Too many gross sales, not sufficient Ssense: The autumn of vogue’s favourite impartial retailer

“The platform turned a punchline,” mentioned Steve Salter, former editor-at-large on the London high-end idea retailer LN-CC. “At one level, it stood for one thing culturally thrilling. However ultimately, the sale overwhelmed every part.” The corporate was unreachable for remark.

The memeification of Ssense factors to deeper shifts in how Gen Z engages with luxurious. Worth is more and more decoded by means of aesthetics and cultural context, not simply worth. Ssense (99,000 followers on TikTok, 1.3 million on Instagram) had as soon as made rising vogue aspirational — first, within the late 2010s, when it turned the place to find designers like Marine Serre and GmbH. Later, led by Thom Bettridge (2022–September 2024), its editorial content material reached a artistic peak by means of cinematic campaigns like photographer Nick Knight x Alyx and a collaboration with Okay-Pop band ILLIT. From the viral 2024 Kidswear Spelling Bee marketing campaign to the late-2023 minimalist anniversary billboards, which Salter known as “one of many sharpest issues they did,” Ssense confirmed flashes of the way it might flip web tradition into broader cultural alerts. However as a substitute of leaning into that relevance, it scaled up right into a discount-driven mannequin that in the end diluted its id.

Then once more, turning Gen Z’s cultural affinity into full-price gross sales is a problem throughout luxurious. Whereas the dream of shopping for a Marine Serre prime, for instance, nonetheless holds, most purchases now occur through resale or at steep reductions. At present, teenagers inform Shiny they’re trying to find shoe-of-the-summer Margiela Tabis and Vivienne Westwood corsets on Depop.

“Luxurious received’t evolve if it depends on manufacturers alone,” mentioned Salter. “It wants impartial platforms like Ssense that form how we devour vogue.” He likened the retailer’s early cultural weight to A24, the impartial leisure firm that has seen vital success with its cultural crossovers, like its 2021 collab with the style model Heaven by Marc Jacobs. “In the identical approach A24 is a signifier of ‘cool,’ Ssense must be, too,” he mentioned.

Ssense tried to construct that cultural platform. Its early content material technique, pioneered by Joerg Koch in 2016 and later led by Bettridge, felt revolutionary. Koch now runs Berlin-based 032c as each {a magazine} and vogue label, with initiatives spanning retail, exhibitions and collaborations with manufacturers like Adidas.

The storytelling on the Ssense website — positioned much less like an e-commerce weblog and extra like an internet journal — was premium. However the connection between content material and commerce weakened, as content material moved additional into tradition with out clear hyperlinks again to product. “You’re left questioning: Does this even really feel like Ssense anymore?” mentioned Salter.

He additionally pointed to a missed alternative in Ssense Works, the 2020 artistic initiative launched with playwright Jeremy O. Harris. Described as a “multidisciplinary program,” it aimed to fee and help unique artistic initiatives throughout vogue, artwork, music and tradition.“That might’ve created a complete platform round artistic expertise and group. As a substitute, it was a one-off.”

The corporate’s Montreal flagship retailer, opened in 2018 and designed by famend architect David Chipperfield, is an element gallery, half showroom, with a rooftop café that originally drew Instagram consideration however didn’t drive foot visitors, based on a number of sources, because of its Canadian location outdoors of typical vogue capitals. “It was a cultural flex,” mentioned Elena Kirioukhina, an impartial retail and wholesale advisor on the high-end vogue model advisory Openstyle Consulting. “However who was it for?”

Kirioukhina additionally famous that Ssense’s “very, excellent” styling staff might have been developed into a real standalone service, however like different Ssense initiatives, it was by no means totally constructed out. On the Montreal flagship, stock is intentionally restricted and rotated typically, with clients capable of e book appointments and have wish-list objects introduced in from a close-by warehouse — a system that hinted at a luxury-level private procuring mannequin, however wasn’t scalable.

Behind the scenes, cracks had been forming. In 2021, Sequoia Capital invested at a $4.1 billion valuation, per Enterprise of Style. Ssense started to scale, increasing its model roster and opening a European distribution middle, which later shuttered. Management turnover adopted: Chief model officer Krishna Nikhil left for Pangaia in 2022, COO Daniel Habashi exited in February 2025 to board positions at 032c and Substack, head of content material Thom Bettridge left in Could 2025 to iD, and vp of womenswear Brigitte Chartrand exited in July this 12 months to Internet-a-Porter. Round 100 staff had been additionally laid off in August 2024.

“The model depend ballooned [to over 700 brands]. It felt like they had been making an attempt to be every part to everybody,” mentioned Hugo Mills, founding father of The Bord Company, which sells Scandinavian vogue manufacturers like Ashish and Rodbjer to Ssense and different worldwide retailers. “And as soon as Ssense marked down [its assortment], everybody else — Matches, Internet-a-Porter, Farfetch — adopted. It turned a race to the underside.”

Manufacturers additionally voiced frustrations. “There have been all the time fee points, markdowns initiated independently, fixed overstocking,” mentioned Mills. The sentiment echoed the identical one manufacturers’ had with Saks in 2024, though Mills mentioned that, for his purchasers, phrases by no means got here near the 90 days set by Saks. Others mentioned that some manufacturers nonetheless haven’t been paid in any respect.

Initially, Ssense lured exclusives with engaging margins. “However once they onboarded everybody, the dynamic shifted,” mentioned Kirioukhina. “It turned more durable to justify the partnership.”

The platform’s fall was accelerated by international commerce shifts. Plus, for years, Ssense relied on the U.S. de minimis rule, which allowed duty-free imports beneath $800. That loophole closed on August 29. “For a lot of American clients, Ssense was the one method to entry rising manufacturers affordably,” mentioned Mills. “As soon as tariffs hit, the attraction vanished.”

Many indie manufacturers stocked by Ssense — like worldwide vogue manufacturers GmbH, Rassvet and Kiko Kostadinov — had restricted U.S. presence past the platform. Whereas some have since launched DTC e-commerce, others like Paolina Russo and Duran Lantink nonetheless depend on a couple of stockists.

“Isolationism is redrawing the luxurious distribution map,” mentioned Nick Vinckier, vp of company innovation at Chalhoub Group, the main gross sales and retail associate for luxurious manufacturers within the Center East. “We’re seeing regionalization and onshoring. Native champions are rising the place international gamers as soon as dominated.” In apply, which means boutiques like U.S.-based The Webster or Chalhoub-backed ideas within the Gulf are filling the hole left by overextended gamers like Ssense.

Ssense’s collapse follows a broader reckoning in luxurious e-commerce. London-based Matches entered administration in March and shuttered by July. Farfetch, as soon as valued at $8 billion, was bought for $500 million in a 2023 rescue deal. Saks spun out its e-commerce arm in 2021 and nonetheless isn’t worthwhile. And Florence-based LuisaViaRoma has filed for courtroom safety amid mounting pressure, with over 1,250 collectors and a €30 million debt ($35 million) to restructure beneath Italian insolvency legislation.

“Scale-for-scale’s-sake is over,” mentioned a C-suite govt at a luxurious vogue model, who requested to stay nameless. “The mannequin that works now could be narrower: Extremely-high-net-worth people, offline experiences, curated digital.”

Nonetheless, Ssense’s absence leaves a spot for rising designers. “They had been typically the primary and solely retailer to take a threat [on a designer],” mentioned Kirioukhina. “I talked to a purchaser as soon as from a giant division retailer, and he or she instructed me, ‘I don’t even have a look at the model until it’s on Ssense.’” No different platform is presently pulling off the combination of humor, storytelling and indie vogue that got here to outline Ssense.

For now, U.S. specialty retailers could step in. “Shops like The Webster, Kick Pleat, Julian Gold and Elyse Walker — they’re curated and constant to their manufacturers,” mentioned Mills. Earlier this 12 months, Shiny spoke to those specialty retailers about their methods for catering to regional clients. And in Europe, boutiques like Berlin’s VooStore and Helsinki’s Beamhill are gaining traction, based on Mills. “They don’t chase developments. And clients belief that.”

Regardless of every part, Salter believes Ssense might nonetheless recuperate. “They nonetheless personal the content material house in a approach most retailers don’t. Nevertheless it has to come back with a brand new curatorial imaginative and prescient, not simply extra manufacturers.” What comes subsequent will depend upon whether or not Ssense can use that DNA to reframe what luxurious seems like for a brand new technology.