Putting Mega Rich Women to Werk
They figured out how to get sugar mamas to hustle, even in this economy.
Hello new subscribers and familiar clicks! Here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately. Please ❤️ this post if you like it! The algo is our overlord. We all have one. To whit:
It’s Not Even Fun to be An Insanely Rich Woman Anymore
The Cut has a fascinating piece called “The Pampered Life of Fashion VICs” - i.e., Very Important Clients.
2% of clientele now buy 40% of luxury fashion1, and fashion houses are creating ever-more exclusive, opulent events to cater to —and IMO manipulate—these high spenders.
Pampered? Yes. But there’s a lot of mean girl capitalism in here, leveraging insecurity, status-seeking and beauty as the ultimate female currency. Always in style! And apparently, it never stops working.
Real Housewives x 1000 - no Andy Cohen allowed, darling!
(1) They’re Tacky (according to the design houses)
We plebes are still being sold the “Quiet Luxury” look supposedly telegraphing status and wealth:
VICs are not into that. Why? Because as we can all plainly see - it’s BORING: “It’s not youthful,” one veteran stylist tells me. “There’s no sex appeal in it; there’s no glamour in it. There’s no currency in that communication.”
Not wrong!
Here are a few looks featured in the piece, with VICs Suzanne Saperstein and Lisa Sher-Chambers:
Yet it’s a fine line. Because while it’s the houses themselves selling this stuff, the gatekeepers maintain you can never be too rich or too thin - but you can be too too.
One client who spent ONE MILLION DOLLARS with a brand was kicked off the runway invite list because:
“She overdid the makeup; the ponytail was too high…this was before Ozempic, so she was a little heavier.”
Fatphobia - also always in style!
Body positivity never hit this echelon, but in the Ozempic era it really, truly is for Wal-Mart shoppers. (And when today’s GLP-1s commoditize down to Wal-Mart in a couple of years, it won’t be there either, but I digress…)
(2) It’s WORK.
An LA-based stylist (yes, these women all have highly involved personal stylists) acknowledged being a front-row shopper is “a job or an extreme hobby.”
Building on the tacky fatty who got dumped by a label that was probably not Italian, Building on the tacky fatty who got dumped by a label that was probably not Italian, “You have to embody what the brand wants people to see.”
Proper IG—or else! VICs need to be promoting and on-brand or they are OUT.
A client’s social-media behavior can also undermine their chances of landing coveted invites. “I’ll tell them, ‘If you keep posting shit like this, you’re never coming to a show,’”
These women are basically influencers working for the brands, but feeling like the brands are working for them. Granted, they have their own sales associates who take acting as pseudo-personal assistants/stylists - but it’s all in service of buying more.
(3) It’s PAY, PAY, PAY TO PLAY
You want to sit by Pharrell? Have “magical evenings” serenaded by Katy Perry or coffee talk with SJP? Done. But there are tiered models, and spending $200K in bathing suits is just the beginning.
Anna Wintour’s Vogue1002 started for elite women industry leaders to network and self-promote - vanity startup founders, vanity jewelry designers, PR folks etc. But still, women in the biz. Now a $100,000 a year membership is for ladies-who-private jet, driven by social events.
(4) “Much to the distress of the usually liberal fashion workers, many VICs are Trump supporters. “
Weird Marketing: Ritual’s Fertility Play
Flummoxed by this horny sizzle vid to promote Ritual’s Fertility Support, drink mix supplements that despite the tease push clincial and OB/GYN creds in all the copy.
Yes, nothing is hotter than scheduled sex, peeing on sticks, ovulation temp checks and tracking your period like the Heritage Foundation. Boom-chicka-wow-wow.
Are there any fertility support brand out there getting political these days? If you know one please drop in the comments.
Miranda July-as-AI.
Miranda July’s All Fours was the talk of the summer (I devoured it over a long weeked).
Now Prada did a faux-hot line where you can call and get “advice” from Miranda. I tried twice and it was an utter fail for me. If you try it, pls drop your review in the comments.
Interesting to see where this type of content goes in the near future as AI accelerates:
Croissants in Your Spin Cycle
Prevailing wisdom AND market research was that men went crazy for women wearing the smells of baked goods (Because mommy, because tradwife.)
Hence the perennial love of vanilla notes in perfume. 3
Well, Snif took it up a notch with laundry care that smells like croissants.
Is this the “sexless Gen Z” version where you wrap yourself in carbs bedrot?
Would you use it?
NAKED AMBITION, CONTINUED
We’ve talked “naked fashion” and push for sexifying Republican women. I keep seeing high exposure everywhere. Latest: The 30th anniversary of UK mag The Gentlewoman.
Bizarre to me that in this high stakes gender environment, designer fashion and media want women more exposed than ever.
Coming soon: Demi Moore and her body as a very brave cultural barometer. (Working on this in the wake of upcoming body horror movie The Substance.)
Beauty Tok
This past week I went to an angel investor showcase where an old white guy informed a female beauty founder that it should be so easy and so cost-free to blow up on social media with a beauty brand.
Thanks, Ron!
If you got the money, honey: Beauty Matter reports that 48% of Gen Z beauty shoppers go to Tiktok for new product discovery, along with 26% of beauty shoppers overall.
Fledgling health trend alert (?): Fart walks (yep, you read that right.)
From 2020-23 the wealth of the top 1% of Americans jumped by $15 TRILLION.
Recently learned about Club 33 - Disney’s super-exclusive members’ club with a $50,000 initiation fee. Joined by adults, not children! And recently after an uber-rich woman was kicked out due to drunken messiness said she’d literally take out a kidney to get back in. Our thirst to belong and be above has no price.
Stripper fragrance reddit (yeah, it’s a thing, been there) confirms clients like vanilla scents.
Thanks! At least now I have a new rag to read with a great recco for post my October chaos. As always, love this bit amazing lady.