SYDNEY — It was a case of lightning striking twice for the Australian fashion industry when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex touched down for their whistle stop tour last week.
They visited eight years after their last trip Down Under in 2018 — at the time, newlywed working royals on a 16-day tour of Australia and the South Pacific but this time as private citizens who spent four days in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney engaged in a mix of commercial and charitable activities.
Although not an official royal tour per se, the global media attention seemed nonetheless as intense. The duo was mobbed by cheering fans whenever they appeared in public and their four-day itinerary was live blogged by multiple Australian media outlets.
According to Launchmetrics data supplied to WWD, the tour generated a total of $51.6 million in media impact value between the dates of April 14 and April 17, with Australian fashion and jewelry brands major beneficiaries of the attention. Meghan Markle’s tour wardrobe showcased at least 16 local brands, including Karen Gee, Scanlan Theodore, St. Agni, Camilla and Marc, Matteau, P Johnson, Beare Park, Paspaley, Friends With Frank and Rolla’s Jeans.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle take part in the Scar Tree Walk on day three of the trip. (Photo by Jonathan Brady/PA Wire-Pool/Getty Images)
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One key development since 2018: beyond the plethora of Markle-style blogs and media outlets that monetize her appearances through shop-her-look affiliate links, this time the duchess made her tour looks shoppable through the AI-powered, creator-led fashion discovery platform One-Off..
At the beginning of the tour the Los Angeles-based company revealed the duchess had partnered with the platform as a participant and investor. More than two dozen Australian products sold out, according to the duchess’ publicist, with OneOff cofounder and chief executive officer Emir Talu telling WWD “OneOff surpassed 1-plus million views of outfits on the site in the first three days since Meghan launched her page on the platform.”
“The Sussexes’ Australia tour is a reminder that the Sussex effect still translates into real brand performance. When Meghan wears a brand, the data follows,” said Launchmetrics chief marketing officer Alison Bringé, who revealed that Karen Gee’s custom-fitted navy double-bonded crepe Priscilla dress worn by the duchess for the couple’s first engagement on April 14 at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital generated $1.6 million in MIV in 48 hours for the brand.
The ready-to-wear version of the dress sold out on the Karen Gee website within two hours, according to Gee, who was blindsided back in 2018 after the duchess also made her first appearance of that tour in a Karen Gee dress — simultaneously announcing her pregnancy and crashing the designer’s website.
Meghan Markle, left, and Prince Harry in Australia on April 14.
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This time Gee was ready for any sales chaos. “We had a contingency plan in place and were all organized to take preorders,” Gee said.
Later on April 14, the duchess changed into St. Agni’s brown suede Utility Cocoon bomber and matching pencil skirt for an engagement at the Australian National Veterans Art Museum, generating $998,000 in MIV for the brand over 48 hours.
After two of its products were showcased on April 16 at two separate engagements, Friends With Frank earned $575,000 in MIV in 48 hours. The duchess wore the brand’s camel Lou car coat for a tour of Melbourne’s Scar Tree Walk, later changing into Friends With Frank’s khaki sleeveless Anja sack dress for an engagement at Swinburne University organized by youth mental health organization Batyr. Both styles sold out on the brand’s website within 48 hours.
“The website didn’t crash, thank god,” said Friends With Frank founder and creative director Julia McCarthy. “We were prepared, we made sure all the pieces she had selected were well stocked and had preorder set up. We resumed U.S. and U.K. shipping the week prior. To be honest, naively, I didn’t know how much it was going to blow up. I also wasn’t even sure if she was going to wear the pieces.”
Scanlan Theodore reported the combined sales of three of its products featured on the tour were up 250 percent week-on-week. The duchess carried the brand’s Athos Shopper tote on two occasions and chose its putty-colored Cashmere Tie Sleeveless Tank and matching Italian Slouchy Trouser to wear for the upward of 2,699 Australian dollars, or $1,934, a head at Her Best Life luxury wellness retreat at Coogee Beach on April 17. The latter outfit generated $247,000 in MIV for the brand in 48 hours.
Melbourne label Rolla’s Jeans earned $109,000 in MIV after three of its jeans were featured.
At the time of writing, sales for the Midtown Bootcut Jean in Iris Wash were up 800 percent week-on-week, with sales for all other Midtown Bootcut Jean fits up 150 percent week-on-week, according to Rolla’s Jeans cofounder and marketing director Rich Bell.
“We’ve got a very strong website, making sure that it can take those kind of hits from big influencers,” said Bell, who is no stranger to influencer-driven sales spikes, with the brand’s jeans seen on names such as Bella and Gigi Hadid, Sydney Sweeney and Helena Christensen.
But the Markle effect, Bell conceded, is next level.
“It’s bolting — absolutely,” he added. “It’s really a hurricane.”
