Bridgerton Creators Strengthen Collaboration with Fashion Brands

After the romantic series Bridgerton became the most-watched series in Netflix history last year and sparked a series of trends in the world of fashion and design, its creator Shonda Rhimes and the streaming service Netflix decided not to leave things to chance and to bolster the new season with some lucrative sponsorship deals.

According to the Business of Fashion (BoF) portal, Rhimes’ production company, Shondaland, and Netflix have signed a contract with the luxury footwear brand Malone Souliers, which is set to launch a line of shoes and fashion accessories inspired by Bridgerton ahead of the second season premiere. At the same time, the lifestyle brand Hill House Home has enhanced its Bridgerton collection with a new line of so-called ‘nap’ dresses, which are a unique design hybrid of nightgowns and romantic ‘everyday’ dresses. These dresses sold out ‘in seconds’ during the airing of the first season, as reported by the company, and they have no doubt that the same fate awaits the refreshed line that customers will be able to wear while munching on popcorn and watching the new romantic escapades of the English aristocracy from the early 20th century.

New Audience

As confirmed to BoF by Chris DiIorio, head of strategy and business development at Shondaland, they plan to connect with more brands and develop fashion collections and products that fall into the category of classic ‘merchandise’. This, of course, is not a new practice – fashion brands have always been a key sales generator for film and TV. For example, Tom Ford was responsible for styling Daniel Craig in the Bond films, which led him to launch an independent collection inspired by the wardrobe of the famous agent 007 that sold out in no time.

Shondaland formed a partnership in 2014 with the online store The Limited, which introduced a collection inspired by their series Scandal to the audience, while the reality TV show Love Island regularly collaborates with the fast-fashion brand I Saw It First. However, although this natural symbiosis between the film/TV industry and brands has not changed, the way the audience, especially younger viewers, consumes content has.

Traditional media, unfortunately, are losing the battle against new players like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney+ who fill their pockets with sponsorship money, but in return, they deliver excellent results. As BoF reports, this is confirmed by last year’s example of the series Halston, based on the life of the founder of the eponymous fashion house, Roy Halston Frowick.

Short Hype

Shortly after the premiere of the series, traffic on Halston’s website increased by 3,200 percent, while sales grew by 631 percent. The fashion house decided to launch a limited collection inspired by the series, with pieces priced between $945 and $1,590 sold at Saks and Neiman Marcus. The fashion house reported that they are thrilled with the sales results, as well as the interaction with fans through social media.

Halston’s experience encourages other brands to redirect part of their budget towards forming partnerships with streaming services, rather than relying on traditional advertising. The downside of this story is that houses like Netflix or HBO have taught viewers that they can find some hit series at any moment to indulge in.

The hype around a particular series lasts as long as it takes for a viewer to ‘binge’ one season and switch to a new title. Therefore, brands must wisely leverage the pop-cultural zeitgeist before one series is replaced by a new, potentially better hit. Shondaland stated to BoF that, in partnership with brands, they want to deepen their relationship with viewers, allowing them to immerse themselves in the lavish Bridgerton world even after finishing the series.

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