Rich people don't want Ivanka Trump's fashion

She aimed her label at wealthy sophisticated women, but it didn't take off. So she moved downmarket

At a TJ Maxx discount shop in the shadow of New York’s Queensboro Bridge, there’s little sign of Ivanka Trump’s fashion label. But she’s there.

Dangling next to a bright red Fossil handbag is a single, blush-leather Ivanka Trump satchel. A flip of the tag reveals a $129 price, about the same as the other bags on the rack. Spread among the jumble are items by Guess?, Nine West Group, Steve Madden, and even a decidedly cheaper option from the Jessica Simpson Collection.

None of this screams luxury, yet that’s the brand image Trump, 35, originally envisioned: An icon of extravagance similar to what her father spent decades trying to build. When she began selling her brand as a fine jewellery label, she looked to Tiffany & Co’s robin egg-blue box and Christian Louboutin’s red-soled pumps for inspiration. She placed Trump wares in the same realm as such storied couture names as Harry Winston and Van Cleef & Arpels. She even opened an opulent boutique on Manhattan’s Madison Avenue.

Somewhere along the way, though, Ivanka Trump went downmarket. Her label now represents a much more modest image, perhaps recognising exactly where on the retail continuum her products truly reside. At its heart, Ivanka Trump is a celebrity brand, not a designer fashion house, industry analysts say. It’s the messy discount rack, not the gleaming glass jewellery case. Her company’s moves over the past few years reflect that. And as it turns out, targeting the masses has worked.

“Celebrities, as a branding tool, appeal more to the mass than luxury,” said Allen Adamson, the New York-based founder of consulting firm BrandSimple. “The further downmarket she goes, the more horsepower her brand potentially has.”

The pivot began in late 2010, when Trump started her footwear and clothing businesses. She chose to go after a much-less-glossy group of people, discarding four-digit price tags in favour of numbers more on par with the broader market. US President Donald Trump’s election last year accelerated that shift. After losing her most glamourous retail partners amid the controversies and boycotts that have marked her father’s tempest-tossed administration, she halted production of the diamond jewellery that was her only remaining fashion business. 

Her executives decided to nix the Ivanka Trump Fine Jewellery Collection in March in order to create a more cohesive brand. Gem-laden necklaces at $10,000 didn’t make a whole lot of sense for a brand that also peddles discount heels at DSW-a low-price shoe warehouse. In its place is a “fashion jewellery” collection sold at Lord & Taylor stores and online. There’s no solid gold or diamonds: Some items are available on sale for as little as $11.

How far downmarket has Ivanka Trump gone? Bloomberg compiled pricing data from her brand, and compared it with those of other labels known for work-wear, using three office essentials as illustrations: Pumps, tote bags, and sheath dresses. Trump has long promoted her clothes as work-appropriate garb the working woman can afford.

The Ivanka Trump label now clocks in alongside mall staples Banana Republic and Ann Taylor, brands far from the luxury segment. Above Trump sits DKNY, the mid-market diffusion line created by designer Donna Karen. Luxury brand Burberry, meanwhile, is out of her league. Other fashion houses such as Prada carry even higher price ranges. (A spokesperson for the Trump brand didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Back in the summer of 2010, a few months prior to her shoes hitting store shelves, Ivanka Trump held court at Trump Tower in New York, hosting retail buyers and members of the press eager for a look at her new collection. Marc Fisher Footwear, maker and distributor of her shoes, happened to be located in the same building.

In a showroom, she displayed a wide selection of styles, from high heels to sneakers, with retail prices spanning $60 to $160. The initial feedback was strong enough to prompt Trump to push up the line’s timing from the following spring. Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s were among the retailers to get on board.

Her apparel line, a partnership with G-III Apparel Group, came next. In February 2011, it landed on department store racks, featuring $80 blouses and $200 jackets. Trump said she wanted the clothes to exude “timeless glamour” despite the mid-level pricing. 

“I wanted the price points to be accessible,” Trump said as she was hyping her new apparel line six years ago, “but ultimately we’re in the business of luxury, and these looks are consistent with that larger messaging.”

It was 2011, and shoppers wanted Ivanka Trump. Business boomed. Her clothing line grew to a $100 million business by flaunting the counter-intuitive promise of “affordable luxury.” She expanded into home goods and fragrances as her label entered more stores. As the company grew, glamourous jewellery gave way to mass-market merchandise. Items emblazoned with Ivanka Trump’s IT logo are now sold via the online marketplaces of Wal-Mart Stores, Kmart, and Sears brands.

Executives told Refinery29 in March that the brand’s average customers are aged from 25 to 40, with an annual income of $60,000 to $100,000-far from the sort of shoppers who shell out thousands of dollars for gem-encrusted necklaces.