After the break-in at the Louvre, what should luxury brands do to prevent thefts?

Summary

The Glossy Podcast – Episode Summary
Episode: After the break-in at the Louvre, what should luxury brands do to prevent thefts?
Date: November 7, 2025
Host: Danny Parisi (A), with Zofia Zyglinska (B)
Special Guest: Sarah Davis, Co-founder & President of Fashionphile (C)

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Overview

In this episode, The Glossy Podcast delves into several major topics affecting the fashion and luxury sectors, culminating in an in-depth discussion about the impact of the Louvre jewelry heist and effective security strategies for luxury brands. Hosts Danny Parisi and Zofia Zyglinska explore:

• The consolidation of Teen Vogue into Vogue.com and its implications for fashion media
• The controversy around Shein’s store opening in France amid regulatory and public backlash
• The departure of Olivier Rousteing from Balmain, reflecting shifts among creative directors in luxury fashion
• A feature interview with Fashionphile’s Sarah Davis on the ramifications of the Louvre break-in and how luxury brands can bolster their security against theft

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Folding of Teen Vogue into Vogue.com

(00:17–09:44)

• Layoffs and Loss of Editorial Identity:

  • Conde Nast merges Teen Vogue and Vogue Business into Vogue.com, laying off 70% of Teen Vogue’s staff, including its editor in chief and politics writers.
  • This consolidation is met with disappointment and concern for the loss of Teen Vogue’s unique, politically engaged voice.
  • Zofia: “A publication or any organization is the people who work there ... if you're firing everybody but we're going to keep the identity – the identity is those people.” (05:29)
  • The move reflects wider media consolidation, rising influence of AI (Conde Nast’s OpenAI deal), and potential devaluation of individual brand identities.

• Concerns for the Fashion Media Industry:

  • Discussion of layoffs tied to broader economic instability and AI’s impact on editorial work.
  • Marketing and audience segmentation concerns: losing Teen Vogue as a stand-alone brand may dilute marketing opportunities.

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2. Shein’s Controversial Store Opening in France & Legal Troubles

(09:44–17:58)

• Protests and Industry Backlash:

  • Shein’s first permanent store opens in Paris's BHV Marais, facing intense protests from the public and government officials.
  • Historic retailers sever ties with mall owners associated with Shein.
  • Zofia: “It feels like a slap in the face for the French government... Galerie Lafayette, which are typically known for their luxury assortment, very, very publicly opposed the Shein rollout…” (11:44)

• Allegations and Regulatory Action:

  • The French government considers banning Shein’s site over allegations of illegal items being sold—child-sized sex dolls, weapons, via third-party marketplace sellers.
  • Digital Services Act gives France the regulatory authority to shut down large platforms over problematic listings.
  • Host Danny notes the persistent appeal of Shein’s low prices, even as ethical and sustainability concerns mount: “All that opposition in the world ... has to go up against… that it's cheap.” (14:59)

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3. Olivier Rousteing Leaves Balmain

(17:58–23:22)

• A Major Creative Shift:
  • After 14 years, Rousteing steps down as Balmain’s creative director, with neither his next move nor a successor announced.
  • “He was one of the first creative directors to kind of popularize blending kind of celebrity and social followers product drops…” (18:57, Zofia)
  • Noted for modernizing Balmain, leveraging social media, and boosting the brand’s revenue from €20M to €300M.
  • Danny: “He was 24 when he took over the role, which is insane... one of the first black designers to lead a major European luxury house.” (21:04)

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Feature Interview: Sarah Davis on the Louvre Heist & Security Measures

(24:27–47:44)

The Impact of the Louvre Heist

• Sarah’s Initial Reaction:
  • “Honestly, I feel like just kind of a little gut punch… those jewels had… an inherent value where you can just sadly meltdown.” (25:49, Sarah Davis)
  • The heartbreak of historical loss, not just monetary; once melted down, the cultural artifacts are irretrievable.

Challenges of Luxury Retail Security

• Liquidatable Merchandise and Ongoing Threats:

  • Fashionphile merchandise is highly attractive to thieves due to ease of resale.
  • “We're the honey that attracts the bees, which are just bad people who want to steal stuff.” (27:33, C)
  • The greatest concern among luxury brands isn't counterfeiting but physical theft—smash-and-grab crimes targeting easily resold goods.

• Layered Security Approaches:

  • All high-value items (bags, watches, jewelry) are individually tethered with custom-designed fixtures.
  • Tethers require significant effort and time (e.g., wire cutters), increasing the risk and lowering appeal for thieves.
  • “Everything we have is tethered down… it’s just not that easy. They can't just grab.” (29:18, C)

• Technology and Data Sharing:

  • Fashionphile maintains records of serial numbers and registrations; can check if an item is reported stolen before purchasing.
  • Collaboration with luxury brands, law enforcement, and industry peers is critical (“We want to starve the beast.”)

• Physical Barriers:

  • Behind-the-scenes: 24/7 security, access control at doors, alarm systems, cages for overnight storage—even required ID at entry for NYC location.
  • Sarah: “We don't use glass as a protectant. That doesn't protect anything…” (33:24, C)

• Notable Moment:

  • Comparison to the car industry’s VIN system—advocating for a unified luxury goods identification system.
  • “How cool would it be if you could look up that Cartier ring and see that it was stolen ... not that hard to do… the hardest part is getting all the brands to coordinate.” (34:58, C)
  • Mentions brands’ collaboration via Aura Blockchain Consortium as a positive step.

Evolving Security in Practice

• Learning from Incidents:
  • Security systems have evolved due to past break-ins; each event informs stronger protocols.
  • “Put yourself in their heads… Just minimize the damage. Make it very hard.” (38:45, C)
  • Anecdote: Loss of two untethered Chanel surfboards (“our crown jewels”) highlighted the need to secure even unusual items. (41:27, C)

Supporting Staff and Best Practices

• Witnessing even failed thefts is traumatic; Sarah emphasizes staff well-being over property protection:
  • “Please don’t be a hero.” (42:08, A/C)
  • Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in place: panic buttons, chains of notification to mall security and police; reminders not to intervene physically.
  • Key advice for any retailer: “Every single thing is tied down... The glass does not do it... you've got to have security, all those things…” (45:31, C)

Adapting to Sophisticated Threats

• The Louvre break-in, executed in broad daylight with simple tools, prompted new internal security protocols at Fashionphile—demonstrating the need to constantly “think outside the box” about potential threats. (47:17, C)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “A publication is the stories, and the stories are the people who wrote it… if you're firing everybody but we're going to keep the identity – the identity is those people.”
  – Danny Parisi, (05:29), on Teen Vogue’s consolidation

• “It bothers them that where do you liquidate that in resale. And the truth is… we always say we want to starve the beast.”
  – Sarah Davis, (29:18), on fighting the resale of stolen goods

• “We don’t use glass as a protectant. That doesn’t protect anything.”
  – Sarah Davis, (33:24), on the limitations of traditional security measures

• “How cool would it be if you could look up that Cartier ring and see that that was stolen…not that hard to do...”
  – Sarah Davis, (34:57), on the potential for luxury item tracking

• “Please don't be a hero.”
  – Sarah Davis, (42:08), on prioritizing staff safety during theft attempts

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Notable Timestamps

• 00:17 – Discussion begins on Teen Vogue layoffs and Vogue consolidation
• 03:07–09:44 – Industry-wide implications, AI’s role in consolidation
• 09:44–17:58 – Shein’s Paris store; public and governmental response
• 17:58–23:22 – Analysis of Olivier Rousteing’s departure from Balmain
• 24:27–47:44 – Interview with Sarah Davis on the Louvre heist and luxury security
  • 25:49 – Sarah’s reaction to the Louvre theft
  • 27:33–30:54 – Detailed approach to retail security (“tethering,” registration systems)
  • 33:24 – Physical security gaps & glass display limitations
  • 34:57 – The case for a unified luxury goods tracking system
  • 38:45 – Evolving security systems from experience
  • 41:27 – Irreplaceable loss: the Chanel surfboards
  • 42:08–43:37 – Staff trauma and handling active theft attempts
  • 45:31 – Advice to other luxury retailers
  • 47:17 – Need for continuous re-evaluation after the Louvre incident

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Conclusion

This episode offers a clear and unvarnished look at the intersecting worlds of fashion publishing, fast fashion’s global expansion, creative leadership turnover, and most notably, the urgent and evolving question of how luxury brands can defend themselves—and their staff—against theft in an era of increasingly audacious crime. Sarah Davis’ insights position robust, evolving security as not only an operational concern but an industry imperative, echoing the seriousness of the Louvre break-in and suggesting a collective path forward.

Transcript

[A]

Hello and welcome back to the Glossy Podcast. I'm your host, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi, and I'm here with our international reporter, Zofia Zyglinska. Hello, Zofia, how are you doing?

[B]

Hi. Yeah, doing good. Nice to be on again.

[A]

Nice to have you. Thank you for being here. We have a fun episode this week. We're going to talk about a couple things. First, we want to talk about the folding of teen vogue into vogue.com and the layoffs that happened at Teen Vogue a little bit outside of what we normally cover. But I do feel like it's relevant to the industry and to fashion and to media and all that stuff. We're also going to talk about this ongoing battle over Shein's presence in France, which had several new twists this week, some of them a little disturbing, but we'll get into that. And then finally, I want to talk about Olivier Roussand moving on from Balmain. He's been there for 14 years, one of the many, many, many creative directors that we've talked about who have left luxury fashion houses this past year. So we'll talk about that as well. Then we'll take a short break. And in the second half of the episode, I spoke with Sarah Davis, who's the co founder and president of Fashionphile, a luxury reseller of bags and watches. But we talked about the break in at the Louvre, which I'm sure most of our listeners have heard about. I was talking with Sarah recently for something else and it came up and we were talking about security and the security measures that luxury brands and luxury retailers have to take. And she had a lot of really interesting things to say about how they secure their bags and other things. It was actually a really fascinating conversation. So that will be in the second half of the episode. Stick around after our news segment for that. But yeah, let's start with talking about Teen Vogue. So this week, Conde Nast, which is the parent company of Vogue and many other publications, announced that it was folding in Teen Vogue into Vogue. And this ruffled a lot of feathers for a few reasons. I think Teen Vogue has developed this very interesting reputation over the last several years, maybe decade of being like people I think were always, it was like a joke. People were surprised at how hard hitting and uncompromising the journalism and particularly the politics coverage at Teen Vogue was, probably because a lot of people had this idea that, you know, Teen Vogue was like Seventeen magazine or one of those kind of like, you know, magazines like that. And it really wasn't, I mean, I think it had extremely strong identity. And so when the announcement was made that they were folding it into Vogue, they talked about Teen Vogue's strong identity and continuing to keep what people liked about it intact, et cetera, et cetera. Except then they immediately laid off 70% of the staff, including the editor in chief, Versha Sharma, and all of the politics writers. There is now not a single writer dedicated to covering politics at Teen Vogue, which is why I think a lot of people who are dedicated readers and writers for Jean Vogue were pretty upset by the move. So there's a lot we could talk about. But what's your first impression of this change for Vogue?

[B]

Yeah, so, I mean, I think it's a bigger part of the consolidation that is happening with Vogue. So obviously, apart from Teen Vogue, Vogue business, which is the kind of business arm of Vogue, also has now been kind of swept under the vogue.com kind of umbrella. So I think it's suggestive of kind of bigger changes happening in that web space, especially because obviously a lot of these Vogue editions are now almost exclusively online. I think Teen Vogue stopped with its print edition back in 2017, and Vogue Business has always been kind of online. So it's interesting to see that now the. Those platforms that were kind of separate and again, both had very strong identities are now going to be part of this bigger engine. And considering, I guess, the amount of articles that are out on Vogue, I'm really wondering how they're going to be able to show up with all of the interesting coverage that they have been doing. If Chloe Mao was to believed, if future editions of Teen Vogue with its issues like, how will that show up online? How will business articles show up online? I'm a little bit disappointed, I think, in terms of how that will look, because I don't think there'll be a way that the writing will show up properly. And I'm very sad for ayanna Ishmael, Lex McKennaman and Ver Shosham Sharma for not being able to continue with the kind of reporting that has essentially defined Vogue. I don't know if there's going to be another kind of set of those kind of writers and editors like that. I think if anything, other publications will get very lucky by getting those people in right now. And yeah, I think the fact that this was something that was really opposed by the kind of newsroom union, so Conde United or the News Guild, it shows that this was not a popular decision and Conde has been undergoing some issues and changes. Anyway, let's not even talk about Kind of Vogue world. But there's a lot of things that are happening under the Vogue umbrella, which I don't think a lot of people are happy about.

[A]

Yeah. And you mentioned Chloe Mao as the new editor who's kind of taking over the role from Anna Wintour. There was a quote from her in the announcement where she said, talking about Teen Vogue, I loved it then. She's referring to how she read Teen Vogue when she was younger. I loved it then and I love and it now. And I'm committed to continuing and supporting its point of view and sensibility. But you alluded to this. I think that a publication or any organization is the people who work there. It is the people who write for it. A publication is the stories, and the stories are the people who wrote it. So whenever someone's like, so we're firing everybody, but we're going to keep the identity. And I'm like, but the identity is those people. You know, there is no identity without those people. And I think Teen Vogue created a very strong. Very, like, the word iconic makes it sound more like glitzy, but I mean, like a very strong identity that, like I said, I think some people were surprised by, but drew in a lot of loyal readers for a lot of young people was their first exposure to political engagement and social justice and things like that, all of which are intertwined with the fashion industry. So I'd like to bring it back to our focus. Like the Teen Vogue would often write in a way that connected those dots and didn't treat fashion as like this separate entity with no relation to politics or the larger world. So I'm with you that I think that's a little bit sad. I also think just as. And I'm going to try to keep this tied to the fashion industry, since that's what we're talking about. But I think there's a lot of consolidation in general, definitely in media. I know so many people who have lost jobs and newsrooms that have closed or been laid, like, had tons of layoffs over the years. It's not the most stable industry, but I think that extends to lots of other sectors, including the fashion industry, including the tech companies that are tied up with the fashion industry. We talked about tons of layoffs happening at Meta and at Target and at Amazon. And I think it's an ill omen for kind of just the economy at large and particularly for fashion and media, which is relevant to us. So anything else you want to say about Teen Vogue before we move on?

[B]

Yes. I mean, I think you've also alluded to why a lot of the changes are happening now with these layoffs, and that's the impact of AI. And obviously there's been a lot of conversations about the impact of AI on editorial and on kind of newsroom presence and article output, all of that stuff. And it's not something to forget, I guess, that Conde has got a deal with OpenAI as of last year, and I'm wondering if part of this consolidation is also prompted by the fact that they already have a massive archive of fashion content and obviously they must have paid a lot of money for that deal. So I'm wondering if now these titles are being seen more as a liability, I guess, or something that's a kind of additional cost for them rather than something that kind of saves the brand or gives it more unique kind of brand identity. I think that it's very weird from a marketing perspective as well to not want Teen Vogue to be its own thing because the kind of readership on Vogue.com and Teen Vogue is different. So therefore the marketing spend can be split as well. And with this instead, they're just going to go after one cohort on one platform at a time when it's already quite difficult. I know that for a lot of media companies, they're getting a lot of what their readership online or through social. There's been some viral articles going around from Vogue this week on social, so I'm wondering if they're going to be focusing more on that strategy perhaps. And maybe because Teen Vogue's Instagram account is still separate, that's where they're going to be curated, their identity as a kind of unique vehicle. But again, then that marketing and the kind of ad spend doesn't tie into that.

[A]

Let's move on to our next topic. I want to talk about Shein in France, which this is a saga that has been going on for a little while. There was a lot of opposition to Shein opening a physical store in France. And there's kind of two things I want to talk about. The store finally opened and there was chaos and protests and lots of pushback from the public, but also from French politicians. And then secondly there was now a move from the French government to ban or block Shein's website in France over allegedly selling. And this is kind of messed up. So I'm sorry, but like allegedly selling child sized sex dolls on the website. So there's two things there. Let's start with talking about the store opening. So the store in Shein opened in BHV Mirai, which is one of the most coveted retail locations in the world, according to the New York Times. It's in Paris. It's Shein's first permanent physical store. There has been so much anger and pushback, I think from the Parisian community, from the fashion industry, which is not happy about a fast fashion company sort of moving in to this space that's long been associated with like high fashion, French luxury. And then from the French government, from French politicians, mostly over the idea that French fashion is all about quality and that Shein is like cheap knockoffs. And so when the store opened, there were literal protests outside. There were cashiers who quit and went outside to join the protests. I read several articles just talking to people who were out on the street about their opposition to she Sheehan having a store there. The mayor of Paris denounced the opening on LinkedIn. You do not want to get denounced on LinkedIn. That's a bad place to get denounced. Yeah, I'll stop there. But I mean, there was a lot of pushback. What do you make of the anger and opposition to Shein opening in Paris?

[B]

Yeah, so it's been known for a good couple of months now that France would be the location of the first Shein store. And obviously with the fact that the French government were one of the first to pass a fast fashion bill, very kind of opposed to fast fashion as kind of like an industry. And Shein being this biggest target, it feels like it's a little bit of an intentional move by Shein to place its first store there. And I think as a result, it kind of feels like a slap in the face for the French government. I think what's even more interesting, especially with the BHV Le Marais store, which is operating by this group called the Societe des Grands Magasins, which is basically the society of big shopping centres. It's also part of the Galerie Lafayette. And the Galerie Lafayette, which are typically known for their luxury assortment, very, very publicly opposed the Shein rollout. And they also announced a termination of their affiliation with sgm. So with that big kind of shopping centre group for the seven regional Lafayette stores that sgm Oper and that Shein was supposedly going to be expanding out into with franchise stores. So I think there was one going to be in Dijon, Grenoble and Reims. So all of those boutiques will now be rebranded. And Galerie Lafayette is like a very old time name, is something that a lot of French people feel very strongly about. So I think the fact that they're taking their Name off that as a result of this is also a big kind of move. And the reason also why Shein is in trouble because of this kind of sex doll scandal. And I think it's not just sex dolls, but apparently they've been allegedly also selling class A weapons and firearms, big knives or machetes. So I'm assuming some of those might appear on the marketplace via third party marketplaces, which obviously she and has probably zero control over, because third party marketplaces are notoriously difficult to kind of control, as we've seen with Amazon. But all of that is kind of to do with this Digital Services act and Shein as being a very large company or very large online platform as it's defined, basically comes under that Digital Services act as of last year. And as a result it's subject to the highest tier of regulation, which basically means that any site like that can be shut down. And obviously the timing of this with the store itself is putting Shein into a big kind of problematic position. I think what's interesting as well though is that at the same time as all of this is happening, I saw a headline today saying that Shein AI's 2 billion profit in 2025 at the same time. So the company is still growing and it seems like in spite of the opposition, it's trying to do everything it can to continue growing.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I think there's so much in there. But I think you're right that with companies like Shein and I think there are others that this applies to as well, there are many sort of ethical and political and social reasons to be opposed to the expansion of some of those companies and you know, on sustainability grounds, on labor law grounds. But all of that has to go up against the fact that it's so cheap, you know, and like, I think for a lot of people, even people who maybe say that they have like strong principles that would lead them away from a company like Shein at the end of the day, it's so cheap, you know, and like that's so powerful, particularly when like say the global economy is struggling because of tariffs, causing chaos everywhere. So I think like all that opposition in the world has to, has to go up against that, you know, that it's cheap and that people like when things are cheap. And there's been, you know, there's been lots of other like, sort of more formal moves against Sheehan from the French government. The French Senate passed a law that would add, I think, a €10 tax to items bought from Chinese e commerce platforms like Shein or Temu, France's antitrust regulators fined them 40 million euros for anti competitive practices. Now they're moving to block the website. Like there's a lot of levers being pulled. But I think that the customers, like people who are just shopping and who maybe don't care that much about some of this stuff, they just see that it's super cheap and they can buy weapons and they're like, hell yeah, I didn't know about the weapon thing. That's crazy. But also, you know, you mentioned that it's a marketplace and I do think that's another, another element to talk about here is like those marketplaces where it's like, oh, it's not us selling guns and child sex dolls, it's like the sellers. So it's like not our bad. You know, I'm like, it's a little bit of like plausible deniability. You can shield yourself a little bit. I mean, I believe that they didn't know that, but I don't believe that they didn't know that that could happen. You know what I mean? It is, I do think it's on them to make sure stuff like that doesn't get sold.

[B]

I agree. I think that it's very much on, on the retailer. And we've seen this with, with Amazon, we've seen this with Walmart. You know, the mess kind of stuff that was happening earlier this year with the Walmart Birkin, like all of that is, is very much part of it. I think what's, what's interesting here as well is that obviously you mentioned the tariffs and Shein is one of those companies that was heav. Maybe not the tariffs, but definitely the de minimis kind of cancellation that was happening in US earlier this year. And as a result a lot of their sales are going to be affected from the States, which I think is almost spurring them on to expand their retail presence so they don't really have to count on those sales instead.

[A]

Yeah, for sure. Okay, we should probably move on to our last topic. I want to talk about Olivier Roustin, who is the creative director at Balman or was for 14 years. So we can add this to another. We can add another to the long list of brands who have lost their creative directors this year. And he kind of was one of the last designers with a super long tenure at one brand. Like we've talked about this a million times, but there's just been this shift toward shorter and shorter tenures. People being the creative lead at a brand for two or three years instead of 15 or 25 years. In the announcement, he did not say where he was going, if he's taking another role somewhere else. And Balman did not say anything about who might replace him. We can also add Balman to the list of brands looking for new creative directors as well. What do you think of him stepping down from the role?

[B]

Yeah, I mean, I think it's, as you said, it's such a long time to be with one brand. He was one of the few left that had that kind of tenure. And it seemed like on the most part Balmain CEO Matteo Escarbossa and Mayhooler, who are the kind of Middle Eastern consortium that own in part Balmain and Valentino, all of those companies and execs, was very happy with Balmain. I think that it's true that the way that Olivier has impacted Balmain, and not just Balmain, but the kind of fashion scene has been really significant. I think that he was one of the first creative directors to kind of popularize blending kind of celebrity and social followers product drops. That whole social media driven luxury is exactly what he was doing when he started Auerbach. He had so much unique product and collaborations campaigns that I think it made Baumain a real signature. Now obviously that has changed over time. I don't think that Baumain maybe is as significant as it was and I don't think it's had as much success, especially in terms of product in the last couple of years. I think that from what I read, kind of to prepare for the episode, it seemed like it was hemorrhaging money, that the product range wasn't quite as broad, especially on the kind of fashion side, as it should have been. And even things like the sneakers that it had become known for were not that popular either. So I think that maybe it's more about the next stage of growth for the brand and having a little bit more kind of authority. But it's undeniable that Olivier had such an impact on the industry. And I'd be really excited to kind of see if he does step into another creative director role because, you know, I think he has a talent for it and a way of kind of mixing social media with fashion that is particularly relevant right now.

[A]

Yeah, I think you're completely right. There's several notable things about his tenure I wanted to mention, which is first, he was 24 when he took over the role, which is insane. He also was one of the first black designers to lead a major luxury European luxury house. And you're so right that I think he was very like pioneering in a lot of ways in terms of embracing influencers and content creators and celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Kanye west, who both were, you know, he cast them in marketing campaigns and had them in the front row at his shows. He also was an influencer himself. And still, I mean, he has 10 million followers on Instagram. I think there are a lot of designers who are very behind the scenes who are not very public themselves. But he's definitely. He is and was one of the first designers where maybe not one of the first, like famous designer, but one of the first designers who was like very public on social media himself. And in a way that I think a lot of other designers now follow suit. So very pioneering in a lot of ways. And then also from his, over the course of the 14 years he was the creative director of Balmain, their revenue went From, I think 20 million euros to over 300 million euros. So I think you're right that right now they're maybe not as central in the Zeitgeist as like Balenciaga or other brands like that. But he definitely did have a major impact on the brand over the course of those years. So we will see if and by who he is replaced. Anything else you want to say about Olivier before we wrap it up?

[B]

Yeah, I mean, I'm actually less, I've got probably less to say on Olivier now, but I'm actually really interested in what that means for Balmain because so much of Balmain's kind of identity and fashion was wrapped up with Olivier. So now what will the next stage of Balmain look like, you know, considering that he's been at the helm for so long and I guess the fact that the brand has such a unique kind of identity because of him, you know, who is going to take that over and will it mean, you know, another kind of complete 180 in terms of that creative direction, the way we have seen it with, with Valentino, for example, or Balenciaga.

[A]

Yeah. Well, thank you for this discussion, Zofia. It's always great to have you on. That wraps up our news segment, but we're going to take a short break. When we come back, as I mentioned at the top of the episode, I had a great conversation with Sarah Davis from Fashionphile where we talk about the Louvre break in, but also security measures for luxury brands. Also, before we take a break, I wanted to quickly mention that we are off next week. There will be no new episode next week, but the glossy podcast will be back on November 21st, so see you all in a couple weeks. Okay. I'm here with Fashionphile's founder and president, Sarah Davis. For those of you listening who doesn't know, who don't know, Fashionphile, which is probably very few of you, luxury resale company focusing on handbags, but also watches, expensive accessories, all sorts of luxury items. Sarah, I have talked with you many times over the years. I followed Fashionphile and your career, but I think this is the first time I've talked to you on the podcast. I don't know if it's your first time on the Glossy podcast at all, though.

[C]

Yeah, I don't think we've done this before, so fun time.

[A]

It's great to have you here. Thank you so much. So I'm going to very briefly set up our conversation, but you and I talked recently for a story, and it was right after the theft at the Louvre, which was like October 19th. Most of our listeners probably have heard about it or read about it. It is the first major theft from the louvre since the 1990s. Late 90s, I think, captured a lot of people's attention. The thieves stole around 88 million euro worth of jewels and other things, and there have been arrests made, but the jewels themselves have not been recovered. This happened right before I was talking to you, Sarah, for a different story, and we got talking about it and I thought it would make a good conversation for the podcast because you and a lot of our listeners, I think, work in an industry in which theft is a real concern because you're selling very valuable and frankly, very stealable items. I think when you and I were talking, you said that your merchandise at Fashionphile is very easily liquidated, which maybe the jewels from the Louvre are maybe not so easy to liquidate. But anyway, so that's why I wanted to talk to you. And I guess my first question for you is just when you heard about the break in at the Louvre, I mean, how did you feel? What did that make you think? As someone who's kind of in an adjacent industry?

[C]

I mean, honestly, I feel like just kind of a little gut punch, because the truth is that those jewels had a. With jewelry, there's actually an inherent value where you can just sadly meltdown. I think it was $110,000 worth of raw materials. And so that's just like. That's like then you just melt down that jewelry and those pieces are. Are easier actually to. To get rid of. And so I just felt so, you know, felt that kind of that gut punch. Sometimes when I, When I go by a, you know, in our, in our neighborhood here, we have a little Main street, and I'll go by a. A store that has, like a window boarded up. And I feel, like, gut punched because I feel for them. Cause I've been there, you know, and.

[A]

So, yeah, it's sad that. I think a lot of times destroying the thing that you stole is like the easiest way to kind of get rid of it, you know, and so there's the monetary damage, of course. I think for France specifically, there's a, like national morale damage that, you know, a cultural icon was broken into.

[C]

It's just that piece of history, too. It's just you can never. If they melt down that jewelry, you never get it back. And it's so stunning. Like, I hate even looking at the pictures.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. So I will not ask you to kind of like give us your whole security layout because I don't want anybody to get any ideas from this podcast. But could you tell us a little bit? You're selling expensive handbags, expensive watches, things that I think if I were looking to steal something, I would definitely be interested in. Tell me your approach to keeping.

[C]

It's something that we've thought about for 20 something years because it's been a concern. Like you said, we were like, we're the honey that attract the bees, which are just bad people who want to steal stuff. And so at the end of the day, I was talking to our head of hr. I think we talked about this a little bit, but she told me that her mother worked for 35 years, years as a bank teller. And she's like, unfortunately, it's part of the business in that business that there's, you know, there's going to be attempts had. And so at Fashionphile, we just say we try to minimize the damage, you know, just minimize whatever the thieves can get away with. And so we do all kinds of things. Next time you come into our. One of our locations, we have shelving material that we've actually co created with some of those fixtures. And it's not a material, it's an. It's a, like a design that we've come up with that has a slot system where our tethers go up into a slot on the inside and every single item is tethered down. And so at Fashion File, we just say, you know, we see a lot of smash and grabs. And unfortunately, like, we've. I've been able to. Ever since the Neiman Marcus, this transaction. I've talked to people from most of the luxury brands. And, and this is an issue that, like literally the top issue. I thought one of the reasons that, that the luxury brands had an issue with resale was the biggest reason was, oh, there's probably counterfeits there or something like that. Really what they're worried, they, they worry about the fact that you can smash into one of these. Like there's smash just, I hate to say it, but Google any brand smash and grab and there's gonna be photos happened.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And so, yeah. And so they're like, it, it bothers them that where do you liquidate that in resale. And the truth is that at Fashionphile, at, you know, real, real, some of these big brands, we've got a lot of systems in place to help prevent us from buying, you know, helping in that process because we always say we want to starve the beast. If you make it easy to sell, then it's just, then again it creates that ecosystem. And so we are also, you know, we have like a network of people that we communicate with. There's systems that are set up in the, in the government, in every state actually, where we keep a registry of all the registration numbers of everything we sell. And many of the things we sell do have registration numbers or unique markings. And so we have a system we built at Fashionphile where if you type in the number into our system and it's an A number, that's a stolen registration number, it pops up and tells us before we even make an offer on that item, there's things like that are helping us on that side. But every single item that we have is tethered down because with a unique system that we've developed. And the reason why that's so important is because if someone comes in and smash and grabs, it's just not that easy. They can't just grab. And so then they've got to get wire cutters involved and tools. From everything we've seen in the history of Fashionphile, whenever we've had anybody attempt any kind of break in robbery, they're in and out in 45 seconds. Nobody wants to be there long enough. And I believe at the Louvre it.

[A]

Was also very short, under 10 minutes, I think.

[C]

Yeah. You know, and so I'm sure at night it would be even worse. You know, I mean this is in the morning, it's like broad daylight. The whole thing was so wild to watch because that's actually not something At Fashionphile we see more attempts of like a shoplifting attempt than like a wholesale whatever you Want to call whatever happened at the Loop? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's wild. It's wild. And so usually that's something that's attempted at night. And even then we've had something, you know, we've had instances over our history that we've, we literally just said, okay, we need to learn from that. But people come in and out in like 45 seconds. So if you make them, they come in and there's nothing to get. Like you, you have everything locked down behind. You've been in our, you know, high security, knock on wood. Knock on wood. Because honestly, you know, there's whatever. There's bad people and crazy stuff happening, but when things are all tethered down behind bars, behind. At all of our, our, our flagships, we have 24 hour security. So you've got to get through the security. You've got to break cage, which is basically, you know, you're gonna have to like blowtorch through it. You know, it just, it, I think people just go, this seems too hard. I'm gonna try something else that's a little, a little easier. And, and the likelihood, you know, you've been to the one in New York City. Likelihood that you're gonna, you just show your ID at the door, get up the elevator. They're locked at night, whatever. I guess you can lose in and like put a ladder up to the. A window. If you get into the window, the alarms go off and then you still have to break. The security's there. Yeah, and then you still have to break into. You still have to blow towards through the. It's just too hard. I think people like, again, knock on wood. We just haven't had that thing there. And I think it's just that there's easier places to rob. We have the place locked down. The whole thing at the Louvre is so interesting because everybody just assumed they were. There was no alarm because it's like broad daylight. It's like we don't have our alarm set during the day either.

[A]

You know, the image of the ladder just propped up against the side of the Louvre is a crazy image to me.

[C]

So jarring.

[A]

And it's interesting. It's like, it reminds me of that old joke about like the two guys running from the bear. And the one guy's like, I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you. It's like, you don't have. It's like if your store is harder to rob than the store next to.

[C]

You, like, you're probably safe I hate to say that, but it's so true. Because we exist in, like, shopping centers where it's terrible, but we'll hear about people who run in with a few people, and they'll just all grab a bunch of stuff and they'll leave. And so. And again, so we just say we just make it that much harder. Where that's kind of our goal is if you just slow them down where they can get something, it's going to take them a few minutes. And you have to bring tools and all of that. We don't use glass as a protectant. That doesn't protect anything. We've seen jewelry store heists where these come in and go nuts with a sledgehammer and, you know, and then they can clean something out. So we just. We don't trust glass. We. We tether everything down. And again, in our. In our flagships, we're even more. You know, we'll always. We always see these. And it's funny because our customers kind of. Kind of love it because you'll see in our Yelp reviews or whatever, like, it's like Fort Knox. Like, they'll say that about our. Our San Diego flagship because we have the whole thing is all completely gated off. We have a guard gate in the front. That's 247 manned security inside. And again, the. In San Diego, the cage is upstairs. You'd have to smash through the gate, get through the guards, break into the building.

[A]

Right.

[C]

Get upstairs, and then blow to your blowtorch through the cage, which we have upstairs as well. And so I think. I believe that people are casing it all the time. I think people go, oh, my gosh. I heard they've got like, whatever 150 Rolex is there, you know.

[A]

Very tempting. Yeah.

[C]

Honestly, Danny, there's a way that this could be solved. And really, it is kind of like with the car industry. I wrote this thing after. I can't remember what I think it was after all of when there was the civil unrest after Covid, and it was just smash and grab after smash and grab. There were so many of those things happening. And I wrote this, like, manifesto on our blog. So nobody read it. But I mean, no, back in the day, but every reads are blog now. It's very popular. But back in these days, nobody's reading it. And it was basically me saying, you know, there should be a luxury identification number. Just like there is a VIN number. You can't. You can go to right now. You could go to Craigslist and you could buy A used car. And you can run the VIN number and you can see, oh, my gosh, this was a stolen item. Or you can see this was in a terrible accident or whatever. How cool would it be if you could look up that Cartier ring and see that that was stolen. Or number two, it was actually started out as a size four and was resized to a seven. Like, wow, what does. Who did it? Did Cartier do it? Maybe it's okay. And maybe it wasn't done by Cartier. That could be something you'd want to know about. A ring that stretches that much. And the brands that definitely now in the day with blockchain and all, multiple different ways that all of the brands are actually tagging their bags especially there could be a uniting around this.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Where not only Fashionphile and some of the larger sellers, we have resources that help us, that we are able to. Again, systems we're using to be able to help us to prevent from buying these items. But there's honest ebay, depop flippers, you know, poshmarkers, who all are. They're honest people. They also don't. They're not trying to buy stolen goods. But if there's a way that we could all look that item up and look up its history. And also we could say, it would say in the system, this was bought at Cartier in 1994, and then it sold a fashionphile in 20, you know, 21. And then it was sold to a private party. Like, it would just be so cool. And honestly, not that hard to do. I mean, probably hard to do, but.

[A]

I think maybe getting all the brands to coordinate might be the hardest part.

[C]

But that's the hard part.

[A]

The actual, like. Yeah. Identification system seems like it wouldn't be that hard.

[C]

Well, and we did it with cars and got everybody. It's not like Tesla uses one and Volkswagen uses another Mercedes. It's unified. Yeah. And I will say too, if you look up the Aura Blockchain consortium, that is a consortium that LVMH is participating in. It's like Richemont, Prada, Mercedes, like a bunch of luxury brands have come together with something. I don't know what's happening there entirely. Not everybody has joined yet, but brands that are not under the same roof are coming together in. In an effort to do something very interesting that I'm very excited about. We've. We've talked a little bit to or over time, and I think there's a. A goal potentially to maybe get that way.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So anyway, no, let's hope.

[A]

I think that's a good idea. And like, obviously people still steal cars, but it would be. It's much harder because of that unified system.

[C]

Yeah. And because it's harder to actually buy the car. You can't register the car. There's all kinds of. You gotta go to.

[A]

It makes it less appealing because there's all these hooks. Yeah. I wanted to ask also. So you told us a little bit about your security system. How did that evolve over time? Cause, like, I imagine what you have now is probably a little more advanced than what you had 20 years ago.

[C]

We had our building secured in 2012, as best as we knew. Our flagship that was in our building before we moved into the new one in San Diego, we got broken into. And because of some, just off the top of our head, security measures we put in place. Again, they were in there for 48 seconds. And it was just. Just minimize the damage meaning. But we could see where some real gaps were. Or literally when we've had people come in, you know, we've had people come into our physical locations and we have video in San Francisco of we have these two pedestals next to our door in our San Francisco store. And these people would just come by and they would. It's just like almost a crime of convenience where it's like there's bags sitting right by the door. And they'd grab the bags and run. And then they're on this tether system that can't be pulled because it's got a padlock on one side and then the other tether is like, under. And literally they, like, you know, and they drop the bag and run because it's, like, caught because they think they're just grabbing and going or whatever anyway. But we just have learned over time, like, what is going to be, you know, partially putting ourselves in their heads. And so we've been able to just minimize. And I hate even talking like this. I feel like I want to just knock on all the wood in the room because we've done all we can. And the truth is, is that. Is that what we've really tried to do is just, let's make this as hard as possible. And so that again, when people are going, okay, we're going to get a group of eight folks together and we're going to go try to rob a place. They're like, fashion Ball is not the one to. That's not the one to do it because it's just harder. And in my view, what it is, is it's going to Take you longer. So you're. And you're more likely to get caught if it takes you longer to get to the things or to get the stuff. And you're more likely to get caught. I think that's the key.

[A]

It disincentivizes. So we were talking about, like, the Louvre break in. The jewels have not yet been recovered for you. When a product. I mean, not just for fashion file in luxury. When a bag or a watch or something is stolen, what are the chances of it ever getting recovered? Is it sort of like if they are able to take something, does it just kind of.

[C]

No, it's gone. Yeah, it's gone. I mean, we actually. The thing that we realized in that robbery. This is like, pains me to say, but the thing that we got that we realized we just can't do anymore that was so painful was two Chanel surfboards.

[B]

I can't even say it.

[C]

It's like our crown jewels. I hate to say that.

[A]

And wait, were they stolen or were they just.

[C]

Yes. No, they were stolen. So what happens is everything is tethered down, locked down, but surfboards were just up on the wall because we're in San Diego, you know, you got surfboards up.

[A]

I also wanted to ask. When we talked about this a week or two ago, we were also talking about the effect on your employees. Like, you were saying it can be traumatic to even witness, even if you're not really in danger or anything. It can just be intense. And you were saying that you tell your team if you see something like that happening, like, don't be a hero. Like, it's not worth any, like, danger.

[C]

Please don't be a hero.

[A]

Can you tell me, like, what's your. What's. What do you say to your staff and to your store employees?

[C]

Yeah, so we had some bad actors, we'll call them that, you know, in one of our stores during the middle of the day. And like I said, it's almost worse that it's. Everything is tethered down and so hard to get because it's so frustrating. And then you've got bad actors in there who can't just, like, grab and go. They're trying to get stuff out, and they just can't. And it's frustrating. Whatever. So I. This is. Was in one of our locations here in California, and. And I was able to, like, get there right after this had told happened. I was able to. To get down to that store, and I just was like, you know how to look these. I'm gonna say kids, but young People traumatized my. Our young employees. And they're so earnest and they just. And they felt so bad, you know, that they. That these people were in there and that. That they had actually. Because, like I said, like I said, we've developed these shelving units where it's got these slots in it and this. And the tether goes in it. And so it's just. It's impossible. It takes. You have to take the whole thing apart to get the bag off, or you've got to have some pretty significant wire cutters anyway. And so they just ripped these beautiful shelves kind of like off the wall, trying to get these things out of there. Not all the way, but just kind of. And the whole place is. And I'm like, number one, look at this. This shelf just pops back on the wall.

[A]

Like testament to the shelves. Yeah.

[C]

You know, and just kind of. We have to reiterate in our. Like, actually, this are your. These are your SOPs. We literally have, like, sops of what happens when there's a robbery. We have panic buttons that are on the counter. So immediately we'll call the. And a whole chain. It calls the mall security first, because they're right there. It calls them immediately. At the same time, it's calling the cops and our outdoor head of security, all that. Whatever. This whole, like, chain. But like I said, they're in and out in two seconds. So that's what. What. That's one thing I've realized in every instance we've had in the history of doing this, and. And sadly we've had a few, is that they just are in and out. They don't want to. Nobody wants to get caught. And so to do that, the faster you get in, out. And so what we realized, and I would suggest it to anybody who's in the business or starting their own whatever, is if you make it very difficult, they're going to get frustrated and just leave because it's. No, they don't want to get caught, and it's just not worth it for what's going to end up being one or two things if you get it done. Just because it's. It's not as easy as just like, oh, and you just can't make it possible. Sadly. There's. I mean, I hate to say this, but there's some places where you have stores where it's totally fine. Nobody's doing smash and grabs in that area. Like, in, you can have stacks of clothes and nobody's just gonna, you know. And then others, you just have to.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

You just have to secure it.

[A]

So you. You kind of just touched on this. But I wanna ask one last thing. I think if I were a brand or if I was in any position where I needed to be thinking about security in this way, I feel like you've already given a lot of good insight. But if I could just ask, like, more directly, what's some advice you have for anyone who's maybe opening a boutique with expensive items or they're just starting to. This is something they have to start thinking about. Where would you, you know, advise them to start?

[C]

I mean, you can come in any of our stores, go to the real, real. It's all. It's all tied down. Every single thing is tied down. It. That's just kind of the way it has to go when you're selling things that are very expensive and that there's an easy way to liquidate, you know, and so anything in our world, anything that's branded, anything that's jewelry, items, those things all need to be individually, like, tied down. That's just. That is the hardest, most annoying thing I would say. The glass does not do it. It's just easy to break. And so, you know, and then it's also, like, expensive as well. And so, you know, every night you gotta have gates, you've gotta have security, all those things. I find it very interesting because I'm really interested in the Louvre break in, because again, they did something so obvious, and so it really forced us all to go, okay, we need to rethink this, because what if somebody walked in to our building and said, you know, like, we have new pro. Let's put it this way, new protocols based on what we just saw that are, like, that situation wasn't people in, like, a hood and gloves. And I mean, I actually don't know what their faces look like when they're doing this, but they were like, they were going in the front of the building and then in a, you know, something that looked like it was totally acceptable. And what would we have done prior to this if something like that happened? Like, you know, kind of saying, this is an outside the box situation. What do you do if someone comes in and says they are, you know, with the city and they need to do an inspection of your, you know, fire protection in the cage. Are you letting him in? Like, I don't know, like, what?

[A]

They come in and they're like, we're going to need you to untie all of these bags.

[C]

And yeah, we did it. We did a little protocol, you know, like, a change of like how are we thinking about this? Because that situation was so unique. It wasn't something that was obvious. Again, it wasn't a little night where the alarms are going off or they're not cutting alarms.

[A]

So it's just interesting and very instructive too. Well, I think that's all the time we have for this conversation. But Sarah, thank you so much for being here and thank you for sharing your insight. I thought you were the perfect person to talk to you about this.

[C]

Well, thanks so much. Yeah, have a good one.

[A]

And thank you for listening to the Glossy Podcast. Don't forget to give us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify wherever you listen to this because that helps us out so much. And don't forget to subscribe to the Glossy Podcast to hear interviews with industry insiders and weekend review segments where we break down the news. The new episodes come out every Friday. Until the next time. Thanks for listening.