After the well-documented ‘Kate effect’, now comes the ‘coronation effect’. British designer Claire Mischevani, whose dresses were worn by Pippa Matthews, the Princess of Wales’ sister, and Akshata Murty, businesswoman and wife to Rishi Sunak, has experienced her busiest phase in two decades courtesy of the King’s coronation. Her website currently opens with a disclaimer to that effect. ‘Following the overwhelming success of the outfits worn at His Majesty The King’s Coronation, there will be a short delay in the delivery of our orders.’
‘I’ve slept five hours since last Friday,’ she tells Grazia, ‘It’s the craziest of times.’ But Mischevani is in good spirits, and rightfully so. Business is booming. So much, in fact, she and her team have had to postpone their bank holiday for the foreseeable, ‘We’ve got 500 emails that haven’t even been replied to yet. We’re running out of fabrics and the enquiries from all over the world keep coming through when we thought it would all stop by Sunday.’
She’s gained more than 2.5k new social followers, while her best-selling styles are the two seen at the coronation, costing £1,095 (Pippa’s Anais coat dress) and £945 (Akshata’s Alexandra dress). It’s been a rewarding experience, but also a nerve-wracking one. ‘You can tell your client how to avoid creasing and how to pose for the best picture,’ she explains. ‘But you’re not there in person to dress them and make sure everything fits nicely. I was glued to the telly but so proud when it all came together the way it did.’
Mischevani isn’t the only one to benefit from the coronation-effect. Jane Taylor, the milliner behind the headpiece worn by Penny Mordaunt, as well as the ones seen on Pippa Matthews, Akshata Murty, Lady Louise Wilson and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, has seen a similar success. ‘We have been inundated with emails, messages from our website chat feature and messages on Instagram, resulting in a rise in sales’ she tells Grazia. ‘We reached 425k accounts over the coronation weekend which is huge for such a small company like us.’ Google searches spiked for Safiyaa, the brand responsible for Mordaunt’s teal coronation ensemble, and high street giant Karen Millen, too, saw an uplift in sales for its belted midi dress seen on ex-PM Liz Truss and previously worn by Kate Middleton.
It was certainly an economic success for the brands involved. As Mischevani puts it, ‘It’s overwhelming but very exciting.’