I have never been remotely interested in celebrity designers, well Rihanna’s makeup line Fenty Beauty is an exception. Celebrity designers, while some are fashionable, are not independent of their style and aesthetic. They thrive only on the popularity of the celebrity and are just basically another marketing tool and business model for followers.
Think about it for a second, a Beyoncé perfume doesn’t make you more like Beyoncé, but it may give you the perception that you share something. These products aren’t for the people who collect fragrances, but those who have an obsession with the celebrity or the celebrity’s lifestyle. When I came across the news that Ivanka Trump’s fashion line will be coming to an end due to her wanting to focus on her work in Washington, I breathed a sigh of relief. One more basic, generic brand likely to end up in landfills has left the building (marketplace). Nevertheless, for many this was a bother. It may seem strange that persons’ political and social views don’t intertwine.
It is a reminder that we all have our own political and personal views and of course, Ivanka has her own following for that particular reason. It’s the only way to explain the company’s decade-long existence.
I heard of a particular woman Carla D’Addesi, who was on vacation when the news broke; she intends to stock up on what remains.
“As soon as we get back, I’m going to go out and get a few more pieces,” said D’Addesi, 46, a conservative political commentator who says she likes the brand for both political and fashion reasons. “That is, if everything isn’t already sold out.”
It’s hard for me to look at a celebrity brand and see it as anything other than a capitalist movement overshadowing fashion as an actual art form. But art too is subjective, it can be a reflection of movements or views in the form of clothing.
Ivanka’s aesthetic, while incredibly vague, still stood for something. It stood for the all American working moms who seemingly have it all together: good job, excellent educational profile, stable family and the one too who shows up at the bake sale. It sold what most women dream of, sometimes intentionally creating a distorted image of the truth.
Perhaps the takeaway message from this is that while we support brands that we feel make us closer to the celebrity, we should reflect on reasons why we truly buy them and if they can really change us. We might just be keeping up appearances without actually working towards that true goal.
