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Ivanka Trump brand responds to Nordstrom: Success is about ‘integrity,’ not just ‘profits’

#GrabYourWallet is the new “grab them by the…” well, you know.

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner at the Freedom Ball, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner at the Freedom Ball, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci

In the aftermath of reports that Nordstrom would no longer sell Ivanka Trump’s clothing line due to falling sales — which may well have taken a hit due to the #GrabYourWallet campaign, which encourages those who oppose President Trump’s policies to boycott all Trump businesses — Ivanka’s brand has issued a response.

The original news, broken by Racked on Thursday, was that Nordstrom planned to drop all Ivanka Trump branded wares from its shelves. Nordstrom did not cite politics in its statement, instead chalking up the decision solely to the brand’s lousy performance. (Nordstrom did not speculate, in its comment, as to why the brand was performing so poorly.) A company spokesperson told Racked, “We’ve said all along we make buying decisions based on performance,” and that of the “thousands of brands — more than 2,000 offered on the site alone,” approximately 10 percent get cut each year and replaced with other goods. “In this case, based on the brand’s performance, we’ve decided not to buy it for this season.”

The Grab Your Wallet campaign was launched in October by Shannon Coulter and Sue Atencio. What started as a Google spreadsheet of Trump-affiliated retailers grew into a standalone website, GrabYourWallet.org. On Saturday, Nordstrom announced on Twitter, in response to an inquiry from Coulter, that the retailer would continue to sell its remaining Ivanka Trump merchandise until it runs out.

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Here is the official response from an Ivanka Trump spokesperson:

The Ivanka Trump brand continues to expand across categories and distribution with increased customer support, leading us to experience significant year-over-year revenue growth in 2016. We believe that the strength of a brand is measured not only by the profits it generates, but the integrity it maintains. The women behind the brand represent a diverse group of professionals and we are proud to say that the Ivanka Trump brand continues to embody the principles upon which it was founded. It is a company built to inspire women with solution-oriented offerings, created to celebrate and service the many aspects of their lives.

Meanwhile, Neiman Marcus has quietly stopped selling Ivanka Trump luxury jewelry. Two days ago, Neiman issued a statement that, like Nordstrom’s, it was dropping the line due to failing sales:

Neiman Marcus has a very small Ivanka Trump precious jewelry business which is comprised 100 percent of consigned merchandise (merchandise owned by the vendor). Based on productivity we continuously assess whether our brands are carried in stores, on our website, or both.

Ivanka has not commented on this news on any of her personal social media platforms. Her latest tweet, from three days ago, is a video of her daughter singing a song for the Chinese New Year; the tweet before that is the much-derided photograph from Jan. 29 of Ivanka with her husband, Jared Kushner, decked out for a black tie affair. She posted the “date night” picture as protestors rallied at airports across the country in response to her father’s executive order banning refugees from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States. The photo, much like Ivanka’s eponymous clothing line, did not perform well.