There is nothing not to like about Ivanka Trump’s working-woman-appropriate collection of leather-trimmed sheaths and winter-floral T-shirt frocks. Recently at the Bala Cynwyd Lord & Taylor store, a cold-shoulder blouse whispered, “Elizabeth, take me home, girl.”
But instead of teeming with women looking to buy the generous assortment of Trump’s ponchos, blouses, and cashmere sweaters, the sections where the brand is carried at L&T in Bala and King of Prussia Mall and at two Main Line T.J. Maxx’s — at least the two days that I was there — were pretty much empty. It’s not like there weren’t any shoppers at T.J. Maxx. Or that no one at Lord & Taylor was perusing through nearby racks of Eli Tahari and Ralph Lauren.
Are women snubbing Trump’s apparel and accessories brand because of the sins of her father? (I say sins because I don’t think the president-elect was just engaging in locker room talk when he said he could grab women “by the p-.”) Do women not care that her pieces are wearable, affordable and cute?
“Uh, no way,” Louise Rice said as she recoiled from a blouse at the Bala Cynwyd store. She had just left the shoe department where she had eyed some Trump pumps. “They were so nice, but when I saw that name, I just threw them down like they were on fire.”
Last month, Sharon Coulter, a Bay Area marketing consultant who grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs, started the effective grabyourwallet hashtag. Not only is Coulter, 45, suggesting women refuse to buy Ivanka Trump clothing and accessories, she’s also advising department stores that carry them to drop them. Like, now.
“We (women) buy so much in the way of clothes, shoes, and bags,” Coulter said. “Stores are making money from her fashions every time she hit the campaign trail. ”
The hashtag grabyourwallet tweets had been read by more than 119 million people. The movement apparently gained momentum after Coulter’s story was featured on Joy Reid’s MSNBC Sunday morning news show, “AM Joy,” and celebrities Don Cheadle, Martina Navratilova and Lucy Lawless shared several tweets.
Although the Ivanka Trump camp was once eager to discuss the brand with me and how the collection speaks to powerful women, her publicist has gone silent in the last two weeks. Trump, 35, flanked by her siblings, addressed the disconnect between her brand’s message and her father’s rhetoric with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos. He asked what she’d like to say to the women who support the #grabyourwallet campaign.
“I’d prefer to talk to the millions, tens of millions of American women, who are inspired by the brand and the message that I’ve created,” Trump said. Her clothing brand, she said, is being used by people who just don’t like her dad. “I’ve never politicized that message,” Trump said. “People who are seeking to politicize it because they may disagree with the politics of my father, there’s nothing I can do to change that.”
She’s not alone in her thinking.
“I would still buy her clothes,” said Sara Reister, 30, a public relations specialist who lives in Philadelphia. “I have trouble finding clothes, and when I find something I like, I’m not going to worry about what’s on the tag.” Then she added: “Are we boycotting Martha Stewart for going to prison? Or Jessica Simpson for being dumb?”
