NEW YORK — You’ve bought rope for that special someone, picked up a few sex toys and read those “Fifty Shades of Grey” books a time or three.
Well, no need to skulk about at naughty shops or the hardware store as Fifty Shades of Consumption makes it further into the mainstream.
They lust after shoes 24/7,” said Susan Duffy, Weitzman’s senior vice president of marketing. “It’s almost like ‘Fifty Shades of Grey.
Stuart Weitzman and Marc New York have Grey struck campaigns in the fat September issues of fashion magazines, the former touting black stilletos and high, Anastasia Steele worthy boots called “Fifty Fifty,” named not for the blockbuster bondage books but equal parts leather and stretch.
“Stuart has always known that people just think shoes. They daydream shoes. They lust after shoes 24/7,” said Susan Duffy, Weitzman’s senior vice president of marketing.
They lust after shoes 24/7,” said Susan Duffy, Weitzman’s senior vice president of marketing. “It’s almost like `Fifty Shades of Grey.
It’s putting out “Fifty Shades of Grey: The Classical Album” next month in partnership with E L James herself, ahead of the British writer’s first visit to the Pacific Northwest locales where her hunky gazillionaire Christian Grey and his new to kink love interest dwell.
The steamy “Fifty Shades” trilogy tells the story of 22 year old recent college grad Anastasia Steele, who enters into a dominant/submissive sexual relationship with 27 year old sexy billionaire Christian Grey and both explore the world of BDSM (bondage, dominance, submission, masochism).
While James goes about remedying that geographical blip on her resume, she let loose Monday with her first licensing agreements for a range of products in North America.
Add those to a slew of parody books, many self published, beauty giant Bobbi Brown’s new set of “Come Hither Shades” for eyes in, yes, grays and marketing references and tie ins for everything from iPad covers to bathroom fixtures.
There’s even a critical reader’s guide, “Lighter Shades of Grey,” that counts the number of times Ana mutters “Oh, our.”.
Schlocker, founder and president of DRS and Associates, a luxury marketing and PR firm in Los Angeles for architectural, interior design and building clients.
The company recently pitched “Shades of Gray” kitchen and bath decor, including a Laufen washbasin with seductive curves and edgy Graff faucets in a brushed nickel.
Grey sessed consumers have kept the books atop best seller lists for more than 25 weeks, shot pre orders for the EMI album to the top of classical picks on iTunes and Amazon — and breathlessly lobbied online for their choices to play Christian and Ana in the movie.
Meanwhile, Town & Country magazine bares a teaser on its September cover, “50 Shades of Rockefeller,” for a story about a great great granddaughter of John D.
Trojan, the condom guys, had hundreds lining up for free vibrators last week on the streets of Manhattan, using “pleasure carts” like the ones for selling hot dogs.
The crowds were so big the city shut them down temporarily, until the company procured the proper permits.
While Trojan has been selling vibrators since 2009, first quarter sales this year — around the time the Fifty books hit it big — were up about 14 percent from the same quarter a year before, according to Nielsen.
“Thanks in part to the rise of pop culture hits such as ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ and ‘Sex and the City,’ many consumers are looking for products to help add some spice and increase the pleasure within their relationships,” said Bruce Weiss, vice president of marketing at Trojan.
He then tweeted later that day, “we are NOT discriminating Matt Bomer because of his sexuality. Fifty Shades of Grey demands an actor that is genuinely into women. Get it?!? and followed with “we think Matt Bomer is incredibly handsome and a good actor but we think he comes off totally gay in White Collar.
This is what Simon Reed, 28, knew about that as he waited patiently for one of the purple vibrators with about 400 other people in Midtown: “our girlfriend sent us.
“The Fifty phenom has also filled up Etsy with bondage crafts and is keeping Grey maniacs at Pinterest busy. At Amazon, “Laters, Baby” wall decals with a handcuff motif are on sale, honoring one of Christian’s fave farewells (stolen from his brother).Wendy Ong, EMI’s vice president of classics in the US, hasn’t seen this kind of action in forever.”.
Who would have thought classical music and ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ you know.
It’s a stretch, right, but it’s actually a great partnership,” she said. “It’s amazing in this day and age for these books to be causing so much interest in classical music.
Says James in the announcement: “we are thrilled that the classical pieces that inspired us while we wrote the Fifty Shades Trilogy are being brought together in one collection for all lovers of the books to enjoy.”.
“Not all classical music, mind you. The download and CD due out Sept. 11 on Capitol Records (owned by EMI) includes 15 tracks featured in the books, including the obscure “Tallis: Spem in Alium” by The Tallis Scholars, as in Chapter 25, Book One.The recording as a single download climbed to No. 1 on iTunes in July for classical music in the UK and US.Robert Pattinson hasn’t read the books and told a crowd at Comic Con he would probably just lick the pages if he tried, but the newly solo actor showed up in a few shades of gray for the New York premiere Monday of his new movie, “Cosmopolis,” and again to ring the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange.Coincidence, maybe. R Patz was in Gucci, but bespoke tailors Norton & Townsend back home in the UK came up with a line of menswear in Fifty friendly shades of generous grey, guilty pleasure grey and gentle grey.As for rope, one of Manhattan’s largest and oldest hardware stores, Garber Hardware in the West Village, noted a 10 percent uptick in sales from about March — soon after the books took off — to July, compared with the same period a year ago.”.
Anecdotally speaking, it would certainly be reasonable to attribute that to the Fifty Shades phenomenon,” said Nathaniel Garber, the great great grandson of the store’s founder. “we’re looking at our rope department right now and it’s half empty, and it’s been like that for the past few months.
“Hmmmm.Grey, by the way, should rethink his choice of rope — in the first book he requests five feet of natural filament during a trip to the hardware store where Ana works. Garber recommends a 12 gauge, non braided nylon. “It’s soft.
Non braided is also easier to tie,” he said.Sales are roof raising for Babeland since all things Fifty took over. With three adult toy stores in New York, one in Seattle and a website, co founder Claire Cavanah reports a 40 percent boost in business, with eye popping increases for bondage toys.”.
Attendance at our free events where we offer sex tips for turning fantasies into reality based on the sex scenes in Fifty Shades of Grey has been overwhelming,” she said.At the first one, in Manhattan in May, 125 people showed up rather than the usual 25 to 30, Cavanah said. More than 400 signed up for a second event at the company’s Brooklyn location. They added another session and stayed open two hours late to accommodate the crowd, she said.Fifty has also been very, very good to Dana B. Myers, co owner of the website Bootyparlor.com and wholesaler to about 400 sex shops around the country.”.
We’re hearing everything from 26 to 32 percent increases in sales in the last three months,” she said.Among her biggest Fifty driven sellers: the Good Girl, Bad Girl package sporting a blindfold, feather spanker, feather whipper and wrist cuffs, all in “animal friendly” leatherette.”.
Anna Street is a business journalist based in London, UK. Anna has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Anna spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.
