fashion

There's something strange happening with the sales of Ivanka Trump's fashion brand.

Earlier this year, US retailer Nordstrom announced it would stop stocking and selling Ivanka Trump’s fashion brand Ivanka Trump Collection due to poor performance.

Many believe this ‘poor performance’ might have been related to a call to boycott the clothing line following her father President Donald Trump’s controversial White House policies, including Muslim immigration.

Ivanka Trump left the apparel and accessories brand – and The Trump Organisation – in January in preparation for her new position in her father’s administration.

But it seems politics isn’t putting everyone off the brand. In fact, the movement to boycott the brand may have done the exact opposite.

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New data from e-commerce site Lyst shows the Ivanka Trump brand sold the 11th most individual items during the month of February.

This marks a 346 per cent sales increase from January, where the brand was #550 in order count.

According to Racked, the other most-shopped brands on the site in February including Missguided, ASOS, Nike, Boohoo, Adidas and River Island.

It is definitely turtleneck weather in #NYC. Can’t wait for more snow! ❄️

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A representative for Lyst told Refinery 29 the best-selling items for Ivanka Trump Collection are normally heels followed by dresses, but last month saw other categories including flats, pants, coats, knitwear and tops perform better than they historically have on its platform.

It’s not just in the last month, either – the brand has seen an 86 per cent increase in sales since November, when her father won the election.

The world’s largest fashion e-commerce site, Lyst stocks over 12,000 designers and stores with an inventory of over three million fashion products.

Ivanka Trump Collection itself doesn’t release sales figures, but president Abigail Klem says profits are solid despite conflicting reports.

Casual weekend look from @cellajaneblog with our Tribeca Satchel.

A post shared by Ivanka Trump (@ivankatrump) on

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“Since the beginning of February, they were some of the best performing weeks in the history of the brand. For several different retailers Ivanka Trump was a top performer online, and in some of the categories it was the [brand’s] best performance ever,” she told Refinery29.

While incredible, the spike doesn’t necessarily indicate the pattern for the long term. Trends in searches and purchases are often linked to current events, such as a 460 per cent increase in searches in pantsuits likely inspired by Hillary Clinton in the lead up to the presidential election.

Business Insider reports the dramatic increase could be due to a number of factors, including coverage of the boycott as well as consumers seeking the brand elsewhere following its drop from department stores.

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