Must Read: Luxury Brands Face Huge Excess Inventory Problem, Phoebe Philo Announces Next Drop

These are the stories making headlines in fashion on Monday.

Luxury brands struggle to solve the excess inventory problem
Luxury brands are increasingly faced with the challenge of what to do with excess inventory. LVMH alone held $3.5 billion in unsold stock in 2023, which marked nearly a 19% increase from the year prior. Kering faced its own billion-dollar surplus at a higher level from 2022. Excess has always been a part of fashion's predominant business model where seasonal supply is based on predicted demand (which often ends up being inaccurate). But today's excess is at unprecedented levels. The question of what to do with it at this scale is challenging. Common methods like outlets, private shopping events, recycling and burning items, all have their own downsides. {Business of Fashion/paywalled}

Phoebe Philo announces next drop
Phoebe Philo has been making waves since her highly anticipated eponymous brand launched last October. Several months later, the label is gearing up for its second drop of items, which will be available on phoebephilo.com starting March 7. What's coming has yet to be revealed, but a pair of fringe-embellished mules made an appearance in the Instagram teaser. {Fashionista inbox}

Macy's shares surge after investors increase their offer
Macy's shares shot up 14% on Monday after investors upped their bid to take the struggling retailer private over the weekend. Arkhouse Management and asset manager Brigade Capital increased their offer price from $21 per share to $24, valuing the retailer at $6.58 billion. This seems to be history repeating itself: Macy's stock jumped from $10.74 to $20.77 after the late 2023 report of offers to take the retailer private. While Macy's rejected that offer on the basis of financial concerns, it has yet to address the new bid and now risks the possibility of a "hostile takeover." {Reuters}

Dover Street Market and Felix Los Angeles merge fashion and art
Felix Los Angeles is a smaller, independent fair that happens alongside Frieze L.A. (the big, annual contemporary art fair in California). This year, Felix welcomed fashion into the mix, working with Dover Street Market to curate offerings from Denim Tears, Airei x Asics, Otto 958 and more. What's special about Felix's model is that fashion and art shared the same space, whereas at Frieze, there's more separation. "In essence, facilitating collaboration between fashion brands and artists is at the core of DSM's DNA," North America Vice President James Gilchrist said. {Vogue Business/paywalled}

JLo Beauty removed from U.S. Sephora stores
Jennifer Lopez's skin- and body-care brand JLo Beauty is no longer being sold at Sephora's U.S. shops, per store associates. However, the products are still available on the retailer's website and its stores outside the country, like in Mexico. The brand's exit comes after former CEO Lisa Sequino left to become the CEO of Supergoop. Despite Lopez's prior success in beauty (including selling billions of dollars of her perfume), JLo Beauty may not have performed as it was expected to, between increased competition in the celebrity beauty market and Sephora's changing customer demographic. {Beauty Independent}

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