By: Madeline Bartos | Staff Columnist
Nordstrom dropped Ivanka Trump’s fashion line four months after the start of the #grabyourwallet boycott, which targeted businesses owned by the Trump family.
Nordstrom cuts about 10 percent of its brands a year, but the decision to stop selling Ivanka’s line made it seem like a win for the boycott. This all may have appeared to have blown over by now, but President Donald Trump took to Twitter to complain on Feb. 8, crying about how Ivanka had been “treated so unfairly by Nordstrom.”
While it may not be fair that Ivanka’s line is judged based on her father’s political views, she did not do anything to separate herself from his ideas despite the multitude of chances she had. Her line is aimed at professional, educated and fashion-conscious women with successful families and careers. It turns out these women’s political views do not normally align with Trump’s.
Ivanka’s website has productivity, business and fashion tips to help women excel and fulfill their potential. However, while her father belittled and diminished the achievements of a very qualified woman who resembles her well-educated target market, she did not speak up to separate herself. Whether or not it’s unfair to judge someone’s business based on his or her political views, people boycotted her line, causing sales to fall before Nordstrom pulled the plug. There’s nothing unfair about that.
Nordstrom dropped Ivanka’s line during her father’s first few controversial weeks as president, which implied the company was jumping on the boycott bandwagon. A Nordstrom spokesperson said that the decision was “absolutely not political” and has continued to reiterate that the cut had nothing to do with politics.
“It was exclusively based on the performance of the brand. Simply put, the performance has been difficult over the past year,” the spokesperson said.
However, an internal memo from Nordstrom to its employees dated Jan. 31, a few days before the line was dropped, hinted at Nordstrom’s political stance. The memo celebrated founder John W. Nordstrom’s immigrant roots which, in light of Trump’s immigration ban, gives some perspective to where the company is politically.
“We currently employ more than 76,000 people who comprise different races, ethnicities and genders,” the memo said. “We literally have thousands of employees who are first and second generation immigrants. Every one of your unique qualities brings a richness that allows us to better reflect and serve the multicultural communities we’re a part of and ultimately make us a better company. We are a better place with you here, no doubt about it.”
This wasn’t too big of a deal until, you guessed it: Trump, unsurprisingly unable to handle opposition, tweeted, “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!”
If Ivanka really is always pushing him to do the right thing, she’s apparently pushing in the wrong direction, or she would have stopped him from posting that tweet.
As if throwing the signature Trump “Terrible!” onto the end of his tweet doesn’t already make you want to delete the Twitter app off of the president’s phone, the POTUS twitter account — the official platform for the President of the United States — retweeted the statement. This prompted a few people to call out Trump’s ethics. What else is new?
Of course, when ethics get shady, you can count on Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway to come to the rescue — only to make a mountain out of a really tiny, insignificant mole hill. Conway appeared on “Fox and Friends” to advertise for Ivanka, because if it’s not the job of the counselor to promote the president’s daughter’s overpriced fashion line, I don’t know what is.
“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff, is what I would tell you,” Conway said. “I hate shopping, but I’m going to go get some myself today. It’s a wonderful line. I own some of it. I’m going to give it a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online.”
Although Trump and Conway aren’t usually the ones to listen to numbers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Feb. 11 that Nordstrom’s sales of Ivanka’s line have fallen by almost one third in the past fiscal year.
“Amid calls to boycott the brand, Ivanka Trump footwear and apparel sales fell more than 70 percent in the second, third and fourth weeks of October compared with a year ago, the Nordstrom data show,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
At the end of the day, the president has better things to do than promote his daughter’s fashion line. And if Ivanka really cared about her brand’s success, she would’ve done more to separate herself from her father.
