The Duchess of Cambridge was pictured wearing Seraphine’s Fuchsia Knot Front Maternity Dress for her first official photograph with Prince George. Soon after, the nation went into overdrive wanting to copy Kate’s post-baby look. Selling out within two hours of the publication of the photograph, the £46 dress was a hit with both expectant mums and new mums right from the UK to the US.
Forecasting £1.1m profit before tax for the year ending March 31 – a profit up from £0.25m a year earlier – the company has increased turnover from £5.2m to £8.3m.
“We were the only specialist maternity retailers that were seen to be dressing her [Kate] during her pregnancy which put us on the map,” said Chelsey Oliver, Creative Director of Seraphine. “The fuchsia Jolene dress was the really big cherry on the cake but we benefited from the overall message about who we were to the Duchess of Cambridge.”
Ms Oliver said that the Duchess of Cambridge’s style choices made her a role model as well as a style icon, “she was wearing a maternity brand post pregnancy and she was saying to the world, ‘I’m a real woman, I’m not jumping back into tiny fitted clothes’.”
Seraphine has three London stores and is planning to open a further two UK locations this year, as well as a New York store. A popular choice for A list celebrities such as Gwen Stefani and Jessica Alba, the company hopes to capitalise on the publicity of its celebrity following and hopes to grow a further 60pc in the next 12 months, with revenues predicted to reach £13m by March 2015.
