Adam Lippes hasn’t shipped an order to Saks Global since mid-December. On Wednesday morning, hours after the company filed for bankruptcy and announced $1.7 billion in financing, plus a new CEO, he told his team to resume shipments.
Lippes isn’t alone in wanting to get his inventory back onto Saks Global’s shelves. Gary Wassner, CEO of factor Hilldun Corporation, had a long night, speaking with designers keen to ship after a month of limbo. “I’ve been on call after call,” he says, following the news that Saks Global would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Houston at midnight central time on January 14.
In the announcement, Saks confirmed that it has secured a financing commitment of approximately $1.75 billion, comprising $1.5 billion from an ad hoc group of Saks Global’s senior secured bondholders and approximately $240 million of incremental liquidity from asset-based lenders. Saks, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman will stay open during the restructuring under Chapter 11.
Saks also announced a set of leadership changes to guide the company through the next phase. Former Neiman Marcus CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck, who has also worked at Louis Vuitton and Ralph Lauren and sits on the board of Moncler, will replace Richard Baker as chief executive officer. (Baker, Saks’s longtime executive chairman, was in the CEO role for just shy of two weeks.) Darcy Penick has been named president and chief commercial officer; and Lana Todorovich is chief of global brand partnerships. Like van Raemdonck, both were part of Neiman Marcus leadership prior to the acquisition (after which Penick remained with Bergdorf Goodman under Saks Global; Todorovich left Neiman in December 2024).
The news follows months of speculation about the precarious future for Saks Global after an incredibly rocky year since the company completed its acquisition of Neiman Marcus Group (including Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman) for $2.7 billion in December 2024. Financial struggles, including missed debt obligations and delayed or missing vendor payments, have left brands in the lurch, with many reporting still unpaid invoices for shipped (and sold) collections.
Now, those who have been holding inventory since Hilldun paused shipment approvals back in December want to know when they can ship. The designers Wassner has spoken with so far haven’t been panicked or fearful, he says, but are keen to ship the product and get paid. “We’re sitting on over $130 million in orders for the next two or three months of delivery. My goal is to work with the courts, with the trustees, and bring us to a point where we can approve these orders as soon as possible.”
Some brands, though, are still worried. The 30 companies owed the most are owed between $9 million (Vince) and $136 million (Chanel). But it’s the smaller brands, with outstanding payments in the tens or hundreds of thousands, who stand to lose the most. These independent and emerging brands — many of whom rely on Saks Global retailers to prop up their businesses — have been low on the company’s list of priorities over the past year. Now, designers are wondering where they will stand as Saks begins to restructure its operations and pay vendors. “I know they have to prioritize the Kerings of the world,” says one independent New York designer, who is still owed payment from Saks from July 2025. “What they owe us; it’s such a big amount of money for us.”
Still, few in the industry want to see three of the US’s key retailers fail. What will Saks Global’s next steps look like as the company embarks on its restructuring, and what will it mean for the brands that rely on the US multibrand retail monopoly?
Next steps
Experts and analysts agree that the bankruptcy filing was likely the best possible outcome for Saks Global at this point. But they caution that the $1.7 billion in financing is not an automatic fix. “The money is very much a band-aid for the company, and it does not put them on a permanent stable footing,” says Neil Saunders, managing director of Globaldata’s US retail division.
Now, Saks must reduce its debt load. It is likely to sell off underperforming stores, which will mean job cuts, and some analysts anticipate it could also sell off Bergdorf Goodman, or at least a minority stake, as previously reported. Simultaneously, Saks needs to repair vendor relationships by resuming payments in order to restock shelves and bring customers back.
Both brand founders and analysts are optimistic about what multiple sources described as Saks’s “new-old leadership”, who have existing relationships with many brands. The market will like the move, given van Raemdonck’s successful handling of Neiman Marcus’s own bankruptcy in 2020, says Sarah Foss, global head of legal at financial consultancy Debtwire. Wassner agrees that the team is “great to work with”.
Brunello Cucinelli, who created an exclusive capsule for Neiman Marcus in 2022, said in a statement that he is confident in the future of Saks Global under van Raemdonck. “We regard Geoffroy and his whole team as honorable individuals of great taste, profound knowledge of style and the highest professionalism, with whom it is a true pleasure to engage in meaningful discussion and exchange on the product, on lifestyle, on visual merchandising and on everything that revolves around the collection and its manner of presentation,” he said. Designer Ronny Kobo says she’s known Penick for years and trusts her implicitly.
It’s the new leadership team that made Lippes confident in resuming shipments. They understand the luxury consumer, he says. “I’ve been manifesting for a month that this team would come back — and I don’t believe in manifesting,” he says, recalling van Raemdonck’s Neiman turnaround. “He really brought that sparkle back to Neiman Marcus. Customers wanted to be in the store again. They wanted to be shopping again through experiences, through learning, access to designers, and access to things. I really believe he can do that again.”
Brands’ way forward
For brands, how much payment they recoup will depend on timing, documentation and category, says Nicole Marra, founder and CEO of consulting firm Fixer Advisory Group. “Goods delivered before the filing become pre-petition claims and may only be partially recovered (if at all), while goods delivered after the filing are treated very differently and are more likely to be paid in the ordinary course,” she says.
Two designers have told Vogue Business that Saks employees told them in December not to ship inventory, because they likely wouldn’t receive payment. One of the designers was told to expect a bankruptcy filing in January; the other was told that, if they shipped their inventory later, even outside of the shipping window, they should then receive payment upfront. This is in line with Marra’s read.
Now, the bigger the brand, the better the chances of payment. Foss notes that Saks has filed a motion to pay amounts owed prior to bankruptcy to critical or key vendors, though who these companies are is undisclosed. Foss expects that the priority will be luxury conglomerates, given that Saks needs these vendors to survive, she says. Kering is owed $60 million; LVMH is owed $26 million.
Even so, there’s no guarantee for brands at this stage, Saunders cautions. “Much depends on the bankruptcy process, but it is not usually kind to suppliers and vendors.” Still, bigger brands are better positioned to absorb the hit, whereas smaller brands are in a more precarious position. “The majority of the brands you see in the various departments at Saks are independent, privately owned, smaller companies,” Wassner says. “Those losses, if they were not guaranteed their invoices [by a factor], are going to really hit them.”
Many brands’ success hinges on Saks Global, as for some, its retailers account for upwards of 50% of their business. One “very large” European brand told Wassner that Saks Global accounts for 80% of its wholesale business. And for Saks to succeed in its next era, it needs these brands too. The company must be careful to mend and maintain these relationships as it resumes payments. “Some brands may not want to do business with Saks any longer,” Saunders says. “This is one of the things that van Raemdonck will need to resolve. He basically needs to bring confidence back.”
As a first gesture, van Raemdonck sent brands an email on Wednesday, seen by Vogue Business, that detailed the news, promising to keep brands informed about unpaid balances prior to the filing as plans are made. One designer says it didn’t make him feel overly optimistic, but he was glad that “it seems like they are on it.” “Then again, we got the same email two weeks before from Richard Baker,” he adds.
Many independent brands feel burned by the last year of chaos. One European accessories brand, which says payments have been slow or missing for the past few seasons, says Saks was one of its biggest wholesale accounts. The founder is frustrated by the lack of communication. One independent New York designer compares dealing with Saks to “trying to get blood out of a stone”.
The founders of one European brand stocked at Bergdorf say they are still waiting on payment for its Fall/Winter 2025 order. They’re hopeful Saks will come back stronger, but are frustrated by the current status. “We are expecting a loss, which is financially challenging,” a co-founder says. The brand currently has Bergdorf Goodman booked in for an appointment during its FW26 showroom next week, but is awaiting word from the retailer regarding whether the buyer will be attending. They’re open to it, so long as past payments are fulfilled, and future ones are guaranteed. “We will wait to see how things develop over the coming weeks and push for payment of the FW25 invoices. We will not ship any new orders unless we receive 100% prepayment,” the founder says.
For many brands, though, missed payments have created a major cash flow problem, making it difficult to see a path forward. “We’re so small, we plan our whole year around Saks,” the New York-based designer says. “We plan to have a show in a month. We have a lot of factory bills to pay, and a lot of those things are on hold because of the fact that we don’t know when we’re going to get paid. With everything that’s happened, when you feel burned, it’s hard to trust.”
Though Kobo says she has loyalty to Saks and is cautiously optimistic about this next phase, she’s waiting to hear the company’s plan to pay back independent brands. “I’m a small vendor who’s terrified of cash flow through this landscape,” she says. “As the Saks global ecosystem stabilizes, I’m hopeful that they put something together that makes a little sense for the smaller brands. Because we don’t have the financial backbone that the big corporate brands have. But we are very important to [Saks].”
Wassner knows things will take time to get back on track. He doesn’t have an estimate of when he will be able to resume shipping approvals, but is hopeful it will be sooner rather than later. “People are anxious to get moving again. It’s been so difficult and challenging for the past year,” he says. He notes that Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom have been gaining steam, and believes Saks could get back there, too. But to do so, Saks needs to stock the brands that differentiate its stores — which means it needs to pay independent designers.
Brands Grapple with Saks Global’s Uncertain Future
