per the National Retail Federation.Party-city scores via Euronews; WeHo Carnaval details via the City of West Hollywood.
Who really earns the runway? We asked.
The bra went to the famous face. So we asked the people who keep showing up, the ones who walked The Bureau Fashion Week in Los Angeles this month. They answered a written Nightlife Report questionnaire, and their answers read like one team talking.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Fernandez.
Kevin Fernandez (@kevhfernandez) describes himself as a reality TV personality and runway model “proving that you don’t have to limit yourself to just one dream.” His route ran from The Circle on Netflix to Miami Swim Week and back to television. He treats the walk like a game day.
Coming from a Division I athletic background, I’ve learned that walking a runway takes discipline, confidence, preparation, and the ability to perform under pressure.
— Kevin Fernandez, in a Nightlife Report questionnaire
And the part nobody sees: “A lot of people don’t know that some of us also have full time jobs outside of this.” At the close of the show, he did what no stylist can script: “I motioned to the crowd to make noise, interacted with individuals and it created the ultimate closing experience.” Off the runway, his moment was sharing it with his parents.
Photo courtesy of Nicole Anne Williams.
Nicole Anne Williams (@nicolewilliams919) walked The Bureau for the second time and is working toward a bachelor’s degree while she does it. “They see the glitz, the glam, and the runway walk—but not the discipline, hard work, and diet behind the scenes,” she wrote. “Beauty may catch the eye, but dedication keeps us in the game!” Her goal is to go “from walking the runway to producing the show.” Her reasoning is the best line of the week: “Why just be part of the vision when I can create it?”
Photo of Sofhia Flores by @adamlupix.
Sofhia Flores (@sofhiafloress) is a Filipino model and content creator from San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, who has walked in New York, Milan and Paris, and now Los Angeles. Her career began when a designer discovered her and gave her a chance to walk, which taught her “that sometimes all it takes is one person believing in you to change your life.”
It takes confidence, patience, rejection, and the courage to keep showing up even when things don’t go as planned.
— Sofhia Flores, in a Nightlife Report questionnaire
She hopes to “inspire other girls, especially Filipinas, to believe in themselves.”
Photo courtesy of Sophie Rann.
Sophie Rann (@sophie.rann) has walked from New York Fashion Week to Paris Fashion Week, and walked for Krissy King in Los Angeles. “It takes confidence, discipline, resilience, and the ability to keep showing up as yourself in an industry that constantly challenges you,” she wrote. What she loves most: how “people from different backgrounds come together through a shared love for fashion.”
Mirka Howard, Mrs Universe 2025, representing San Marino, named the cast that never gets a credit line.
Every polished moment on the runway is supported by designers, stylists, makeup artists, photographers, producers, models, and countless others working behind the scenes.
— Mirka Howard, in a Nightlife Report questionnaire
Eternalbeen look, photo courtesy of Eternalbeen.
And Eternalbeen (@eternalbeen), the Los Angeles designer who took our Hot Seat this week, said the quiet part out loud: “Talent shouldn’t need a famous name or industry connections to be seen.” Then, three words that should hang in every casting office: “Let the creativity speak.”
The verdict
Nobody we interviewed asked for a $50 million bra. They asked for something cheaper and harder to give: to be seen for the work. That is the real recount the fans are demanding, and it is not about Kylie Jenner. It is about whether fashion still has a door that opens from the outside.
This is Chapter 1 of a story that builds to February 14. Chapter 2, Nightlife Unites Us All, follows the same voices from the runway into the night.
Photos: Sofhia Flores by @adamlupix; Kevin Fernandez, Nicole Anne Williams and Sophie Rann, courtesy of the subjects; the Eternalbeen look, courtesy of Eternalbeen. Interviewee quotes were submitted to Nightlife Report for publication under signed release. Eternalbeen’s quotes come from the published Hot Seat.
Sources
JCK, “Jacob & Co. Fantasy Bra,” Oct. 19, 2026: jckonline.com
USA Today, Kylie Jenner Fantasy Bra backlash, Oct. 19 (updated Oct. 20), 2026: usatoday.com
IBTimes UK, Fantasy Bra debate, Oct. 19, 2026: ibtimes.co.uk
JCK, Diamond Producers Council on CIBJO terminology, Oct. 22, 2026: jckonline.com
Something About Rocks, IGI grading figures and Zales 26.2 Edit, Oct. 22, 2026: somethingaboutrocks.com
Kering lost 12% in a day, Prada bet on fewer and bigger stores, and Omega finally gave the villains their own watch. Here is what moved in fashion and luxury from Thursday morning to Friday morning, Oct 23, 2026. Every item is checked against its source and linked.
The Money Talk: Prada, Kering and the Bond Street test
Prada: up 15%, but the third quarter cooled
Prada Group’s nine-month net revenues hit €4,541 million, up 15% at constant currency and 4% organic. The third quarter grew 11%, but only 1% organic, and the Americas were the best region. Versace, now inside the group, accounts for the gap between those two numbers. Source: Prada Group 9M release
Prada wants fewer, bigger stores
On Thursday’s call, CEO Andrea Guerra said Prada will close stores in two or three secondary Italian cities in 2027–2028 and question second stores in smaller Chinese cities. “We’re trying to be more prominent in those 10, 12 cities, which make up a great part of the business,” he said. The model is the eight-floor Prada Galleria in Milan, with a museum, private salons and a dinner apartment. Source: Glossy
Kering shares drop 12% in a day
Kering stock fell 12% on Friday after Gucci’s comparable sales slid 6%, and LVMH and Hermès slipped 1% to 1.5%, per Reuters. Kering is sticking with Luca de Meo’s turnaround and now targets 125 store closures by year-end. Aviva Investors’ Harsharan Mann: “you can have the best creativity, but is the consumer going to engage with the product?” Source: BoF / Reuters
The one flagship beating the forecast
Hermès CFO Eric du Halgouët says the new 55-room Maison at 166 New Bond Street in London is outselling expectations without stealing from the brand’s other London stores. “We are not encroaching on the other stores in London and doing better than expected,” he said on Thursday’s call. Gucci unveils its own new store concept on Avenue Montaigne in November. Source: Glossy
Why it matters for LA: Luxury is shrinking its store count and pouring money into a few destination flagships. Rodeo Drive and the Design District are the kind of addresses that survive that cut, and every mall-based luxury door should be nervous.
The Maisons: Corner Office Moves
Calvin Klein hires a product chief from Lacoste
Calvin Klein named Ayub Mohamed chief product officer, starting Jan 25, 2027, overseeing global design and merchandising. He comes from Lacoste, and before that Kenzo, Tory Burch, Givenchy and nearly eight years at Levi’s. The creative director seat for Collection is still open after Veronica Leoni’s exit. Source: PVH / Business Wire
Marc Jacobs gets a new president
Emily George becomes Marc Jacobs’s global president on Nov 1, as CEO Eric Marechalle leaves after nine years. It follows the G-III and WHP Global acquisition, with plans to revive Marc by Marc Jacobs. Marc Jacobs himself stays as creative director. Source: Glossy
Why it matters for LA: Two New York labels are rebuilding from the business side first. Watch for Marc by Marc Jacobs to come back at a price that LA’s younger shoppers can actually reach.
Drops & Luxury Launches
Omega gives Spectre its own Seamaster
Omega’s new Seamaster Diver 300M comes in a James Bond edition and, for the first time, a Spectre edition with an octopus on the rotor. The steel models are RM37,500 in Malaysia. Two collector’s sets pair steel with platinum-gold, at 77 pieces each and RM392,000. Source: Robb Report Malaysia
Yema puts a flying tourbillon on a space watch
Yema’s Spacegraf Heure Sidérale Tourbillon Volant is limited to 150 pieces at €14,500. It’s a space-themed watch with a flying tourbillon, at a price well under most tourbillons we cover. The listing ran as a sponsored post, so treat the pitch as the brand’s own. Source: aBlogtoWatch
Puma x Jil Sander is live now
The first Puma x Jil Sander apparel went on sale Friday at 1 PM CEST, which was 4 AM PT, on jilsander.com and puma.com. Select stockists get it from Oct 24. If you wanted the wool T7 track jacket, the window is already open. Source: Jil Sander
Why it matters for LA: A Spectre watch is made for a Hollywood premiere wrist. The Puma drop timing means LA buyers got first crack before Europe’s lunch crowd.
Fashion x Superintelligence
Dubai’s Apparel Group launches AIVI
Apparel Group, which runs 2,600-plus stores and 85-plus brands across 14 countries, launched AIVI, a shopping app with conversational recommendations and virtual try-on. The company says it offers more than 200,000 styles and delivery in as little as 60 minutes. These are the company’s own claims from its press release. Source: GlobeNewswire
Musinsa Lens: shop the photo
Korean fashion platform Musinsa launches Musinsa Lens on Oct 28, which finds identical or similar items from a photo you upload. Rival W Concept is testing image search inside its shopping assistant, and Zigzag says image-search product clicks rose about 70%. Source: Seoul Economic Daily
Why it matters for LA: Search by photo is the next fight. Any LA boutique with clean product photos is ready for it, and any without them will be invisible.
Runway Magazine Watch
Nothing new in the window; Dior’s LACMA campaign still leads
Runway Magazine published no new story we could date inside the last 24 hours. Its newest lead, published Oct 21, covers Dior’s Cruise 2027 campaign shot at LACMA by Sam Rock, with Jennifer Lawrence, Greta Lee, Taylor Russell and Drew Starkey. The magazine calls it “a study in high-concept self-awareness.” Source: Runway Magazine
Why it matters for LA: LACMA as a Dior soundstage is free marketing for the museum and for Wilshire.
Tips
Spotted a drop, a store closing or a new flagship opening in LA? Send it with a photo and a time stamp. We verify before we print. editor@nightlifereport.app
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