Breaking Down the Latest Ivy Park Fashion Launch
When I think about business savvy and people getting it done right, I think of Beyoncé. She shows us again and again that her type of product – music, concerts, appearances, and of course fashion – takes an incredible amount of work. She could teach us all a thing or two.
Last summer when I heard that Beyoncé was shopping around her Ivy Park label – in an effort to get manufacturing support while retaining majority ownership over her brand (no small feat may I add) - she eventually landed on Adidas. I’m sure you heard the spilt tea that she had been in many boardrooms but the team that she would be working with looked all the same. White and male with a totally different background then she comes from. Reebok’s rumoured loss was Adidas’ big score.
Fast forward to the past month and we see what she has been up to. Around the holiday season we started to see teasers of the latest Ivy Park launch coming in the New Year. Once 2020 rolled in, her and Ivy Park’s social media was dripping drops of what was to come.
Everybody buckle up, Beyoncé is about to share her clothes with we peasants. I was hooked.
As I followed along and especially into the official drop on January 18, I noticed that her strategy should now be the case study for retail brand launches. My former marketing self frosted all over with goosebumps just thinking about it. She came to play and of course she left it all out on the field. Ever indulging in voyerism, this is the recap of what solid gold I saw.
Announcement in 2019 of the restructure and majority ownership to Beyonce with support of Adidas.
Working on the line behind the scenes.
Teasers before Christmas and into the New Year. We saw glimpses on her social, on Ivy Park’s social, and the website.
Date of drop announced. Gird your loins.
Teasers of the Ivy Park x Adidas filled boxes blasted everywhere on social media. Gosh that orange wrapping was glorious, no? Not knowing what it was at first and then seeing these covered rolling wardrobe racks and luxury quality trunks rolling out in the juiciest fashion was as close as heaven will ever be for me.
As the final week came and went, watching the celebrity unboxing – all in the exact size of the recipient – on social media was too much. The hype was real. The list of the celebrities is long and influential. To me, it felt real. Famous people were actually excited. This was a more authentic endorsement than say the over-the-top thirsty push of the Dior saddle bag revival that made me fill up with 2018 ick.
Back to Beyoncé, all we, again, peasants could do was signup for the brand’s email notifications and bite our nails in hopes of manifesting another possible way to get the goods.
January 18 is finally here. Sold out online. All but sold out in store.
After the weekend frenzy, when we’ve either scored or missed the creme, maroon, and tangerine goodies, we see Beyoncé modelling every ding dang look she gifted the world via a thank you video. We peasants watched on Instagram on repeat and praised her generosity. Ha! Now the social media account has every single look displayed on a seamless background. She’s the best.
Of course, Beyoncé is majestic. Of course, she brings the goods every single time. Of course, her beauty is beyond. All that being true, it does not cease to amaze me that it has taken until the past couple years to see bodies modelling clothing beyond a size two. The average North American women is a 14, so…
Thank Beyoncé for helping push back on traditional western ideas of beauty that are limiting to say the least. She’d doing the work and getting paid while doing it.
And if any of you can spare that maroon boiler suit in a medium, I’d wear it to every park in Calgary for a month straight.
