The Secret Charm of Michele Obama!!!
As for Stylewe its Audrey Hepburn reminiscent attires have created such a roar for retail that its website was recently valued at $ 500 M.
The inspiring rendering of Michelle Obama’s farewell to politics speech delivered at the National Democratic Convention hid the fashion cum business statement by the First Lady of the United States. Her deep blue dress softly melting with the stage background did not allow many to take a closer look into the creation by Christian Siriano a rising star in the US fashion industry.
Mr Siriano is widely known for designing for real people. This means that he caters to oversized women as well as to modern day twigs. His creations can be vibrant and full of movement when designed to be wear by millennials while sleek and volume hiding when meant to be paraded by mature baby boomers. In terms of the color palette Mr Siriano can go from a rainbow to deep black without transition although bright colors do predominate in his designs.
But perhaps the most telling background trace is that Mr Siriano’s ascent into fame is the product of the most contemporary of all TV contents: a reality show known as Project Runway. By choosing Mr Siriano Michelle Obama was being truthful to her beliefsin lending the White House hand to aspiring fashion talents all over the US while sending a political message to the demographics the Democratic Party needs to re-engage: millennials .
Truth be told, the defeat of Bernie Sanders could prove to be costly to the blue party in terms of following, as it will perhaps lose a large chunk of millennials who followed the senator from Vermont with passion and hope. And Michelle Obama knows a lot about these demographics given that they accounted for her husband’s victory in 2008. She also knows that protecting her husband’s legacy entails defeating Donald Trump and that only millennials can accomplish such a feat.
The First Lady thus has engaged in activities aiming at bringing millennials into the Democratic fold. With this in mind, Ms Obama recently starred in James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke which is an all-time favorite by millennials. Next she engaged in yoga and aerobics to promote exercise among the young. Videos of these artistic pursuits have gone viral throughout cyberspace.
And while it would be farfetched to tag Ms Obama as the marketing agent for emerging and cause following designers the truth is that during her tenure as First Lady they have grown exponentially in importance and earnings. Their weight can be seen in the two most successful Internet designer outlets STYLEWE and Zulily. The latter a Seattle based retailer selling mostly to young soccer moms took last year markets by surprise with a 19% increase in sales to reach sales of $297.6 and a an EBITDA of $14.
A Thomson Reuters poll comprising eight analysts indicated that Zulily should post earnings of 4 cents a share on revenues of $294 million. Zulily’s own estimates had called for it to earn non-GAAP EBITDA of $8 to $12 million on revenues of $285 to $300 million. As for Stylewe its Audrey Hepburn reminiscent attires have created such a roar for retail that its website was recently valued at $ 500 M.
Both retailers thrive in cyberspace only and are successfully competing with brick and mortar shops such as Sacks and Lord and Taylor. Zulily and Stylewe deploy the creative and collaborative talents of young designers that display into their creations the millennial values which could be summarize in: right price/quality relation; impacting design ; portability (can be used in diverse scenarios) and environmental protection. And millennials seem to believe that Michelle Obama incarnates these values.
