This is how Ivanka Trump's controversial brand works

The firm of the president's daughter exploits a discreet and aspirational style, designed for millennials with office jobs and an allergy to risk.

Ivanka posing in the campaign for her jewelry line. Photo: Ivanka Trump

In the book The Trump Card, the success and self-help manual that Ivanka Trump published in 2009, when she was 28 years old, there is an anecdote that has become famous because it sums up her profile perfectly. Ivanka says that, as a child, she and her brothers Eric and Donald Jr. were dying to set up a lemonade stand, like the ones kids set up in suburban America. "But we didn't have those advantages," she writes, since they lived in Trump Tower and their vacation home was too luxurious to have neighbors. "Luckily, we had a bodyguard that summer." They convinced him, the chauffeur and the maids, who "searched around to find change in their pockets", to buy them glasses of soda, probably also made by the kitchen staff. The lesson, she writes, is that "children make the best of any situation."

And the adults surnamed Trump too. During her father's first televised interview as president, on NBC's 60 minutes, Ivanka wore a bracelet valued at more than 9,000 euros from her own jewelry collection and her company sent an email to the media informing the price and of the model. These, instead of echoing the virtues of the gold and diamond bracelet, reminded the Trumps that the emoluments clause of the US Constitution prohibits presidents and their families from enriching themselves by taking advantage of their position.

The sleeveless dress is the signature piece. Photo: Ivankatrump.com

If that predicted a bad start, since then the management that the so-called “First Daughter” has made of her diffuse situation – she has no assigned position – in the presidential circle has only worsened. Her father and counselor Kellyanne Conway attacked Nordstrom, the main distributor of the Ivanka Trump brand, for stopping selling the brand. Since then, Sears, Burlington and Kmart have followed suit, following in the footsteps of outlet giant TKMaxx. At the moment, the clothing line continues to be sold at Amazon, at Macy's and at some lower-middle-range department stores that are very present in the malls of interior America. The homeware collection is still found at popular stores like Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Ivanka Trump launched her jewelry brand in 2007, a few years after her adventure with lemonade, her modeling career long since buried and she had once graduated from Wharton business school. He partnered with Dynamic Diamonds to market under his name a line of hoop earrings, necklaces and bracelets ranging from €700 to €330,000 that began selling at a store on Madison Avenue. Even then, she outlined the philosophy that would germinate in her hashtag-emblem, #WomenWhoWork (MujeresQue Trabajan) and used to say that her pieces were "for women who buy their own jewelry" and do not wait for it to be given to them.

The purpose of her brand is to "dress all those girls who wrote her messages saying they wanted to be hers like her." Photo: Ivankatrump.com

Although she presented herself with all the fanfare, in an act attended by her father and stepmother Melania, the young Trump told the New York Times, which dedicated a profile to her that year, that "her day to day" and also "her goals of the week” were still focused on the family business, real estate. Back then, she combined her job as Vice President of Acquisitions at her father's company with television appearances on the reality show The Apprentice, Project Runway, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and even her own section on the Fox Business Channel. an incredible response every time she appears, ”said the president of the television conglomerate Roger Ailes – something of a mentor to her and disgraced last year by numerous sexual harassment allegations. That ability to market her own image obviously did not go unnoticed by Ivanka herself, who in 2012 allied herself with the G-III Apparel group, the same group that produces clothing for brands as diverse as Levi's, Guess or Tommy Hilfiger –and which has marketed other clothing lines linked to celebrities such as Beyoncé or Melissa McCarthy– to launch a complete clothing collection. Her idea, as she explained to American Vogue, was to dress all those girls who wrote her messages saying they wanted to be like her, to cover a supposed market gap between H&M and Ann Taylor, the brand that usually provides sensible smocks and pantsuits to middle-aged professional women.

Casually researching how to establish residency (illegally) in other states...

— Kylie Rose Sat Mar 15 18:31:49 +0000 2014

According to Ivanka, the girls who worked in her office could buy clothes in those stores but they were not proud enough to Instagram them. His collection, then, would be made up of much cheaper versions of his own clothes, an entry-level Michael Kors defined by opposition: nothing too risky, not on-trend, not too urban (a term the fashion industry uses for "black"). or “Latin”), neither vulgar nor flashy. Kate Middleton platforms: yes. Sweatshirts: No. Pencil skirts: oh yes. Mom jeans: no thanks, they do hips and they're weird. It can be said that the fetish garment of the Ivanka Trump brand and of ivankatrumpism as a concept, is the sleeveless straight dress, an impractical garment –it does not keep you warm in winter or relieves you in summer, it is not particularly comfortable– but classic, aspirational and even cross. Jackie Kennedy pioneered shift dresses, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss wears them all the time as Selina Meyer in Veep, and last summer they were worn at the Democratic and Republican conventions by the two daughters of the candidates, Chelsea Clinton and Ivanka Trump. But only one of them later sent a note to the press informing that the model (in pink makeup and with a discreet slit in the skirt) cost 135 dollars. She sold out in a few days, or so we were told.

Ivanka Trump wore one of her signature dresses last July. Photo: Getty

Another star product of the brand is the bag that allows you to carry diapers and the baby's change but that has the look of an everyday bag. They cost about 200 dollars and serve to emphasize the image of a working mother that the businesswoman sells, who has three children –Arabella, Joseph and Theodore– with her husband, Jared Kushner.

Trump signed to launch his brand the head of digital commerce of Kate Space, Johanna Murphy, the former creative director of Michael Kors, Suzanne Bryant and employees with experience at Oscar de la Renta and Diane von Furstenberg, brands that served as inspiration. "We target millennials who aspire to have great careers but also run marathons, learn French or start a family, every aspect of their lives is as important to them as their careers," the businesswoman told Vogue, who had access to the brand bible: “we are FEMININE but not GIRLY. We are appropriately SEXIES but not SEX BOMBS."

His collection is made up of cheaper versions of his own clothes. Photo: Ivankatrump.com

During the campaign it was said on several occasions that the daughter of the defender of "America First" produced her clothes in China, Indonesia and Vietnam. It is true that an investigation found evidence of at least 193 shipments from these countries, but a very exhaustive investigation by the NGO Project Just, dedicated to fair trade and business traceability, had many problems clarifying the production structure of the company and concluded, therefore, that your system is opaque. “Since we couldn't find anything, we went further. Using shipping databases, we were able to find factory names in China and Indonesia but didn't go any further. Our investigators in Indonesia repeatedly tried to contact those factories but they were not at the addresses provided. Everything was very confusing”, explained to Racked the person in charge of the investigation, Jacinta FitzGerald.

Oblivious to the controversies generated by the brand, the website Ivankatrump.com gave advice this week to wear "floral prints in winter" and wear a blouse with sleeves that are gathered to the elbow both in a job interview, with a skirt, and on weekends. weekdays, with jeans and tasseled mules. It says nothing about the best outfit to sit at the Oval Office table with no elected official but a powerful father.

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