CANADIAN BRANDS CASH IN
Royal showcase pays dividends
It’s no secret Meghan Markle has a strong sartorial connection to Canada.
While living in Toronto to shoot the television show Suits, the Duchess of Sussex designed a line for Canadian retailer Reitmans. It included effortlessly chic pieces, including vegan-friendly faux leather leggings and a soft knit poncho/wrap.
Since then, thanks to the fashion influence of her Toronto-based stylist (and reported BFF) Jessica Mulroney, she has increasingly showcased homegrown Canadian brands — Aritzia, Birks, Line, Mackage, Smythe, Soia & Kyo, Sentaler to name a few — effectively thrusting these companies into the international style spotlight, and introducing them along the way to a legion of Royals fans.
Similar to the craze that followed The Duchess blazer from Smythe after Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge (Kate Middleton) wore the blue tailored topper during official appearances in 2011, the items Markle wears sell — and sell out — further proving that, when it comes to the Royals’ influence on fashion, it’s big business, indeed.
“We were lucky, frankly, that she chose us,” says Jean-Christophe Bedos, the president and chief executive officer of Birks.
But while the introduction, influence and increase in sales relat- ed to the so-called Meghan Markle Effect is undoubtedly a draw for the brands, Bedos, says it’s the alignment with a “modern,” more feminist Duchess that signals an even sweeter success.
“When Meghan Markle decided to choose Birks jewelry, she didn’t go for expensive pieces. She could have done that, to kind of differentiate herself, but she made her own choices, like the self-purchasing woman,” he says. “In the history of jewelry, it’s not insignificant.”
Much like her reported penchant for eschewing traditional protocol and codes of conduct dictated by the Royal Family (spoken or unspoken) including wearing dark nail polish to events, pantyhose, trousers instead of skirts and sleeveless dress, etc., the decision to choose her own jewelry pieces punches back at the long-held idea that fine jewelry is something a man purchases for a woman — rather than it being something she simply buys for, well, herself.
“In the history of jewelry, the prince used to buy for the princess, or the king used to buy for the queen. You always had the man in the picture,” Bedos says.
“And here, look at Meghan Markle’s marriage with Prince Harry. The whole story, Prince Harry doesn’t factor too much into the picture. It doesn’t mean that he’s insignificant. But, what it means is that Meghan is sending a very strong message to the world that she is a modern woman. Because she makes choices for herself. And she doesn’t need to be (an) ‘object.’”
And it’s this independent element that is proving to be exactly the message many brands — Birks included — is hoping to foster with their shoppers.
“We could not have chosen a better symbolic representation of what we want to achieve. Because we want women, regardless of their age, to make choices for themselves,” Bedos says. “That is our objective.”
Meghan is sending a very strong message to the world that she is a modern woman. Because she makes choices for herself. And she doesn’t need to be (an) ‘object.’