Pénélope Flouret
Edited by Naomi Gupta
We’ve all seen many celebrities create their own brands, which usually either turn out to be massively successful or, conversely, a mega flop. Gigi Hadid’s case is hard to decipher; her clothing brand Guest in Residence is only successful insofar as other celebrities, such as Taylor Swift, promote it. Indeed, one of the only times it has sold out was after Taylor Swift wore one of the brand’s red sweaters to a Chiefs game.
In an interview with SSENSE, Hadid revealed that her intention behind the brand was to create “timeless, well-made, relatively affordable cashmere basics in a range of modern silhouettes and friendly colors.” The idea came to her while she was pregnant. Indeed, the realization that she couldn’t work as a model for her entire life prompted her to focus her creative energy elsewhere.
Ironically, Hadid’s brand isn’t as accessible as she intended it to be. This is partly why it constitutes a “flop”; its prices aren’t affordable, making it hard for people with regular salaries to acquire the collection’s items.
Her reasoning for higher prices is to prevent her brand from selling out quickly. She hoped to avoid a situation similar to Harry Styles’s brand, Pleasing, whose crewnecks and nail polish sold out within seconds. This decision targets her younger fans, who generally have more modest earnings.
Instead, she wanted to create heirloom pieces. Hadid ties this goal to motherhood: “Being a mom, you start to think about what trends and style might be as your child grows up, and what I hope to pass down to my daughter,” she revealed in an interview with Sports Illustrated Lifestyle. Interestingly, this marketing tactic seems to have backfired, as the collection hasn’t sold particularly well.
Gigi Hadid made her company available both online and in person. She opened a flagship store in New York City last October, where many of her celebrity friends flocked to the store for its opening. These include model Taylor Hill and television personality and author Derek Blasberg, who both made an appearance donning some version of Hadid’s cashmere. To be honest, this was the most I’ve seen Guest in Residence worn by so many people at once.
While Hadid may have sold out some items, I have yet to see large numbers of people strolling the streets in her cashmere. Indeed, it seems that only celebrities—notably Hadid’s friends and family—have been spotted wearing Guest in Residence. A photo from the brand’s Instagram shows Hadid’s boyfriend, Bradley Cooper, wearing one of the brand’s shirts.
Over the next few years, it’ll be interesting to see the direction Guest in Residence takes. Will the brand continue to sell $7000 items and benefit from celebrity advertisement, or will it go out of style and stop producing clothing altogether?
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