The race for the luxury beauty shopper — in New York, and throughout the U.S. — is on.
With Saks Global’s Chapter 11 filings encompassing Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, the question of where luxury brands — and the shoppers who buy them — will go now is looming large.
Many industry insiders think the winners will be the other legacy players in the department store market, all of whom have upgraded their offerings in the last 12 to 24 months.
“Most [brands] stopped shipping Saks before they even bought Neiman Marcus,” said one skin care executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “The usual suspects — Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s — are definitely where they’re shopping. We’ve seen a huge uptick, and our business has always been very, very healthy in both.”
Indeed, Bloomingdale’s has strong momentum in the category, while Nordstrom and Macy’s are both investing more heavily in it. The former unveiled its new Manhattan flagship beauty floor in August 2025, while Macy’s unveiled its Herald Square renovation in November. The strategy seems to be working. “These department stores have all had better performing beauty, because they’ve invested behind it,” said TD Cowan analyst Oliver Chen. “You’ve seen these beauty floors just become highly experiential mixed-service models.”
Chen continued, “Nordstrom had a good beauty business and is also very, very famous for customer service. Bloomingdale’s has great momentum and leadership that works closely with brands and differentiation. Even Macy’s has a lot of exclusive brands they’ve focused on. We’ve seen a time of intensification of competition.”
Nationally, the skin care executive said Macy’s and Dillard’s are specifically courting luxury brands and clients. In New York, though, there’s more defined lines between shoppers at each. “A Bloomingdale’s customer — price is not a concern for her,” said the executive, saying one of the most expensive products is also one of its top sellers, and the retailer is investing significantly in brands. “At Nordstrom, Valentino and The Row is the luxury purchase of choice. At Macy’s, it’s Coach, which has $1,800 handbags, Louis Vuitton or Gucci. But she’s willing to pay for luxury. These customers are very loyal to where they shop.”
As another industry executive put it, “The obvious transfer will be to Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom. Nordstrom was smart to take [chief merchandising officer] Yumi [Shin] from Bergdorf. It sends a powerful signal to the market. And at Bloomingdale’s, you have Olivier Bron, who is a superb operator. The transformation of Bloomingdale’s in certain categories is a pretty big change.”
There’s speculation that shoppers and brands alike could go the way of specialty retail, à la Sephora and Ulta Beauty, though sources said that was unlikely. One luxury brand head said Sephora simply isn’t a luxury environment, while others think the issue is more demographic than commercial.
“It might be a challenge for the more classic premium brands to find their customer in a Sephora, which are having to get back to a Gen X customer,” said Trinny Woodall, founder and chief executive officer of Trinny London. “I think the majority of people who go in a department store are probably a Gen X customer, maybe Boomer.”
Woodall posited that the retail experience should become more tailored, not more mass, for luxury brands. “As we look at the age of AI and the extreme of life that’s coming upon us, we want to have an unbelievably curated, beautiful experience, or we want to be totally on our own going online,” she said. “Someone has to say, ‘People are going to want amazing, in-life experiences, and we’re going to be the company to do that.’”
For New Yorkers specifically, she thinks who will go where is much more geographic than anything else. “The woman from Brooklyn or downtown is going to go to Macy’s, the uptown woman is going to go to Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom,” she said. “I went to Bloomingdale’s and it has such an energy in it. I think Nordstrom has a chance to be the Bon Marché in Paris, with that ground floor doing the discovery brands.”
One executive thinks in the short term, the gap in the market will be more pronounced than whoever clamors to fill it. “There’s no place to sell luxury skin. Where are you going to sell a $500 fragrance?” they said. “When Barneys [New York] went away, the entire indie fragrance, beauty and skin care market never fully recovered.”
Which also raises the question of where nascent, not just established, luxury brands will debut.
“If you were relying on Saks or Neiman’s to be a voice for you, you’re currently without a safety net,” said Ed Burstell, cofounder of consultancy Burburs.
“Following a path to wholesale was a path to failure,” said the company’s cofounder Sandi Burrows. “We have believed for a long time that you need to be building your own cult of people who feel emotionally connected to you, and you don’t get that at Saks or Neiman’s, because you don’t own the lines of communication.”
Added Burstell, “People are discovering things in different ways, they’re not going into a store, and a lot of these brands aren’t going to appear in stores anymore. All the things that made those department stores so special really weren’t critical, and the shopping experience is going to become more and more generic. A brand has to take control and create the emotional connection.”
