With a mother who wears the likes of Alexander McQueen, Monica Vinader and Reiss on a daily basis and whose blue Issa wrap dress sold out in under 24 hours after she wore it to announce her engagement to Prince William in 2011 (and caused the British-based fashion brand to close), it was to be expected that Princess Charlotte would have a similar impact on the UK and the global fashion industry as Kate Middleton.
Well, it seems she’s already starting to have more fashion cred than we could even have expected. It’s being reported that Princess Charlotte is already worth £3 billion (about $3.86 billion).
Princess Charlotte made her royal debut in 2015
According to leading independent branded business valuation consultancy, Brand Finance, in just two years, Charlotte’s influence has a net value of $3.8 billion, which started growing the second she was presented to the world.
On May 2 2015, Kate Middleton presented Charlotte to the world on the steps of St Mary’s Hospital in London, wrapping her newborn baby in a pure white wool shawl, made by family business, GH Hurt & Son Ltd, in Nottingham. As a result, the company reportedly sold thousands of the shawls hours, with production doubling overnight.
Likewise, the vintage Silver Cross pram that carried Charlotte to her christening at Sandringham in July that year, reportedly had a similar effect.
The so-called ‘Charlotte effect’ occurred yet again in 2016, after photos of William and Kate with Prince George and Prince Charlotte wearing ski gear on holiday were released and the pink fleecy shoes on the toddler resulted in children swear company, My1styears.com, selling 259 pairs of the £25 booty – a 97 per cent increase on normal sales.
As a result, the toddler now has a new worth valued more than her three-year-old brother, George (who has a measly new worth of approximately £2.4b, according to the financial experts) and is chasing her mothers’ net worth, calculated to be around the £4.7billion mark.
However, if like us you’re a bit confused why Charlotte’s value would be greater than George’s, you know, with him being closer in line to the throne, Brand Finance’s marketing and communications director, Robert Haigh, explained to Marie Claire:
“This is actually as simple as the relative size of the men’s and women’s fashion markets, by which I mean that Charlotte’s endorsement effect will likely be felt across a much broader range of products and brands or types of clothing than will George’s, allowing a greater scope for the monetisation of her ‘brand’ and hence a higher value.”
Which makes sense: We’re already counting down the days until we see what Charlotte wears when she’s a bridesmaid at Aunt Pippa’s wedding next weekend.
From: Elle UK
