The "Kate Effect" is still alive! Kate Middleton's floral face mask, reportedly, spiked online searches for a face covering similar to the Duchess of Cambridge's.
According to The Guardian, searches for "ditsy print," "floral" or "Liberty print" face masks drew a 185 percent spike 24 hours after Kate Middleton's public appearance with Prince William. The Duchess of Cambridge wore an Amaia face mask with a "Pepper Liberty" print to match her frilly pink and blue rose dress during her visit to the Shire Hall Care Home on Aug. 5.
On Amaia's online site, the Pepper Liberty face mask has a three-week pre-order waitlist. The children's face masks are also selling out fast after the brand's owner, Amaia Arrieta, revealed that Kate, also, bought their face masks for Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
Arretta said that she feels "very honored" Kate chose to wear Amaia's face mask for a public engagement. The Duchess of Cambridge often hauls her kids 'clothes from this children's clothing brand.
The "Kate Effect" refers to a fashion or style trend that gets a boost in product sales because it's what Kate wears or uses. Her patronage of these items is, apparently, helping British fashion brands break the U.S. market.
It was the British media who started using "Kate Effect" in 2010 after Kate and Prince William's royal engagement. The Duchess of Cambridge wore a royal blue dress when she and the Duke of Cambridge announced the engagement to the world via a television interview.
That dress, designed and sold by a brand called Issa, reportedly, sold out in five minutes. Daniella Helayel created the dress that had such a high demand from customers. Unfortunately, it also marked the beginning of Issa's end.
Helayel told The Telegraph that, before Kate, her label was already struggling financially despite celebrity endorsements from the likes of Jennifer Lopez. Because of the Kate Effect, however, she was able to use the surge in sales and demand to find an investor who could help keep the production going.
She, also, hired a new CEO wasn't a good fit for her business. By 2013, Helayel shut down Issa and started a new label, Dhela, and she's still one of Kate Middleton's favorite designers.
Meanwhile, Prince William, also, wore an Amaia face mask during the same royal engagement. The Duke of Cambridge had a simple blue cloth mask to match his casual outfit. It's the second time the royal was seen in public with a face covering, as he also wore a medical face mask when he visited Oxford University to talk to the scientists developing a coronavirus vaccine in June.
