#TheDress Sells: Sales Of The Dress Surge To 350 Percent
Roman Originals is getting a huge bump in sales on Friday. The company behind #TheDress and the color debate is selling out of its blue and black dress, thanks to the Internet hysteria that took place on Thursday night.
#TheDress debate started when a woman posted a photo of her mother’s dress for her wedding and asked people what color it is. That spawned the hashtag #whatcoloristhisdress, followed by the hashtag #TheDress. Everyone across the various social media sites argued about the real colors of the dress. Some see that it was blue and black, while others thought it was white and gold.
Even celebrities were chiming in about the dress. Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift had differing views on the dress, along with Kanye West and Justin Bieber.
A rep from Roman Originals says that the dress comes in black and blue only. It also comes in pink and black, white and black, and red and black, according to TMZ. There isn’t a white and gold option yet, but Roman is considering adding one because of the great color debate.
Roman Originals also said that sales are up by 347 percent on Friday, and are expected to grow. The site is set to experience a 500 percent increase with sales of the dress. The British retailer told Us Weekly that consumers have not only been coming to the site to purchase the dress, but to buy other clothing and accessories. Some have speculated if #TheDress color debate was a marketing idea from Roman Originals itself, but the company’s creative manager has quashed those rumors.
“This is 100 percent not a marketing campaign by us,” Ian Johnson, creative manager for Roman Originals, told NBC News. “It came by complete surprise.”
The remaining 300 dresses available on the Roman Originals’ website sold out in a half hour on Friday morning. The company won’t be able to fulfill the rest of its orders until the end of the day.
“We’re vastly over where we’d be normally. Our website’s currently at about a million visits to this page alone… We can guarantee that we’ll make it through the day. The weekend, we’ll have to see.”
Roman Originals have been receiving calls about the dress as well. Johnson said, “We’re getting calls constantly. About 150 calls in the last 45 minutes.”
Ellen DeGeneres has already requested overnight delivery of the dress, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The comedian is expected to feature it on her daytime talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show next week. Johnson said told THR that the company shipped the black and blue dress to DeGeneres first thing on Friday morning. It’s expected to make it to her show by Monday morning.
The man behind the black and blue dress, Peter Christodoulou, was reportedly doing yoga at his United Kingdom home when his phone rang on Friday at 6 a.m. He designed the dress, which is sold on his clothing company’s website. Christodoulou founded the company, alongside his brother, Rick, and his sister, Angela, in 1978, according to the Washington Post. He told the news site that he hopes to design and release the white and gold dress later this year.
However, Ian Johnson wants the white and gold dress to come out sooner. He was in the process of having a white and gold dress designed for Ellen “just to mess with people.” Johnson announced that the white and gold version should come out in the next few weeks. That means Peter Christodoulou will have to put his yoga sessions aside to create the dress as soon as possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx3mloI7VoU
The dress currently retails at £50 (or $77) and is available for future purchases in the three color combinations. The dress is also available on Amazon U.K., but only in the black and blue option. There hasn’t been any word if the dress is also selling on Amazon even though it’s already spawned some hilarious reviews.
Have you purchased #TheDress yet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMopr7jj_uc
[Image: Courtesy of Roman Originals]
