Why did Ivanka Trump decide to close her fashion label?
"Making this decision now is the only fair thing for my team and my partners."
With those words, Ivanka Trump, the 36-year-old daughter of United States President Donald Trump, announced on Tuesday that she will close her clothing and accessories brand.
"My clearest focus in the immediate future is on the work I am doing here in Washington," she said in a statement.
After 17 months in her position as her father's senior advisor in the White House, Ivanka said she did not know when she would be able to resume business with her.
Ivanka launched the brand in 2014, but after the election of her father as president of the country two years later, she faced citizen boycotts to prevent her products from being bought.
According to US media, Ivanka Trump was frustrated by the difficulties of avoiding conflicts of interest with her signature while she serves in the White House for her.
Boycotts and falling sales
According to NBC News, Ivanka personally met with the 18 employees who work on her clothing brand at Trump Tower in New York after the closure was announced.
A spokesperson for Ivanka's fashion brand told BBC News that the announcement of the closure "has nothing to do with the performance of the brand and is based solely on Ivanka's decision to remain in Washington indefinitely."
However, Ivanka Trump's business began to suffer from the very nomination of her father as a candidate for the Republican Party in the 2016 presidential elections.
Just before the elections were held, one of the first massive calls came to boycott her brand.
It was the campaign on social networks known as #GrabYourWallet (Grab your wallet), by marketing expert Shannon Coulter, who proposed to the population to mobilize against stores that sold her products.
Chains like Nordstrom or Hudson's Bay (the most important department store brand in Canada) recalled Ivanka's products from their stores, considering that her sales were not enough.
Others like T.J. Maxx and Marshalls did not stop selling them, but did remove the brand's in-store advertisements.
According to data from online market research company Rakuten Intelligence cited by The Wall Street Journal, Ivanka brand clothing sales fell 45% on the digital platforms of Amazon, Macy's and Bloomingdales between January and June 2018.
A company spokesman told The Wall Street Journal that the drop was due to the comparison to the previous year, when sales soared just after her father became president.
Restrictions on the company
Upon hearing the news of the closure, a company spokesperson said that the restrictions Ivanka placed on the operation of the company when she began working with her father limited the firm's ability to grow.
Therefore, closing the business was the best option for the brand's partners and their employees, according to the company.
Among these restrictions, Ivanka specified the impossibility of expanding internationally and the requirement that the firm must obtain its approval before reaching agreements with new domestic partners.
Ivanka Trump's career in the fashion world began with the launch of his jewelry brand in 2007. In the following years he developed seven other product categories ranging from footwear and handbags to eyewear and fragrances.
The current agreements with the partners will continue until the end of the signed contracts, which means that the company's products will for now continue to be sold in US stores such as Bloomingdales, Zappos and Amazon.
