Since retiring from official royal duties in 2020, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has become a divisive figure, but one Melbourne fashion identity stands resolutely in her corner.
“I will be eternally grateful to her,” says Julia McCarthy, the founder and creative director of womenswear brand Friends With Frank.
Meghan wore two outfits from Friends With Frank on her visit to Melbourne in April alongside Prince Harry, driving a dramatic increase in sales for the local label.
The streamlined camel Lou coat with statement pink lining and Anya shift dress in khaki sold out within 48 hours of Meghan wearing them.
“In the office we started calling it the ‘Meghan special,’” McCarthy says. “People from as far away as Ireland and Switzerland were ordering them together. More importantly, many of them have been coming back.”
“One customer in California has been back four times to make purchases,” says Kuelli George, Friends With Frank chief executive.
A 30 per cent increase in website traffic, 40 per cent increase in online sales and 60 per cent increase in new online customers for Friends With Frank since April is further evidence of the continued strength of “the Meghan effect”, a term used to describe the impact the former actor has on driving sales for the brands she wears.
“What happened with Meghan has been a huge milestone for us, and for me personally, because I’ve been doing this for 14 years and I have never had this type of attention,” McCarthy says.
While the duchess deserves credit for bringing global attention, Friends With Frank has been a slow style burn with Australian shoppers since launching in 2012. It gained a strong reputation for classic winter outerwear, before expanding its collections into spring in 2020, spawning the popular Cleo dress.
Weeks before Meghan’s Australian visit, the label opened its second Melbourne store in High Street, Armadale. Plans for a Sydney store are now under way following a popular pop-up in Paddington last month that attracted large crowds.
“Australia is a place where we can obviously grow, but strong sales from the Meghan experience has shown us that we can compete globally,” George says. “The next step is international growth.”
The experience also offered a glimpse into the challenges of fame, with some negative comments about Meghan’s support appearing on social media.
“There was scepticism about the nature of the relationship, with some people suggesting it was a commercial transaction,” George says. “People kept asking how much we’d paid. They couldn’t understand that it just happened.
“The fact that she reached out to us, among so many more well-known labels, and wore the jacket which her team didn’t even ask for us to provide, was an act of kindness,” McCarthy says. “This wasn’t a part of a strategy, but we made the most of this opportunity.”
“I didn’t get to meet her but having seen the way she wears our clothes, she’s now a big part of Friends With Frank.”
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