Web3 Skincare and the $5,000 Face
after school weekend edition
Hi friends! Welcome back to After School ✨weekend edition✨, an extra long and extra opinionated youth culture digest for paid subscribers.
Today we’re going to talk about:
The family-owned fashion brand quietly building a next-gen lifestyle company
The Gen Z-beloved fast-fashion retailer that went belly up
The frankly random Midwest town that’s suddenly all over TikTok
The #1 place Gen Z homeowners are moving to
What young people are doing with their money (it has nothing to do with crypto, bless)
And what I’m reading/watching/buying (i found the impossible: hoop earrings comfy enough to sleep in…I need everyone to know about these things!) AND SO MUCH MORE. Hope you enjoy!
⚡ Biz ⚡
The Yes, a shopping app that billed itself as a totally “new way to shop” but always felt like a pretty normal way to shop, has fascinated me since it was founded two years ago. They have a flashy founding team, raised a wild amount of money right out of the gate, and had what appeared to be a truly enormous marketing budget, at least based on the billboards and subway ads covering NYC at launch. And though it was “AI-powered,” to the casual shopper they really had no distinguishing factor from, say, Nordstrom. Which makes Thursday’s news that the retailer has been acquired by Pinterest all the more interesting…!
Deal terms were not disclosed, but the acquisition will help to establish a new strategic organization within Pinterest to help drive the company’s shopping efforts, including the development of features for both shoppers and retailers, the company says. OK!
Missguided — a fast-fashion retailer that seemed, to me, to be as successful as Asos and Princess Polly — just went belly up, potentially leaving thousands of customers out of pocket. This could have some biiiig implications on fast-fashion on the whole.
As an aside, I’ve been watching a lot of Frasier lately (don’t ask), and at first glance, I thought this headline was alerting me of a Missguided x Frasier collaboration. Too bad.
