The president and his daughter walk on White House grounds. Ethics concerns have been raised about Ivankas new position and the promotion of her brand, in which she retains a financial stake. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images Michael Stone, president of the branding experts Beanstalk, said he had information from inside G-III and Marc Fisher that things are going pretty well with the Ivanka Trump lines but they are bringing the price points down.
Thats a bit of a danger because there comes a point where she is not going to wear her own brands clothing because it is too cheap, he said.
In addition, the brand now has to decide its future looks and sensibility without its founders direct input. Ivanka Trump was closely involved in the fashion business before the election she was consulted on design and everything was inspired by her, although she did not actually design the products, a spokeswoman said. That was a role undertaken in-house at the licensees, such as G-III for apparel, Marc Fisher for shoes or Mondani for handbags.
Women Who Work
The title of Ivanka Trumps new book comes from the online motivation and advice platform on her brands website. But even before the release of the new book, her use of the Women Who Work slogan had upset former executives.
In an explosive Facebook post written during the heat of the presidential campaign by Marissa Kraxberger, formerly creative director at Ivanka Trumpwhicheffectively accused Trump of hypocrisy because she had been championing the cause of paid maternity leave on the campaign trail with her father but had not initially supported it at her own company Kraxberger railed against the theme.
The company and the #WomenWhoWork platform we created was meant to inspire and encourage women to work at all aspects of their lives and live the lives they wanted to live, but before our eyes she took the platform and made it all about herself, Kraxberger wrote. And now its being dragged alongside of this man who could potentially be the face of our country. A man who puts down women and makes lewd comments
Whether or not her business record qualifies her to advise women on how to organize their working lives, it is clear that there is an appetite in some quarters for Ivanka Trump to act as a counterweight to her fathers hardline stance on immigration, the environment, criminal justice and womens reproductive rights. Yet so far they have had to settle for only a vague mention of a childcare proposal in last weeks tax plan and a comment that admitting Syrian refugees to the United States had to be part of the discussion.
Even ethics campaigner Richard Painter gives this as one of the reasons why he wants Ivanka Trump to close down her fashion business and avoid risking a congressional investigation into conflicts of interest.
We need her to counteract Steve Bannon, he said, referring to Donald Trumps rightwing chief strategist.
She may have her work cut out.