LONDON – It took 45 seconds, but it was enough.
Newborn Prince George, carried from the hospital to the royal car, appeared in a cotton swaddle with the tiny birds on it. Mums-to-be around the world wanted to know: Who are you wearing?
The answer shows what it is like when a small company gets swept into the maelstrom of attention that comes from touching the golden hem of the House of Windsor.
Once the photos of the swaddle hit the Internet, style bloggers and fashion writers identified the would-be king’s new clothes as being from New York-based aden + anais. Within four hours of George’s appearance, the website crashed. The next day, the site crashed again. In nine days, the company had 7,000 orders – a 600 percent increase in sales on that item.
Raegan Moya-Jones, the chief executive of aden + anais, was about to start a meeting when a colleague brought in the picture. She couldn’t believe it.
“I thought it was Photo-shopped,” she said.
The company is still digging out from under a pile of orders for the swaddle, part of the Jungle Jam pack of four that in Britain costs 44.95 pounds ($68).
The average daily visits to its site were off the charts: In Britain, they were up 1,960 percent; in Australia, up 892 percent; in Japan 791 percent and in the U.S., up 458 percent.
So just be prepared to wait if you want to similarly swaddle your little prince or princess. Jungle Jam is sold out for now in Britain and the United States. Desperate swaddle searchers can find them on the company’s Australian site if they hurry. Shipping fees are extra.
And there’s a factory run from China of 10,000. So hold on.
Fashionistas follow Kate’s every move. Every blouse, shoe and bag the future queen of England wears is fodder for style bloggers and a money-spinner for retailers.
She’s been democratic about it – choosing stuff that is accessible to the average person and supporting British products in a big way.
And now there’s George, who isn’t even wearing clothes yet but has managed to get blankets out the door. And it isn’t just the ones from aden + anais. Little George first appeared in a white crocheted blanket from G.H. Hurt & Son of Nottingham, England. They are swamped with orders, too, after photographers zeroed in on the firm’s label, blew it up and posted it on the net.
Moya-Jones, a native of Australia who started in the swaddle business because she couldn’t find what she wanted in stores, didn’t anticipate the royal wave. Even though aden + anais has wrapped the babies of celebs like Beyoncé, the spotlight that turned on her company with Prince George was altogether different.
After all, her privately held company isn’t huge – founded seven years ago, it has 65 full-time employees and about as many part-time staff members.
And then there’s the shock factor – even if it was a happy shock. The company didn’t send the royals their product and expect them to use it. That’s just not done.
Moya-Jones only learned after she saw pictures that Kate reportedly picked out the muslin swaddle personally at a London store.
“That’s the nicest thing,” she said. “At the end of the day, the duchess is a first-time mum, like all of us once were.”
