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Ode Parfums, a new fragrance brand from two veterans of the private-label beauty business, is entering a market where niche perfumes now routinely cost 250 to 500 euros. Its pitch is to deliver luxury-level creativity at a price far more people can afford, backed by 30 million euros of the founders’ own money.

The founders are Grégory Mager and Julien Saada, who cofounded the company now known as Maesa in 1997. Maesa began by making private-label perfumes and cosmetics for specialty fashion retailers and has since become a brand incubator as well. The pair sold majority control to Bain Capital about seven years ago. They stayed operationally involved for a couple of years and now sit on the board as minority shareholders.

Why the Ode Parfums founders think fragrance pricing is broken

Mager’s argument rests on what he sees as a gap between what perfume costs to make and what it sells for. Having produced fragrances for mass-market chains such as Zara, H&M and Primark, he says the founders know the supply chain well. “When you strip distribution, marketing and celebrity endorsement, the true actual cost of goods is not very high,” he said.

He also points to the rise of niche perfumery, where high prices and a distribution model with “a lot of margins stacked up on top of each other” have made the category harder to enter. The founders began thinking about what to reinvent roughly four years ago and tackled the problems one at a time, starting with retail price.

A direct-to-consumer model with its own stores

To cut out those layers of markup, Ode Parfums will sell directly to shoppers. A global e-commerce platform is due to launch in January, and the brand’s first company-owned stores are planned to start opening at the end of February. The founders want the brand to be global within its first year. The excerpt available did not specify retail prices for the fragrances.

Marketing is the second target. Mager said celebrity endorsement and heavy advertising “wasn’t necessarily resonating anymore with the consumer,” who he believes now wants authenticity, partly because niche perfumery has taught them to ask about ingredients, raw materials, sourcing and sustainability. Ode Parfums plans to pair that transparency with a store and online experience built around learning, discovery and a steady stream of new products.

Genderless scents made in Grasse

Each fragrance is a genderless composition created by a perfumer at Mane in Grasse, France, with what the brand describes as no constraints. The name was chosen to be short, poetic and international. Mager described an ode as a “signed and personal composition” as well as a form of praise, which he said fits both perfume and the feel-good experience the brand wants to create.

Mager said neither he nor Saada needed to start another company. If they did, he said, it had to be “revolutionary.” Whether Ode Parfums can deliver on that depends on how its prices compare with the niche brands it is positioning against, and on whether shoppers will buy a new fragrance brand online and in its own stores without the help of celebrity endorsement or traditional retail partners. The January and February launches will be the first test.

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Victoria Beckham Beauty arrives in the Middle East on Nov. 20, and its executives are already talking about the region as a potential top-five market. The brand will debut at Ounass and Bloomingdales.ae in partnership with Al Tayer Insignia, WWD reported exclusively.

Chief executive Lauren Edelman said the region could eventually sit alongside the U.S., the U.K. and Australia among the brand’s biggest markets. “I’m expecting a pretty blockbuster launch for us,” she said, calling Middle Eastern shoppers “one of the most discerning beauty audiences in the world.”

A Founder Who Signs Off on Every Detail

The pitch rests heavily on Beckham’s personal involvement. She told WWD she approves every product, down to the size of a lipstick bullet. The brand’s new refillable lipstick, Rouge Victoria, comes in six shades of red and took more than two years to develop. Beckham repeatedly sent submissions back because she wanted a smaller bullet, which was difficult because the case needed both a magnet and a refill system.

She also tests products on herself. Wearing her makeup through Miami’s August humidity, she said, gives her confidence it will hold up in Middle Eastern heat. On her most recent trip to the region, she recalled, the products stayed in place.

No Regional Edit, and a Fragrance Bet

The launch will carry the brand’s global range rather than a region-specific selection. Beckham said every product is built to work across skin tones, from foundation to nude lipsticks, so “there’s definitely nothing we need to reformulate.”

Edelman expects fragrance to account for a much larger share of sales in the Middle East than it does worldwide. Beckham called her scents “my autobiography through scent” and said she is curious how customers in a market known for layering fragrances will combine them.

Eyes are the other focus. The Satin Kajal Liner is the brand’s global bestseller, and Edelman expects it to keep its number-one spot in the region. Beckham wears the Cocoa shade daily and thinks Cinnamon will be a hit. She sometimes adds a fine line of navy or dark green at the outer edge to match an outfit. She framed that as “a non-scary way to also have fun and update your look.”

Fashion and Beauty Feeding Each Other

Beckham said she splits her time equally between fashion and beauty, and that beauty has brought new customers to her fashion business worldwide. She described herself as “cross-pollinating constantly,” pointing to the red lip and flawless skin at her latest Paris show as examples of beauty finishing the story of a collection.

The regional connection is not new. A trip to Dubai last year for a fashion capsule with Ounass gave her a read on local shoppers. “They appreciate quality,” she said of the women she met there.

Whether the Middle East reaches top-five status remains a projection from the company’s own leadership, not a result. But with a full global assortment, a fragrance-heavy sales outlook and a founder personally vouching for the formulas, Victoria Beckham Beauty is entering the region with a clear strategy and ambitious expectations.

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File photo: VictoriaBeckham2018-2-Crop.jpg by Owl Bridge Media, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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The big message from the autumn catwalks is short enough to fit on a label: wear a skirt. According to Guardian fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley, that is the whole idea behind one of the season’s most talked-about shows, and it is a rare trend that asks you to shop your own wardrobe before you shop anywhere else.

Prada’s show was 63 skirts and one point

Cartner-Morley’s column centres on Prada, where the collection was built almost entirely around a single garment. By her count, the show featured 63 different skirts. Some were paired with a sweater, some with a bra top, some with a jacket, but the styling was secondary. The skirts were the point.

Most sat around the knee, give or take an inch, and were broadly A-line. Some narrowed towards a pencil shape, while others flared wider. The variety came from the detailing. Some wrapped like kilts and were fastened with industrial-weight Velcro embroidered with tiny gems. Others were stiff, boxy and pleated, or tube-shaped and painted with swirls. One style was a delicate embellished skirt topped with a layer of gauze, like a petticoat worn on the outside.

Why the skirt is a quiet kind of power move

The skirt, Cartner-Morley argues, is often overlooked. Trousers feel more modern and dresses feel more glamorous, while the skirt carries associations with school and the office. Miuccia Prada, who wears skirts almost all the time, sees that as its appeal. “You can get away with a lot, in a skirt,” she said backstage.

Cartner-Morley reads this as a kind of licence. A skirt makes you look sensible, which leaves room to be quietly eccentric. Prada also prefers separates to dresses, because a dress commits you to one idea and one emotion. Most people who dress in separates pair a plain bottom half with a top that carries the message, whether through colour, a formal collar or a plunging neckline. Prada reverses that, keeping the more expressive pieces away from her face so her clothes don’t compete with what she is saying.

That logic also explains why a skirt can beat trousers when the design gets busy. Pile lots of ideas onto a pair of trousers and, as Cartner-Morley puts it, they look cluttered.

A trend you can try without shopping

The timing matters, the column suggests, because fashion has become “fashion-y” again, with colour, fringing and embellishment back in play. Those elements are easier to carry below the waist. Pair a loud skirt with a normal jumper and your normal face, and you still look like yourself.

The shift sounds minor, Cartner-Morley admits: trousers yesterday, skirt today. But she says it changes the mood of a whole wardrobe by altering the geometry of an outfit. A plain jumper that looks dull with jeans can look chic and unexpected over a fancy silk skirt.

Her advice runs against the usual logic of a trend report. Rather than buying something new, she watched the Prada show and started mentally flipping through skirts she already owned. They included a silver leather skirt from H&M, a purple pleated vintage Chanel silk skirt, and a tiger-print skirt bought on her first trip to Milan nearly 25 years ago. All of them, she says, suddenly felt urgent to wear.

The excerpt of the column available here cuts off before she gets to specific advice on shoes and other styling details, so those are not covered. Even so, the central takeaway is clear. This season’s trend doesn’t require a big spend: it asks you to wear a skirt, ideally one that has been sitting forgotten in the wardrobe.

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Tod’s creative director Matteo Tamburini is leaving the Italian luxury house, the company announced Tuesday, and no successor has been named. His spring/summer 2027 show, presented in Milan in September, turns out to have been his last.

Tamburini arrived in December 2023 from Bottega Veneta, where he had led ready-to-wear design. His first Tod’s collection, for fall/winter 2024, was widely noted for its respect for the brand’s established codes. The company framed the departure as part of a wider strategic shift toward “more decisively communicating the brand’s values, the distinctive character of its codes and the artisanal quality of its products, as well as the Italian lifestyle.”

What Tamburini changed at Tod’s

According to WWD’s assessment, Tamburini understood how much chairman and CEO Diego Della Valle values Italian craftsmanship. His collections grew more confident over time, it said. He updated two of the house’s signature pieces, the Gommino loafer and the Tod’s Wave bag. He also worked the Pashmy fabric into several more sophisticated versions and experimented with graphic elements and color. His perforated leather designs for spring were cited as an example of that work with precious hides. He oversaw both the women’s and men’s collections, taking over from Walter Chiapponi.

Both men were gracious in their statements. Della Valle thanked Tamburini for his “creative and professional contribution.” Tamburini called his time at the brand “an important chapter” and thanked the Della Valle family and the teams he worked with.

A business under pressure

The exit comes as the Tod’s Group, which also owns Hogan and Roger Vivier, adjusts to a tougher climate. Before it was delisted in May 2024 through a deal with L Catterton, the group reported 2023 revenues up 11.9 percent to €1.13 billion, helped by China and its own retail stores. The Tod’s brand itself grew 10.4 percent. Since going private, Vogue Business reports, the macroeconomic picture has become harder and demand in China has softened.

Neither source says the company’s finances prompted Tamburini’s departure, and the official explanation points only to a refocused brand message. Still, the timing invites questions about how the next appointee will be asked to balance heritage with growth.

A role that has never been stable

WWD’s history shows the position has long been unsettled. After Alessandra Facchinetti left in 2016, Della Valle rethought the role of a creative director and handed design to the in-house team. That lasted until Chiapponi arrived to supervise both lines. Separately, Andrea Incontri left as menswear creative director in June 2019 after five years. Tamburini’s roughly three-year run fits a pattern of short tenures.

Vogue Business also describes the exit as one more designer vacancy at a luxury house, part of a broader reshuffling of creative leadership in fashion. With no replacement announced, it is unclear whether Tod’s will appoint another high-profile name or lean again on its internal team. How Della Valle answers that question will show how seriously the company intends to pursue its stated plan to communicate its codes “more decisively.”

Tyler, The Creator and Converse are dropping a shorter take on last year’s boot: the Bronco Boot Low, which goes on sale globally on Nov. 12 through both brands’ websites. It leads a wider 1908 collection that also adds new Pro Leather and Jogger colorways, bringing the number of shoes in this release to eight.

What the Bronco Boot Low Changes

The Bronco Boot Low is described as a low-top version of the 1908 Bronco Boot, which the musician introduced with the Nike-owned brand in 2025. The build keeps the rugged character of the original. It combines suede and leather uppers with a molded rubber toe cap, a lugged welted outsole and a rubber rand above the welt.

The finishing touches are where Tyler’s involvement shows. Custom woven round laces replace standard ones, a Le Fleur* lace jewel sits at the bottom eyelet, and a co-branded sock liner completes the look. The shoe comes in four colorways: “Cocoa Brown,” “New Wheat,” “Eden” and “Black.”

Pro Leather and Jogger Round Out the Drop

The boot is the headline, but it isn’t the only release. Two new suede Pro Leather colorways bring a softer finish to a deliberately oversize shoe. Proportions are unchanged, with a wider toe box, oversize eyelet rows, chunky laces and an embossed star across the toe cap. “Tendril” pairs gray suede with lavender overlays, while “Quarry” matches olive suede with a sky-blue Star Chevron.

The Jogger arrives in two saturated, single-tone options, “High Risk Red” and “Golden Haze.” It uses vintage-inspired hairy suede overlays at the toe, eyestay and heel, set against smooth nylon panels. A foam midsole and sawtooth rubber outsole keep the profile low. Golf Le Fleur* branding appears on both side panels and the sockliner, and a woven Converse tongue label finishes the shoe.

A Partnership Now Several Years Deep

The release continues a collaboration that began in 2017 under the Golf Le Fleur* banner. Early on, Tyler reworked Converse icons such as the One Star and the Chuck 70. The 1908 program, launched in 2025, takes a different approach. It draws on more than 115 years of Converse design history, treating the brand’s archive as a starting point for new designs rather than a finished catalog.

The Bronco Boot Low also follows closely on an earlier drop. In October, the pair expanded the Pro Leather lineup with four colorways: “Black,” “Bison,” “Molten Lava” and “White.” Two more Pro Leather options arriving a few weeks later suggests the partnership is releasing on a steady cadence rather than in occasional one-off moments.

Pricing was not included in the announcement details. Anyone planning to buy the Bronco Boot Low or its companions should check the Converse and Golf Le Fleur* sites on Nov. 12 for costs and availability.

File photo: Tyler, The Creator (8048745695) (cropped).jpg by Incase from California, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Skims advent calendar was meant to be a festive treat. Instead it has become one of the week’s biggest online pile-ons, and Kim Kardashian’s shapewear company is now offering refunds to every customer who bought it.

The $148 (£110) accessories calendar promised “twelve days of fun surprises.” Shoppers who opened it found a run of hair ties, hair clips, keychains and similar small items, and many said so loudly on social media.

What was actually inside

According to the BBC’s rundown, the twelve doors held a tartan teddy bear keychain, several packs of hair ties, three Skims-branded hair clips, a Skims “squishy” ornament, beige elastic straps or hair bands, a comb keychain, another Skims keychain and a furry compact mirror keychain. Some coverage described the straps as resembling bra straps, and the Independent and the Daily Mail also mentioned bobby pins.

The product description on the Skims website pitched it as “a dozen reasons to celebrate,” with “a mix of playful items and everyday favorites.” The listing now shows the item as sold out.

How a TikTok unboxing set the tone

The backlash was driven largely by a TikTok unboxing from a creator who posts as @wetsloppyswollen. She opened all twelve doors on camera, her mood souring with each one. At one point she held up a pair of nude straps and asked, “What is this?” She ended by saying the calendar was “way too expensive.”

The video spread fast, though outlets cited different metrics. The Independent reported more than 8.1 million likes, while the Daily Mail reported more than 65 million views. Other creators posted their own unboxings with similar reactions.

Commenters supplied the jokes. Some said the contents looked like what falls between car seats, and one questioned how an underwear brand could produce a calendar with no underwear. Others dubbed it the “Fyre Festival of advent calendars.” One widely repeated complaint was that $150 seemed steep for what one commenter guessed was about $20 of goods. That figure is a viewer’s estimate, not a valuation from Skims or an independent source.

Skims responds with refunds

In statements to several outlets, a Skims spokesperson said the company understood “the calendar didn’t meet expectations” and had “personally contacted every customer who purchased the calendar.” Buyers were offered a choice between a full refund and Skims credit toward other products. The company added that customer feedback would “directly shape how we approach future releases.”

The statement stops short of an apology, which at least one YouTuber said Kardashian should post. The company’s wording, that the calendar fell short “for some,” also frames the reaction as partial rather than universal.

Why value matters more with advent calendars

Market researchers say the pile-on fits a pattern. Kate Vlietstra of Mintel told the BBC that backlash like this has become more common, helped by the trend for unboxing on social media. If buyers feel they haven’t received the value they hoped for, she said, a reaction is “inevitable.”

Helen Wing of Ipsos said advent calendars remain popular, though “the buzz around them has reduced a little bit.” Her research suggests people will pay more for one, provided the contents justify the price. She pointed to Liberty’s £285 calendar, which tells shoppers it holds over £1,000 of products. That reassurance matters, she said, especially when the calendar is bought as a gift.

The Skims advent calendar offered no comparable promise of value, and the unboxing format turned each door into a public verdict on the price.

Not the brand’s first controversy

Skims was co-founded in 2019 by Kardashian, Jens Grede and Emma Grede, and Forbes says it has made Kardashian a billionaire. The company was valued at $5bn in 2025 when it raised new funding. It has drawn criticism before for attention-grabbing products, including a 2023 bra with fake nipples and a thong with faux pubic hair released last year. Those releases got people talking, but this episode is different because paying customers feel shortchanged, and refunds are the company’s answer.

For now, the refund offer limits the financial damage, and the sell-out suggests demand was strong before the reviews came in. The reputational fallout is harder to measure, and it may shape how the brand approaches its next holiday release.

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File photo: Kim Kardashian & Kris Jenner MTV Awards.jpg by Nicole Alexander, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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A GTA 6 jacket priced at £2,500, about $3,356, has sold out after Rockstar Games and Selfridges opened a promotional event for the game. Polygon, citing IGN, reports that the launch queue exceeded 100,000 people and that many products disappeared quickly.

What the GTA 6 jacket is, and why it matters

The item is the “Grand Theft Auto VI Goodtime State Varsity Jacket.” It carries a Rockstar logo and a “VI” on the front. The back reads “Vice City” beside Macca the Gator, a flamingo in sunglasses and a purple lowrider. Its price is far above what most game merchandise costs, yet it sold out anyway.

The jacket is one of more than 60 GTA 6-themed items on offer. The range also includes basketballs, mugs and luggage tags, and many pieces are sold exclusively at Selfridges. When the store opened, it also temporarily sold the merchandise online.

A pop-up built like a game world

The event is installed at Selfridges’ 400 Oxford Street location in London. It features a Grotti Cheetah Classic painted in the game’s blue-and-pink palette and a statue of a Leonida alligator. Other Vice City-themed props tease the game’s setting. The effort goes well beyond a typical product tie-in and works more like a piece of marketing theatre.

It also fits a pattern. Rockstar has already sold a $400 collector’s edition that does not include the game itself. The game costs at least $79.99. Taken together, the merchandise and the queue suggest the company is confident fans will pay premium prices for anything carrying the GTA 6 name.

Launch week is here

The timing is deliberate. GTA 6 arrives on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles on Nov. 19, and Polygon expects it to become one of the best-selling games of all time. Preloading began earlier today for players in New Zealand. In the United States, it opens on Xbox and PlayStation between this afternoon and midnight.

Rockstar has said the game will take up to 212 GB, with audio alone accounting for 22 GB. Data miners have already begun combing through the preload files. One reported a variable called “launchMultiplayerActivity,” which suggests GTA Online could eventually come to the new game. That is an inference from a file name, not a confirmation from Rockstar.

The sources do not say how many units of the jacket were available, how many were sold, or whether it will be restocked. Even so, the sell-out is a telling data point. A garment that costs more than many used cars’ monthly payments, per the price alone, cleared the shelves while a six-figure queue formed. For Rockstar, the GTA 6 jacket doubles as proof that the hype around the game is still at full strength.

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Nicole Kidman’s tattered-tulle Chanel gown, a nod to a Degas sculpture, emerged as the most talked-about look at the LACMA gala, held on November 7 in Los Angeles. It was one of 43 red-carpet moments Vogue singled out, while Harper’s Bazaar narrowed its own list to ten.

The annual Art + Film event raises money for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s film initiatives, exhibitions, acquisitions and educational programs. This year it was co-chaired by Leonardo DiCaprio and museum trustee Eva Chow. Artist Vija Celmins and filmmaker Denis Villeneuve received special honours. Gucci, the event’s longtime supporter, was everywhere on the carpet.

Kidman’s Chanel Ties Fashion to the Museum

Harper’s called Kidman’s dress perhaps the most fitting look of the night. It comes from Matthieu Blazy’s Spring 2027 collection for Chanel. The bodice is designed to resemble burlap, and the layered tulle skirt has darker panels that make it look aged and worn. The design references Degas’s 1881 sculpture “Little Dancer of Fourteen Years.” Harper’s argued that it captured what the evening celebrates: a movie star, a historic French fashion house and a canonical Impressionist artist in one outfit.

Gucci Dominates the LACMA Gala Red Carpet

Gucci’s presence was hard to miss. Vogue’s gallery credits the label with dozens of looks, including Kim Kardashian, Viola Davis, Sarah Paulson, Sienna Miller, Salma Hayek-Pinault, Emily Ratajkowski, Andrew Garfield and Villeneuve himself.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley wore a slinky black backless gown with a slit up the back rather than the front. She had walked in the brand’s Spring 2027 show. Harper’s noted that Demna, who designed the collection, said he was proudest of the structure of its jersey dresses, which are light but engineered to hang precisely.

Other models from that runway also attended. Alex Consani wore a dramatically twisted, full-skirted gown. Elsa Hosk chose gray wool with a thigh-high slit, and Candice Swanepoel wore full-length silver fringe with slits up to the hips.

Beyond Gucci: Vintage, Couture and Playful Experiments

Harper’s said guests leaned into play this year, and the non-Gucci standouts showed it. Anya Taylor-Joy, styled by Law Roach, drew on the Pierre Cardin archives. She wore a vintage 1997 piece, an embroidered silvery-white slip with a ruffled organza evening coat. Kylie Jenner wore Ashi Studio, a halter-neck gown with an allover deer-like animal print and an oversized tassel at the back. Julia Garner chose a sculptural black taffeta Loewe gown with oversized Lisa Eisner earrings.

Vogue’s longer list shows how wide the field ran. Rosé wore Saint Laurent, and Paris Hilton wore Jenny Packham. Brittany Snow chose vintage Ralph Lauren, and Olivia Munn wore vintage Mugler. Aurora James wore Rodarte, Ashley Park wore Prabal Gurung and Benito Skinner wore ERL.

What the Night Says About Red-Carpet Dressing

Brand sponsorship shaped the evening, but the most memorable looks often stepped outside it. Archive pieces from Cardin, Mugler and Ralph Lauren sat beside new collections from Chanel and Loewe. The LACMA gala has long mixed art, film and fashion, and the standout looks this year made the connection explicit, most clearly Kidman’s Degas reference.

Harper’s top ten also included Quenlin Blackwell, Sienna Miller and Devon Lee Carlson in Gucci, and Rosé in Saint Laurent. Vogue’s gallery, which runs well past those names, is the fuller record of the night.

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The Kylie Minogue Chanel look at the brand’s Sydney Cruise 2027 presentation was a lesson in restraint: a soft, cream-on-cream outfit anchored by one of the house’s best-known shoes. The singer attended the Thursday event, which marked the first time Sydney has hosted a Chanel cruise show.

Inside the Kylie Minogue Chanel Outfit

Minogue wore an ivory button-down cardigan with a midi-skirt in a slightly lighter white. A multi-strand belt of leather and gold chain hung loosely at her waist, the most overtly “Chanel” flourish in an otherwise understated outfit. She kept her makeup natural and carried a clutch tucked under her right arm.

The shoes did the talking. She chose Chanel’s two-toned pumps in a shade described as mascarpone, with slingback straps, a block heel and the black cap toe that gives the style its identity. Footwear News called the look elegantly professional, and the tonal palette kept attention on that contrast at the toe.

Why Sydney, and Why Now

Chanel’s cruise line goes back more than a century. Coco Chanel launched it in 1919 to give wealthy women out-of-season clothes for holidays in warmer climates. Today the brand typically stages a large show in spring and a smaller repeat in early fall.

This year’s spring outing took place in the French seaside resort of Biarritz in April, the first time creative director Matthieu Blazy presented the 2027 cruise line. The Sydney event was the repeat. Last year’s was in Singapore. The city also has a retail case: eight of Chanel’s Australian boutiques are located there. The show came just before the collection was due in stores.

A Strong Australian Guest List

Minogue was not the only local star in the room. Margot Robbie and Nicole Kidman, a Chanel ambassador, also attended, which made the evening something of an Australian celebrity showcase for the label.

For a brand built on heritage, the Kylie Minogue Chanel appearance shows how well a few classic pieces can work together. The cardigan, skirt, chain belt and cap-toe slingbacks are all familiar elements of the house’s vocabulary, and wearing them in a single quiet colour story let the details stand out. At a show meant to promote a new collection, one of the evening’s most talked-about shoes was among the house’s oldest.

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File photo: Kylie Minogue 01.jpg by QuentinCurran, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Iowa’s governor-elect has a résumé item that few politicians can match: the Rob Sand modeling career, which took him from a Brown University dorm to runways in Milan more than twenty years ago. Sand, a Democrat, defeated Republican Zach Lahn on Tuesday, and within a day the fashion press had resurfaced his past.

From Brown University to the Milan runway

According to WWD, Sand modeled while studying political science at Brown in the early 2000s, and he walked for Prada, Giuliano Fujiwara and the Japanese label Number (N)ine. His Prada appearance was in the spring 2003 menswear show, presented in Milan on Aug. 1, 2002. WWD describes that collection as a mix of traditional tailoring and unconventional proportions: gray suits, belted trench coats, gold floral brocade trousers and lightweight T-shirts.

The work was not limited to the catwalk. WWD lists editorial credits tied to Arena Homme+, Vogue Italia and AnOther, including a 2002 shoot photographed by Terry Richardson. Vogue pinpoints one of them as AnOther Magazine’s fall 2002 “young punk” spread, titled “Adolescents.” Harper’s Bazaar, citing Newsweek, adds that he was reportedly signed to IMG Models, though it says his profile on the agency’s site appears to have been removed.

The caucus he skipped for a fashion job

The best-known story from the Rob Sand modeling career is also a political one. In January 2004, Sand missed the Iowa Democratic caucuses in his hometown of Decorah. He had hoped to support presidential candidate Howard Dean, but he was in Milan modeling menswear. “It had to be one or the other,” he told Newsweek in 2022. “And I chose to go to Europe.”

For a politician now headed to the governor’s office, it is an unusual trade-off. Missing the caucus in Iowa, where the first presidential contest carries real weight, is a notable cost for a young political enthusiast.

A past he rarely discusses

Despite the attention now, the sources agree that Sand does not often bring up this chapter. Vogue, citing a 2019 New York Times profile, says it is not a period he publicly revisits, and Harper’s Bazaar echoes that. Vogue’s writer also notes how little detailed information about the period exists. Harper’s Bazaar said Sand’s team had not responded to its request for comment.

Bazaar goes a step further, saying he helped pay for his degrees by modeling. That claim appears only in that outlet, and WWD simply calls it a brief but impressive college side gig.

What came next

The rest of the biography is conventional. Sand earned his law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law in 2010, then began a legal career. He was elected state auditor in 2018 and reelected in 2022. Harper’s Bazaar reports that he also earned a Truman scholarship at Brown and says his 2026 campaign centered on anti-corruption, bipartisanship, affordable living and public education.

The fashion world has had fun with the story. Vogue joked that his quarter-zips and button-downs are now “a bit more gubernatorial” than his runway wardrobe, while WWD framed him as the latest in a line of American politicians with fashion résumés. Still, the Rob Sand modeling career is a footnote to the real news. A former auditor who once skipped a caucus for a Milan show is now the governor-elect of Iowa.

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File photo: Rob Sand For Iowa 2 (cropped) (cropped).jpg by Rob Sand for Governor, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.