Kate Middleton may have worn a custom Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen wedding gown to marry Prince William, but she’s a commoner at heart. She’s not afraid to shop at Zara frequently, nor is she afraid to wear her purchases over and over again. Just like, you know, most women do. We’re not so naive Read more →
Name: Shaya Ali
Occupation: Model
How would you describe your style? Classic and chic.
What are you currently obsessed with? The steam room! I love steam rooms! It gets rid of all my stress and I feel beautiful when I get out of one. I love the one at The Peninsula.
What was the last song you listened to? “I Don’t Like” by Kanye West.
You’ve made it through four years of classes, student projects, and endless hours cramming in the library: Now graduation is finally here. Congrats! Graduation is a celebratory event, so you should have a little sartorial fun underneath that cap and gown. We’ve gathered some of the cutest dresses of the season that will take you Read more →
Throughout Kate Middleton’s first year of married life, the Duchess has donned a slew of tasteful and decidedly quiet outfits that inevitably landed tenfold in the press—-each one leaking online with increased excitement.
There’s no doubt that the brands the Duchess supports have experienced unforeseen growth, selling out of Middleton’s favorite pieces in a matter of days, sometimes even hours.
Though despite the profit-drawing qualities of what retailers now call ‘The Kate Middleton Effect,’ The Sunday Times recently published an article drawing attention to the phenomenon’s reverse implications. The (paywalled) piece, which was picked up by international outlets, including The Daily Beast, noted that after Middleton wore Links of London’s Hope drop-style earrings in her official engagement photos, the brand quickly sold out of the style at such an accelerated rate that they were unable to produce additional stock at the necessary speed, leading to an onslaught of counterfeits that cost the brand $12.6 million in potential profits. Titled, “Kate’s Favourite Jeweller Loses £8m to Net Pirates,” the article quoted the head of the brand’s online sales team as saying, “The counterfeiters were a lot cleverer than we were at the time of the wedding. We didn’t have that much stock so we started to sell out quite quickly … The counterfeiters took advantage of that by saying they had stock and people were duped into buying them.”
This morning, the Duchess of Cambridge made her first speech ever and rather than buy a new dress for the occasion, she wore one from Reiss’ fall 2008 collection…that her mother wore two years ago, Grazia points out.
Are Zoe Saldana and Bradley Cooper Dating?: Plenty of sources seem to think so. The rumored couple, who recently filmed The Words together, are said to be planning a lover’s ski getaway in the Rockies. Aw. {ONTD}
Online Retailers Love When You Drink and Shop: The New York Times did a trend report on the growing number of people making impulse online purchases under the influence. One man bought a $10,000 motorcycle tour of New Zealand. Best. Purchase. Ever. {NYT}
The Duchess of Cambridge Better be Getting Some Free Clothes From Reiss Soon: The retailer’s profits are up from £77.7million to £87.6million thanks to Duchess Kate rocking their gear all the time. {Grazia}
Kate Middleton celebrates Canada in the same Reiss dress she wore for her engagement photo, sprucing it up with a broach, lipstick red kitten heels and…wait for it…a red hat adorned with CANADIAN MAPLE LEAVES. It looks ridic. And I love it. (If you want to buy the Reiss dress, it’s $310 and available at select stores.) Read more at the Daily Mail.
The Reiss bandage dress that Kate Middleton wore when she met Michelle Obama last week is sold out everywhere. Everywhere except eBay, of course.
The “Shola” dress, which was originally priced at $340, is still available on the online auction site and is going for up to $987.60.
Kate’s had quite an effect on eBay. Ever since her engagement announcement in that blue Issa wrap dress, listings posted with “Kate Middleton” in their descriptions have exploded. (That Issa dress is currently on eBay for $1349.99 and was originally $631.) According to Andrea Linett, creative director of eBay Fashion, there have been close to 5,000 listings with the keyword “Kate Middleton” posted on the auction site within the last 45 days.
It’s a frenzy Linett says hasn’t been seen on eBay since Michelle Obama’s campaign days. Why?
Michelle Obama may have met her match when it comes to selling power.
During the Obama campaign and her first 100 days in office, whatever Mrs. O wore created a buying frenzy. The $148 Donna Ricco floral print dress from White House Black Market that Michelle Obama wore on The View during the campaign? Gone. The three-piece J.Crew ensemble the First Lady wore on the Tonight Show back in October of 2008? It crashed the retailer’s site.
Now it’s Kate Middleton who sends shoppers to stores and online in droves to buy whatever she’s wearing.
Mrs. O! Kate Middleton! Together! In the same room!
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are back from their 10-day honeymoon in the Seychelles and for their first royal engagement they met with President Obama and the First Lady. So what did two of the most influential women in style wear to meet each other?
If you thought Kate would ditch her high street standbys for designer dresses now that she’s a Duchess and doing things like meeting the President and First Lady, think again.
Reiss, the British-based contemporary clothing label, has been around for a while. In fact, the brand just celebrated their 40th anniversary last night over cocktails at the Crosby Street hotel. But many folks, especially Americans (Reiss only has outposts in NYC, LA, DC, Boston and Florida), only became aware of the brand when Kate Middleton wore a cream colored Reiss dress when she was photographed by Mario Testino for her official engagement portraits with Prince William. It wasn’t new–it was from her closet. Nevertheless, a frenzy for the frock followed and Reiss rereleased the fall/winter style for this current spring season in a lighter material.
“It was the most bizarre thing–I was flying to Moscow that day to open our new store there and as we land I turn my phone on and I was absolutely inundated–journalists, requests for TV–and I had no idea what it was all about,” founder David Reiss told us. “And then the whole thing snowballed from there. I was getting calls from Hong Kong, Germany, Spain, the US–pretty much all the key American programs wanted me to do TV–it was phenomenal. I knew the Americans loved royalty, but to that extent I didn’t realize.”
And as for what Kate has done for the brand?
Kate Middleton made headlines yesterday when she shopped her closet for her official Mario Testino-photographed engagement portraits and wore a Reiss dress from last season. (She also apparently did her own makeup–even more impressive.)
As we mentioned yesterday, Reiss is, of course, re-releasing a version of the now-famous dress sometime next month to include in their SS2011 collection (even though the dress was originally AW2009). We also hear it will retail for £169 ($267), up from £159.
“Kate has been a customer of Reiss for some time now and we are absolutely delighted that she chose to wear one of our dresses for such a wonderful occasion,” Reiss managing director and founder David Reiss said in a statement. “We wish both Prince William and Kate Middleton all the best for the future.”
