Saks Fifth Avenue

A deal to secure $500 million in new financing may push out a reckoning. But falling sales, looming payments to vendors and creditors continue to dog the luxury retailer’s post-merger vision.

Saks Global’s bonds fell after a call with management did little to pressure investors’ concerns about its financial outlook.

An Ontario court approved the retailer’s proposal to liquidate most stores while trying to find restructuring solutions with creditors and landlords on Friday.

A challenging wholesale environment is pushing more fashion brands to sell on marketplaces where they directly fulfil customers orders. But the model requires a higher level of collaboration between brands and retailers to make it a mutually beneficial investment.

Relations between the owner of Saks, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman and its vendors are at an all-time low. But both sides need each other more than they’d like to admit.

Relations between Saks Global and many of the 2,000-odd brands stocked in its department stores appear to be worse than ever after the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman sent a letter this week setting new payment terms.

BoF looks back at the news that changed the industry this year — and will define the fashion agenda in 2025.

BoF Senior Correspondent Sheena Butler-Young and Retail Editor Cathleen Chen discuss the ongoing struggle of American department stores to remain relevant and what lessons they might learn from their European counterparts.

The plan hinges on the pending $2.65 billion acquisition of Neiman Marcus Group by the owner of Saks.

Amazon will struggle to beat Temu and Shein at their own game, and in the process, it risks devaluing what has become its core proposition: convenience.