How fashion and beauty brand founders are responding to Trump’s re-election
This story was originally published on sister site, Glossy.
On Tuesday, the U.S.’s contentious and historic presidential election, between Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump, came to an end. The result: Former President Trump won the election, becoming the second president to win two nonconsecutive terms and the first convicted of felonies.
This year’s race for the White House has been a tumultuous one for many reasons. In July, after calls to exit the 2024 race, President Joe Biden officially dropped out and endorsed VP Harris. And with barely 100 days to campaign for office, VP Harris was met with optimism and doubt. Throughout the Democrats’ presidential campaign struggles, Republican nominee Trump faced his own setbacks, including claims of racism and anti-immigration rhetoric, among other allegations.
However, the fate of several pressing social issues was the biggest driving force leading voters to the polls. According to data from Gallup, economic uncertainty, democracy in the U.S., terrorism and national security, Supreme Court justice picks, and immigration were the five most important issues concerning U.S. voters. And with the two candidates having contrasting policies and opinions on them, taking a stance on either side became largely viewed as a moral proclamation.
The potential implications of directly endorsing or supporting either candidate had many brands cautiously navigating this election season. Case in point, when VP Harris delivered her closing speech at the DNC in Chicago in August, she wore a custom Chloé suit — ironically, in the shade coconut brown, reading as a nod to VP Harris’s viral “coconut in a tree” speech. The brand quickly clarified that it was coincidental and that it had no involvement in her choice to wear the outfit.
“Brands run the risk of taking too much of a political stand and alienating some consumers. But at the same time, we’ve been seeing the trend of consumers buying brands that closely align with their values,” Lauren Leibrandt, director of Baird’s global consumer investment banking group, told Glossy in October. “So, sometimes, it’s not enough to stay completely silent. It’s a difficult needle to thread.”
But with Vice President Kamala Harris officially conceding to President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon, the tension has begun to settle and markets have started feeling the impact. On Wednesday morning, the Dow surged by 1,400 points, marking the first time the market gained over 1,000 points in a single day since November 2022. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 rose by 2.3%, and the Nasdaq moved 2.7% higher. With the markets soaring, brands may have more leverage to take any stance on the outcome with less fear of backlash.
Less than 48 hours after Tuesday night’s results, here’s how some of the biggest beauty and fashion brands have responded on social media so far.
Hailey Beiber, founder and creative director of Rhode
On her Instagram Story, Beiber shared a post from the Instagram page @shityoushouldcareabout (3.4 million followers), known to be vocal about political and social issues. The shared post was from election day and stated, “Supporting a convicted felon over a woman is fucking insane.”
Charlotte Palermino, co-founder and CEO of Dieux
In a series of Instagram Stories, Palermino posted first-person recap videos and reshared posts with updates on the outcome of the election. In the screenshot above, Palermino reposted her Threads post featuring an exit poll showing how people of different sexes and races voted. She captioned the post, “Last thing I’m going to say.”
Brandon Blackwood, founder and CEO of Brandon Blackwood New York
Blackwood reshared a post from Instagram user Blakely Neiman Thornton (@blakelythornton; 1733,000 Instagram followers) featuring the same breakdown of exit poll results based on sex by race.
Huda Kattan, founder and CEO of Huda Beauty
On her Instagram story, Kattan reshared a Thread from Brother Vellies and 15 Percent Pledge founder Aurora James, which read, “‘When a Clown moves into the Castle, he does not become the King. The Palace become a circus.’ – Turkish proverb”
Nadya Okamoto, founder of August
Via her Instagram story, Okamoto posted a photo of her response to the results of the election with the text, “Just woke up. What did I miss? JK. Just saw the news. I feel numb. Tired. Might just go back to sleep.”
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