One brand shaking things up in the booming world of essential beauty supplements is Sisterly, which has been staging pop-ups and activations from London to LA.
Last month, it debuted in Harrods‘s beauty section alongside brands like Armani and Augustinus Bader. Uber model Jade Parfait, a huge fan, starred in Sisterly’s campaign, which was shot by Alex Antich and displayed on big screens in the department store.
In February, Sisterly introduced the brand to the UAE. Back in October, Sisterly tag-teamed as the nutrient element to the venerable jewelry marque Boodles’ presentation at the St. Regis Hotel in New York.
Some 80% of sales are online, with shipping worldwide. The D2C brand scores 20% monthly sales rises and a 60% retention rate. Sisterly also sells in happening destinations like The Ned, Soho House, and Dr. Galyna’s famed Wellness Hub in London. Last month, British Vogue named the brand the best multivitamin for hormone health.
The brainchild of three Irishwomen – Jennifer O’Connell, Aoife Matthews and Louise O’Riordan, a lawyer, a banker and a brand expert, respectively – Sisterly has stood out since its launch thanks to its cult following on the West Coast and its highly distinctive packaging. Think The Row of sensible yet chic supplements.
“During Covid, when I was in LA, Aoife in Madrid and Jennifer in Dublin, we’d get on a friend-check Zoom – sharing checks and tips about staying healthy,” explains Louise O’Riordan, an expert PR and marketing executive who cut her teeth with Nadine Johnson in New York, was a global brand officer of Quintessentially, and latterly handled LA’s fashion-friendly insider hotel Petit Ermitage.
In LA, where biohacking is rife, O’Riordan could not help noticing how clients in the VIP Club Boutique of Petit Ermitage were packing themselves with the popular longevity drug NAD or spending $450 for cell renewal.
“I would see friends taking eight tablets a day, and we could not find anything we could afford or relate to. We all shared a common frustration with the supplement space. What’s clean and what’s synthetic? Most multi-nutrients are designed for men. Then they shrink and pink them. But the female body does a lot more things,” she opines.
Pulling together resources, Sisterly formed a crack quartet of doctors, food scientists, female health specialists, and powder makers and surveyed 200 women to find out what they were looking for. Energy was very much the number one answer.
“Everyone is feeling the juggle of job, family, health, so women needed something to provide energy, immunity, hormonal balance and beauty,” explains O’Riordan.
The result is Sisterly, a daily supplement that packs 23 nutrients. It is optimally dosed, female-focused, and without fillers, agents, or sugar. It contains key hero ingredients like CoQ10, a coenzyme that turns food into energy.
Sisterly’s nutrient-rich supplement with a natural mandarin flavor. – Courtesy of Sisterly
“At 20, our CoQ10 is at peak levels, and after 40, it’s half, and after 50, it’s a depressing story,” adds Louise.
Over the counter at Whole Foods, a supply of CoQ10 would cost €50 per month. With Sisterly, it’s just one of 23 ingredients included in a bundle priced at €86 per month. Other ingredients, such as biotin and zinc, are incredibly healthy for lustrous hair; vitamin C is for collagen formation and a bounce in your skin, while vitamin A supplies retinol to stop aging.
Sisterly’s pristine white packaging is designed not to jump out, unlike brash-colored supplements, which are quickly banished to the back of a kitchen cabinet. Its sachet is hygienic; its taste has a slight mandarin flavor. One puts it in water or juice in a morning ritual with a new, sleek Sisterly electric whisk.
A morning ritual: Sisterly sachet paired with water or juice. – Courtesy of Sisterly
The brand struck an immediate chord with health-obsessed LA and with serious athletes and nutritionists. Like Sonia O’Sullivan, the Olympic silver medalist and former world record holder, who has become a huge advocate for the marque. O’Sullivan now trains future Olympians in sport-obsessed Ireland, and Sisterly is sponsoring her next annual 10-mile run to Cove this weekend in Cork and sharing its training schedule on its Instagram account.
Meanwhile, Rio Olympian silver medalist Annalise Murphy is leading a Sisterly cycle from Dublin Yacht Club. Other Sisterly sisters stage a monthly swim and yoga class at the famed Forty Foot, the site of the opening scene of Ireland’s most famous novel – Ulysses, by James Joyce.
The trio launched Sisterly in September 2023 in Dublin’s classiest hotel, The Merrion, and now sells in the Irish capital’s top department store, Brown Thomas. The Merrion Spa even provides Sisterly’s Elevator Spa Treatment, tag-teamed with premier French marque Biologique Recherche products.
Sisterly’s 30-day supply: clean, minimalist packaging with impact. – Courtesy of Sisterly
“Sisterly is for our mothers, sisters, girlfriends and ourselves. That’s our North Star. We are a one-product brand that love hearing people say, ‘Have you taken your Sisterly today?'” insists the voluble O’Riordan.
Talking of elevation, Boodles also partnered with Britain’s most exciting racing week, Cheltenham, to create an “elevated bar,” where a supply of bubbly led to Sisterly Mimosas in champagne. And it’s staged talks with nutritionists and fashion editors with sustainable body care brand Bamford. Though globe-trotting, Sisterly’s next stop is again LA, where producer, writer and all-around it-girl Kinvara Balfour will host a breakfast for the brand in LA.
Any chance of a Brotherly sachet soon, one wonders? “Watch this space. But we have registered the name,” chuckles Louise.
For decades, the fiercely independent Prada SpA Chairman Patrizio Bertelli talked about the need for Italian fashion houses to acquire size and scale to take on sprawling industry behemoths like LVMH and Kering SA and also avoid being gobbled up by them.
And yet his efforts to add heft to the Milan-based company he controls with his wife Miuccia Prada through an acquisition binge in the late 1990s left the group saddled with more than €1 billion ($1.13 billion) in debt and later forced the couple to seek help from Italian banks to prevent losing control.
More than a quarter century on, the family — including the couple’s oldest son Lorenzo, Bertelli’s designated successor — is seeking a different outcome from the biggest acquisition in Prada’s 112-year history: Versace.
Prada on Thursday agreed to buy the brand founded in the 1970s by late designer Gianni Versace from Capri Holdings Ltd. for €1.25 billion. The amount was significantly less than the initial asking price of more than €2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Prada even squeezed out a last-minute discount on the agreed €1.4 billion-euro price following the turmoil created by US President Donald Trump’s tariff push. The final price tag could be lower still, following several adjustments.
Adding Versace to Prada’s small yet growing stable of brands may give the Italian house the ability to stand alone in the fight for customers against the world’s biggest luxury giants as key markets like China and the US weaken. The bulk it adds strengthens the succession plans of the Prada-Bertelli family, which owns 80% of Prada. Miuccia, 76, and Patrizio, 79, have been determined to hand over the reins of the company to Lorenzo in a way that ensures the fashion house can maintain its independence.
Guaranteeing succession is a critical issue for Italian family-controlled businesses. Over the years, they have seen one brand after another scooped up by bigger global players. LVMH owns Fendi and Loro Piana and last year bought a stake in the company that controls Moncler SpA. Kering owns Gucci, Bottega Veneta and has an option to gain control of Valentino. For the families behind these brands, it has meant a loss of control.
Lorenzo, 36, a former rally driver who joined the family business about six years ago, is currently the head of marketing and social responsibility at Prada. He’s set to take over his father’s responsibilities in coming years.
In Versace, Prada gets a brand with a polar-opposite aesthetic, widening its range. While designer Miuccia has created her “ugly chic” style at Prada, Versace has been known for its elaborate, ornate designs and its signature Barocco print.
“Versace’s distinctive aesthetic fits perfectly into our portfolio, adding creative and customer complementarity,” Lorenzo said. “As we’ve seen in recent years, unlocking a brand’s full potential doesn’t necessarily require a revolution, but rather an evolution through small and constant steps.”
Prada’s purchase comes after record 2024 results, thanks to its Miu Miu label, which caters to younger consumers and helped it weather the recent global downturn in high-end fashion. But taking on a troubled label, which while still a global name is far removed from its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, may be a risky undertaking in the current climate for the luxury sector.
“We see the relaunch as a long and demanding process, which slightly dilutes the equity story of visible and consistent growth of the two main brands, Prada and Miu Miu,” said Paola Carboni, an analyst at Equita, in a note to clients. Prada, which went public through a 2011 IPO in Hong Kong, has fallen more than 30% from its mid-February record high.
Prada has already warned that fixing Versace will take time. The decision to buy it was “for the long term, for long-term success,” Chief Executive Officer Andrea Guerra said.
Prada plans to run Versace as a separate unit, as it does with Miu Miu, said the people who asked not to be named discussing private plans. Miuccia, or “La Signora” as she’s known at the company, won’t be designing any collections for Versace, which recently hired Dario Vitale, formerly of Miu Miu, as its chief creative officer, following the departure of longtime designer Donatella Versace.
Prada will have to decide on the direction the brand needs to take to turn its fortunes around.
In a heartening note for Italy’s family businesses, the deal has brought together two of the best-known clans of the country’s famed fashion industry, a fact that was welcomed by Donatella, who stepped down in March as Versace’s creative director. It was a role she had taken over in 1997, when her brother Gianni was killed outside his home in Florida.
“I am absolutely delighted for Versace to become part of the Prada family. Gianni and I have always had a huge admiration for Miuccia, Patrizio and their family,” Donatella wrote in a post on Instagram.
French fashion giant SMCP announced on Friday the appointment of Kleine Tan as CEO of the firm’s Asia region, effective April 1.
Kleine Tan – SMCP
Tan succeeds Jimmy Lam, who has decided to pursue new opportunities outside the group, which owns the Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot, and Fursac brands.
“I am delighted to join SMCP. I look forward to working closely with the teams on the ground to build on the strong foundations already in place,” said Tan.
“I would like to thank Isabelle Guichot and the rest of the SMCP management team for the trust they have placed in me to continue driving the development of our brands across the region.”
An expert in the Asian market, having lived and worked in Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, Tan most recently served as president of Loewe Asia at LVMH, where he played a pivotal role in the brand’s expansion and performance in the region.
He began his career in 1999 at Louis Vuitton in retail and merchandising before joining Burberry, where he held regional roles in retail operations and merchandising. In 2010, he moved to Prada and Miu Miu in similar roles, followed by senior leadership positions at Givenchy as managing director for Asia-Pacific and VP Japan & APAC, where he led the strategic turnaround and growth of the business in the region.
“I am very pleased to welcome Kleine Tan as CEO of SMCP Asia. Having lived and worked in Asia for the past two decades, Kleine brings a solid international perspective and a deep understanding of the retail and wholesale dynamics across the Asia-Pacific region,” said Isabelle Guichot, CEO of SMCP Group.
“As we continue to implement our strategic roadmap in the region, notably with our network optimization in China, I am confident that Kleine will bring a new pragmatic and expert vision to the table, seizing potential new opportunities and inspiring the teams to reach new milestones. I would like to join the SMCP team in wishing him every success as he steps into his new role, and at the same time, thank Jimmy for his unwavering commitment over the past eight years with the Group.”
Evelyne Chetrite and Judith Milgrom founded Sandro and Maje in Paris in 1984 and 1998, respectively, and continue to provide creative direction for the brands. The firm acquired Claudie Pierlot and Fursac, respectively, in 2009 and 2019, with firm’s portfolio of brands present across 50 countries globally.
Renzo Rosso, the Italian fashion mogul who made his name as the founder of Diesel jeans, is on the lookout for new deals — even after a setback in his bid to buy the Versace brand.
“We have no partners, no debt and we’re not listed,” Rosso, chairman of the OTB holding, said in an interview in Milan. That combination creates room for maneuver that bigger rivals can’t match, he said.
Rosso in February made a “formal bid” to buy the Versace and Jimmy Choo brands from US-based Capri Holdings. But it “was never considered, and we don’t know why, even if our offer was in line with the final deal,” Rosso said.
Rosso remains undaunted, however, and said he’ll consider other deals. “There are many more dossiers on our desk,” he said.
One possibility that’s been mentioned in the industry could be Milan-based fashion house Etro, controlled by L Catterton, the private equity firm backed by LVMH founder Bernard Arnault.
Clearly, though, Rosso has a type of target in mind.
“I don’t want to buy just for the sake of buying,” he said. While some possible acquisitions offer “decent revenue,” in many cases they’re not of interest because “they are not cool, not bold, maybe they don’t have as strong a brand identity as ours.”
OTB reported turnover of €1.8 billion ($2.04 billion) for 2024, down 4.4% at constant exchange rates compared with the previous year. Japan and North America rose 16.3% and 13.3%, respectively.
While an initial public offering remains a possibility at some point, Rosso said the option doesn’t make sense under current market conditions.
“We don’t need an IPO to make acquisitions, if we want to buy, we can make our move,” he said.
Dubbed the “Jeans Genius” by some media outlets, Rosso, 69, founded Diesel in the late 1970s, and acquired complete control of the brand in 1985. In 2002 he created OTB as a holding for Diesel and for future acquisitions. The group today encompasses brands including Jil Sander and Maison Margiela.
Rosso says he’s now considering raising prices in the US to counter potential effects of future tariffs and fading consumer demand.
“Traffic in US shops is declining by double-digit percentages, while consumers are holding back on purchases,” he said.
To react, Rosso is planning more US events for the full range of OTB brands, not just the high-end ones, while adjusting his distribution network.
Rosso has always seen the US as key to his group’s success. As far back as the 1980s, he made bets on Diesel’s now-signature worn-out look and on a push into the US market.
“Being part of the American dream was a must,” Rosso said. And when it came time to open the first Diesel store in the US, he deliberately picked a spot near a Levi’s location on New York’s Lexington Avenue.
Why? “To show them that my jeans were the coolest thing around.”