Bratlympics and Demuremaxxing
after school weekend edition
Welcome back to After School Weekend Edition, a not-so-brief trends debrief for paid subscribers. Your support keeps this newsletter going! 💫
Today we’re talking about:
What brands are doing (strategy-wise) and selling (merchandise-wise) for back-to-school — a deep dive!
Heydude’s baffling influencer spending
The buzzword that is going to be all over your feed tomorrow
The explaining makeup to men meme
Gen Z’s fragrance obsession
“Gaslight gatekeep girlboss genocide”
One of the worst sponsored posts I’ve seen in a long time
Plus everything else that happened this week in style, beauty, and culture — this letter is almost 4,600 words long, I am so sorry! — and what I’m buying/reading/listening to. First, my favorite TikTok of the week:
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People started their back-to-school shopping earlier than ever this year, according to both a Deloitte study and my own TikTok feed — as soon as the Fourth of July holiday was over, back-to-school shopping hauls began flooding my FYP.
But shopping earlier doesn’t mean shopping more. Consumers are expected to spend less this year, with Deloitte predicting that back-to-school spending will total $31.3 billion, down from $31.9 billion last year. The National Retail Federation similarly says that total U.S. back-to-college spending will also decline, forecasting $86.6 billion spent on college essentials, down from a record $94 billion spent in 2023.
Because there’s less money to go around, brands are investing deeper into their back-to-school strategies. Ahead, a look at how the big teen brands — Hollister, Pacsun, American Eagle, etc. — are trying to win over Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers and their parents.
WHAT BRANDS ARE DOING AND SELLING FOR BACK-TO-SCHOOL
ABERCROMBIE
What they’re selling: Last year, I wrote that Abercrombie was selling “Denim! Denim, denim, and more denim.” Twelve months later, this remains true — their current campaign is called “The Denim Movement” — though this year there’s a particular emphasis on loose denim.
“In denim, specifically, we are seeing some new trends happening, which is exciting,” Fran Horowitz, Abercrombie’s CEO, said during a conference call with analysts in June. “The rise is actually going back down a little bit. So this low-rise baggy is coming in pretty strong. Wide-leg jeans are happening,” she added. She’s not wrong: Wide-leg jeans, one of the most mentioned items in back-to-school hauls, are happening.
What they’re doing: Last year, I noted that Abercrombie was leaning into the post-grad consumer rather than marketing to teens as they did in the 2000s. The brand’s site currently touts a “fall preview” — there are pleated trousers and tailored vests make up an edit the New Albany, Ohio-headquartered retailer has dubbed “Scandi-core” — but only Abercrombie Kids has school-specific merchandising: