IT’S A SHOE-IN
Every step Gigi and Bella Hadid take turns to gold for the brands they wear
WHO needs fashion ads when you have Gigi and Bella Hadid?
While the sisters — 23 and 22, respectively — are no strangers to starring in major campaigns, even an off-duty endorsement from the duo can be enough to send a brand’s sales skyrocketing.
Just ask Australian shoe label Senso. When the sisters wore two different designs from the company within the same week — Gigi a stretchy red bootie ($156), Bella a satin mule ($134) — sales of both styles saw unprecedented spikes.
“We had a huge amount of visitors that week — like, quadruple the normal [amount],” Senso’s general manager, Imogen Meller, one of three sisters who works for the family business, tells Page Six. “We had 100 pairs in stock of those boots, and [even] if we had 1,000 pairs we could have sold them in a day.”
To that end, Senso is currently on its fourth round of restocks for both Gigi and Bella’s styles. “We’ll keep continuing to fill the pre-orders until the hype dies down, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon,” she adds. “Hopefully!”
The first step to getting that coveted Hadid seal of approval? Sending eye-catching designs to the sisters’ stylist, Mimi Cuttrell — although actual placement is never guaranteed, since Senso (unlike many fashion brands) does not pay influencers to wear its products.
And for a brand that, like Senso, is not particularly well-known in the US, that celebrity support is crucial, since social media can only do so much to boost exposure for a smaller label.
“It’s become harder [to get noticed] lately since Instagram’s changed [its algorithm], but that’s where I think these girls are sort of stepping in now,” Meller explains. “I feel like they’re sort of taking over in that respect, and they have this power to just
put a spotlight on a brand.”
That’s putting it mildly: Gigi’s support boosted Senso’s US sales by 350 percent and its Canadian sales by 150 percent. Meanwhile, Bella — who wore the brand’s bow-topped heels during Milan fashion week — helped reel in international shoppers.
“We had new customers in Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia [and] Asia,” Meller says. “People follow them all around the world.”
The Hadids are so good at selling stuff, in fact, that not even Meller herself is immune: She wound up purchasing the same pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans Gigi wore with her red Senso boots.
“I did the same thing all our customers do!” Meller says with a laugh.