Why Ivanka Trump has really closed her clothing line

The day after I learned that Ivanka Trump was closing her feminine fashion brand, I went to get her remains.

Trump's statement about why she was closing the line made no sense to me.

"After 17 months in Washington, I do not know when or if I will go back to the company," Trump said in a statement that she posted via the company. "But I know that my goal in the foreseeable future will be the work I'm doing here in Washington, so making that decision now is the only fair result for my team and my partners."

I decided to see for myself.

Finding the brand in San Francisco was not easy, even though this city should have been a perfect market for Ivanka Trump. The brand side of her brand was aimed at young professional women who might be receptive to her positive marketing message about "working women".

It was a brand that felt downright in the middle of the road – the dresses were priced around $ 130, the blouses were around $ 80, and the silhouettes were perfectly appropriate for a client whose life involves meetings from marketing strategy and rosé to happy hour.

Ivanka Trump imagined that her father's presidential campaign would increase her good sales for the brand in 2016, the year of the election. It was the year she constantly showed herself in front of the cameras in her own wares and urged the public to buy them.

But his task was a little more difficult when his father took office.

She was faced with questions of political ethics when her surrogate marketers, such as Trump's advisor, Kellyanne Conway, promoted her brand on television

Suddenly, journalists were digging into the practices of his brand and noted his dedication to the women workers. Ivanka Trump ran a clothing business that trailed behind her peers in terms of the working conditions of women workers at her factories abroad.

Suddenly, she was in the White House and the Americans were looking at her to "moderate" they considered cruel and inhumane policies led by her father – and boycotting her brand when she did not do it.

"I think Ivanka is like Donald in that she w," said Shannon Coulter, digital marketing specialist in the Bay Area and co-founder of the #GrabYourWallet campaign.

Since October 2016 , Coulter's campaign called for "big-hearted, fair-minded people" to boycott companies carrying goods from the Trump family. #GrabYourWallet is largely responsible for educating consumers about the retailers that they should pressure – or boycott – until they dropped the line.

Coulter told me that the boycott had become stronger than Trump's administration launched from In the wake of the (policy of administration) separating thousands of immigrant children from their parents, we have seen a new wave of people putting pressure on retailers, "Coulter said. Hate is bad for women "

The evidence of Coulter's statement was buried in the shelves at the back of the Macy's Union Square building. It is there that I finally found the Ivanka Trump dresses. They were mixed with dresses from Nine West, Vince Camuto and other companies better known for their shoes. But unlike the other brands in the sartorial section, there was no signage to identify Trump dresses.

I looked at the dresses. They have been clearly marketed to be ambitious. Each dress had a name: "Georgia Peach", or "Amalfi", or "Breezy". Each of them came up with a label listing all the aphorisms of Ivanka Trump. "The bigger the challenge, the greater the opportunity," they read. "Be bold, act deliberately."

Yet the dresses themselves were great challenges

They were sleeveless, as in the summer, but made of a heavy polyester blend fabric that could have worked only for the autumn.

to fit close to the body, which is a classic silhouette – but they were also designed with multiple shock tendencies. from among them had fabric cutouts held together with brass rings.One had a bright floral pattern and lace.A third had darts and a separate bodice

All seemed to want to hit my In a strange way, and at the price that these dresses required, I could have gone to J.Crew and got a semi-breathable fabric instead.

I'm posting this tour because, in the end I think the products are what sank Ivanka Trump.

She underestimated her client.Trump thought she could give lip service to working women while selling them ugly and forgettable clothes. Instead, she made it easy for clients to go elsewhere as soon as they noticed her actions.

This is an appropriate end for a woman who claimed to enjoy the bold and deliberate action of other women.

Quail Millner is a San Chronicler of Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected]