Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Vince Holding Corp Third Quarter Fiscal 2023 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Bruno, and I'll be your operator for today. I would now like to hand over the call to Caitlin Churchill from Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Vince Holding Corp.'s Third Quarter Fiscal 2023 Results Conference Call. Hosting the call today are Jack Schwefel, Chief Executive Officer; and Michael Hand, Interim 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 the company expects. 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. In addition, in today's discussion, the company is presenting its financial results in conformity with GAAP and on an adjusted basis. The adjusted results that the company presents today are non-GAAP measures. Discussions of these non-GAAP measures and the information on reconciliations of them to their most comparable GAAP measures are included in today's press release and related schedules, which are available in the Investors section of the company's website at investors.vince.com. Following today's remarks, there will be no question-and-answer session. Now I'll turn the call over to Jack. Jack?

Thank you, Caitlin, and thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning. I continue to be very proud of our teams and the progress we are making against our strategies and objectives to position Vince for long-term success. Year-to-date, we delivered improved profitability over the prior year period despite incurring incremental costs we did not experience in the prior year, given our operating changes with the partnership with authentic, and we have continued to drive momentum across the organization. Our third quarter performance exceeded our previously reported preliminary results, and we are pleased to see the sequential improvement across both of our channels compared to the second quarter. While weather did impact customer buying behavior, which has trended more to buy now wear now mentality, especially with our men's business. We are pleased overall with the reception to both our pre-fall and fall assortment which was highlighted in our Vince Heroes and Gray Matters marketing campaigns. With respect to profitability for the Vince brand, we reported operating profit flat to last year despite lower sales given the current macroeconomic environment and the strategic decision to pull back on the off-price wholesale business. From a margin perspective, we delivered 120 basis points of operating margin expansion for the quarter supported by lower freight expense and lower promotional activity and despite incurring approximately $4 million of royalty expenses that we did not incur in fiscal '22. As we previously announced, we have plans in place through our transformation program to deliver over $30 million in cost savings over the next 3 years which will help to offset the changes in our cost structure given the royalty fees we now incur with our partnership with Authentic Brands Group. I will discuss more on our transformation program in a moment. But first, let me…

Thank you, Jack, and good morning, everyone. I look forward to working with the team to ensure a smooth transition and lending my support as needed going forward. As Jack discussed, we are pleased to have delivered third quarter results that reflect a sequential improvement from the second quarter from both the top and bottom line perspective, despite the ongoing macro environment and increased royalty expenses that we did not incur last year. Turning now to our results in more detail. Total company net sales for the third quarter decreased 14.7% to $84.1 million compared to $98.6 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2022. The year-over-year decline was driven by a 100% decrease in Rebecca Taylor and Parker combined net sales due to the previously announced wind down of the Rebecca Taylor business, which is complete. The Rebecca Taylor and Parker combined net sales totaled $8.9 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2022. Vince brand sales declined 6.2% compared to the prior year period. The Vince brand net sales decrease was driven by year-over-year declines in both our wholesale and direct-to-consumer segments, but reflects a sequential improvement from the second quarter. Our top line performance was impacted by macro-related headwinds and the strategic decision to pull back on our off-price business within our wholesale channel. In direct-to-consumer, we continued to see outperformance in our stores compared to e-commerce but as Jack discussed, we are seeing nice improvement in AOV and engagement on our site. Gross profit in the third quarter was $37.2 million or 44.2% of net sales. This compares to $29.8 million or 30.2% of net sales in the third quarter of last year. The increase in gross margin rate was driven by approximately 790 basis points related to the wind down of the Rebecca Taylor business,…