The Olsen Twins go Olsenboye
by Mars Riley
Some things you should know about me: I am not a teenage girl. I rarely wear branded clothing. I do not shop at J.C. Penney. I dislike cupcakes. And I am not a fan of the Olsen Twins (Although, I do think one of them is kind of cute, but I’m not sure which one it is).
The reason I am pointing these things out is to make it clear that I am plainly not the demographic for the new Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen clothing line, Olsenboye. It’s all about girls, but we know what girls think about all the time so they got that word in there. Actually Olsenboye is apparently an olde Olsen family name and the immigration officer at Ellis Island probably dropped the -boye because it took another two seconds to write.
The “O” in the logo is a brush-stroked Aldermaston peace sign. But we’re not talking nuclear disarmament at J. C. Penney. It merely points to a “travel theme” with each season being inspired by the youth fashions of different cities from around the world.
“Mary-Kate and I watch current trends and see our partnership with J.C. Penney as an opportunity to add something unique to the marketplace,” says Ashley Olsen. The mix-and-match collection includes jeans, dresses, skirts, shorts, jackets, handbags, and shoes, and will retail from $20 – $50 with sizes ranging from 0 to 15.
“It’s very fun, fashion driven, trendy and wholesome at the same time,” Liz Sweeney, executive vice president of J.C. Penney, said. “It’s really important that Olsenboye serves lots of girls.”
Since the target demographic is “wholesome” girls, Olsenboye and J.C. Penney have geared their promotional campaign directly to them. This week in New York, they are promoting the brand with an Olsenboye “treat truck.” Customers will be able to be the first to purchase select merchandise and will receive a cupcake, balloon and pin. Oh My! They will then be asked to participate online by posting photos on the Olsenboye website of themselves in Olsenboye clothes. There will also be a huge push on FaceBook, Twitter and the jcp.com/teen website.
The Olsen girls get around. They had a line at Walmart that tanked, but they picked themselves up to sell two high-priced fashion lines, The Row and Elizabeth and James, to Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, respectively. And to put the icing on the cake, they were recently inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America (a rare achievement for celebrity designers, the only other one being Diddy/Puff Daddy/P Diddy/Sean Combs/…). Way to go girls.
