Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining today's Vince Holding Corp Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. My name is [Don Pam] (ph) and I’ll be the operator for today's call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call, with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Ms. Amy Levy with Vince Holding Corp. Ms. Amy, the floor is now yours.

Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Vince Holding Corp's Second Quarter Fiscal 2022 Results Conference Call. Hosting the call today is Jack Schwefel, Chief Executive Officer, and Dave Stefko, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, let me remind you that certain statements made on this call may constitute forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those that the company expect. Those risks and uncertainties are described in today's press release and in the company's SEC filings, which are available on the company's website. Investors should not assume that statements made during the call will remain operative at a later time and the company undertakes no obligation to update any information discussed on the call. After the prepared remarks, management will be available to take your questions for as long as time permits. Now, I'll turn the call over to Jack.

Thank you, Amy, and thank you everyone for joining us this afternoon for a discussion on our second quarter performance. Before I begin, as you saw in our press release today, in light of the continued challenging macro environment and after careful consideration we have made the difficult decision to exit the Rebecca Taylor business. This decision will allow us to focus all of our resources on the growth and profitability of the Vince brand going forward. Given this update, my discussion today will focus primarily on Vince and I will provide an update on our strategic initiatives before turning the call over to Dave to review our financial results in more detail. Turning now to a review of our performance at Vince. During the quarter, both our direct to consumer and wholesale channels drove sales growth above both 2019 and 2021 levels. Our direct to consumer results were led by strength in our retail stores and our wholesale channel, benefiting from strong performance at the Nordstrom Anniversary event, as well as the expected increase in sales into the off-price channel. During the quarter our assortment continue to resonate with our customers as both women and men have gravitated into a dressier casual style and away from lounge as we have returned to more normalized activities in Vince. In women's, we saw strong demand for our dresses and pants, as well as great reception to color, pattern and skirts and new silhouettes and tops. While we scaled back the breadth and depth of our swimmer categories this year, we saw strength in our exclusives and more modest pieces. We are also pleased with the higher turns and increased margin rate we delivered for the line this year. In addition, for the women's business we were very encouraged by the positive…

Thanks, Jack. Our second quarter results were driven by growth in our Vince business, while we continued to navigate a challenging macro environment that has created headwinds to profitability. Total company net sales for the second quarter increased 13.4% to $89.2 million compared to $78.7 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2021. For the Vince brand, second quarter consolidated net sales increased 20.5% to $80.9 million compared to $67.2 million in the same prior year period. Our Vince direct to consumer segment sales increased 6.9% to $34.2 million in the second quarter and exceeded 2019 levels. The year-over-year increase was driven by growth in our retail stores. In our Vince Wholesale segment net sales increased 32.8% and exceeded Q2 2019 sales levels. The Rebecca Taylor and Parker combined net sales decreased 27.9% to $8.3 million as compared to the same period last year. This was primarily driven by lower sales in our wholesale channel, partially offset by an increase in our direct to consumer business, driven primarily by new stores. Gross profit in the second quarter was $36.4 million or 40.8% of net sales. This compares to $35.4 million or 45% of net sales in the second quarter of last year. The 420 basis point decrease in gross margin rate compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2021 was primarily due to unfavorable year-over-year adjustments to inventory reserves, higher product and freight costs, as well as an increase in promotional activity, partially offset by favorable leveraging of distribution and other overhead costs. Selling, general and administrative expenses in the quarter was $39 million or 43.7% of net sales as compared to $32.7 million or 41.6% of net sales for the second quarter of last year. The increase in SG&A dollars as a result of higher payroll and compensation expense,…

Thank you, sir. [Operator Instructions] There are no questions registered at this time, so I would like to pass the call back over to management team for any closing remarks.

This concludes the Vince 2022 Q2 earnings call. Thank you for attending. We look forward to sharing our third quarter performance later in December. Have a good evening.

And with that we will conclude today's Vince Holding Corp second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your line.