You may not be able to sit with Oprah, but you can sit like Oprah, thanks to the patio furniture that resembles the scene presented in your interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex.
Although the focus of their widely observed conversation with the couple revolved around several bombastic revelations about the royal family, the patio furniture and the clothes and accessories used by Meghan and Oprah Winfrey also received a lot of attention.
Several articles tracked a set of chairs that they said were used in the interview. The set, which was available on Amazon and several other retailers, has been listed for around $ 600 and is sold out on several websites. Another almost identical set of wicker chairs at Walmart.com has sold for more than $ 300 and is also out of stock. Look-alikes of other items, such as the street rug, the low table and the juicy centerpiece, also appeared in articles and sold out quickly.
It wasn’t just patio furniture that made people talk.
Oprah’s Götti glasses spawned articles with several similar frames, and Meghan’s dress designer was quickly identified as Giorgio Armani.
Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData’s retail division, attributed the fascination with clothes, accessories and even garden furniture to two things.
“First of all, many famous people tend to be very composed in their clothes. Someone like Oprah will have a stylist, think about what she is wearing. … It makes the clothes they wear enviable,” Saunders said. “The other thing, when you have someone like Meghan, a lot of people admire you, [which] it makes her something of an icon as an individual, and people try to imitate that in terms of the things she is wearing to try to get some of that kind of attitude or personality in her own psyche. “
There has also been much speculation about the meaning of the lotus flower in Meghan’s dress, which reflects similar dress treatments and style choices that other politicians, royalty and world figures make when they appear in public. A whole industry has emerged dedicated to analyzing the choices that celebrities make with their ensembles, which can often have significant meaning, be it positive or negative.
The same phenomenon was seen around this year’s presidential inauguration, where clothes worn by former First Lady Michelle Obama, young poet laureate Amanda Gorman and members of the families of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were quickly noticed and analyzed. During the presidencies of Donald Trump and Barack Obama, the clothes worn by the first families were valued for their deepest messages – and similar treatment is routinely given to choices made by British royalty, including Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge.
“Where there is a very high profile event, be it a grand opening or a big interview like this that many people tune in to, inevitably the products and the clothes and garments presented really draw a lot of attention,” said Saunders. “You start to be very curious about the origin of these products, and then people look for them online or find similar things.”
The fascination, then, leads to an increase in spending, as the items are quickly purchased and sold online. As consumers search for this information more readily, designers become more active on social media, taking ownership of certain looks and sharing details about the process and the inspiration behind them.
The stylists and stylists behind the clothes worn by the Obama, Kate and Meghan have made similar posts in the past, and Ivanka Trump used social media to promote her namesake clothing line after an appearance at the Republican National Convention.
After Biden took office, the hairstylist who worked on Michelle Obama’s hair posted on Instagram about the look. The designer who assembled First Lady Jill Biden for the opening night shared that he presented the official flowers for each state and territory in the United States.
“Social media platforms have really democratized fashion and trends, because it has become very, very easy for a designer to really showcase their products to a large audience in a way that in the past you just couldn’t do,” said Saunders. “Before the advent of social media, to expand your brand you would have to get a position in one of the major magazines, you would have to go on the news or be talked about in the media, and that was not always easy. “
Now, not only is it easier for designers to promote looks, but consumers are also so eager to emulate what they see in famous figures that other designers and brands often launch similar styles or “imitations” to capitalize on fascination and spending .