Bonding With India Hicks & Brooke Shields Over Tea
From left to right, India Hicks, Brooke Shields, and Aerin Lauder.
The first thing I learn about India Hicks, as she graciously helps me to a cup of tea in her dear friend Brooke Shields’ West Village kitchen, is that she and Brooke love to shop at Zara.
“It’s all Zara!” she exclaims when I compliment her all-white ensemble. “I went with Brooke on Sunday. We ran into Zara, and we bought exactly the same outfit. We said, let’s both come out together [wearing the same thing], it’ll be so funny. And then we got back here and I’m like, it’s not funny at all. I said, ‘Why would I want to be standing next to Brooke Shields in the same outfit?’”
For the record, Hicks, a former Ralph Lauren model, makes Zara look like a
million bucks. Shields is ready with a self-deprecating quip, “Yeah, I’m
the ‘before’ and she’s the ‘after.’”
“It was quite funny,” continues Hicks. “People kept saying to us, you look so much like Brooke Shields.”
“And then,” laughs Shields, “The woman at the cash register was like, but Brooke wouldn’t shop at Zara.”
But we weren’t there to talk about the duo’s fashion sprees. Hicks, who has had a successful career in licensing, working with partners like Crabtree and Evelyn and HSN, recently launched her very own eponymous lifestyle brand: vacation-ready scents, super soft scarves, and a smartly designed laptop bag (produced by the same company as Ralph Lauren’s), among other enticing goodies. But here’s the catch: Hicks won’t be wholesaling or opening a boutique—instead, the business is banking that women will sign up to host get togethers, like the one Shields hosted yesterday, where guests are invited to mingle and (hopefully) purchase products. Like a tupperware party, but better.
“[One of my business partners] said to me, ‘It’s a good idea, let’s launch a lifestyle company, but we’re going to launch it in a different way, we’re going to do it as a direct-sales model,’” explains Hicks. Her initial reaction was, “What? Like an updated Avon? But it just seems so weird!” Hicks, however, was won over when she attended a “trunk show” for Stella & Dot, another direct-sales company that focuses mainly on jewelry. “I just had a wonderful hour,” says Hicks. “I met women I would never otherwise have met, we shared a glass of wine, chatted. I took my mom, who is quite grand. And when I looked over and saw her trying on jewelry and trying to buy it, I thought, this is brilliant.” Part of what makes it so appealing, says Hicks, is that it gives women a chance to disconnect from everyday distractions. “There’s no phone ringing, no child screaming. You’re talking with other women, having a cocktail, tea.” Shopping, in other words, is fun again—not a chore.
Since then, it’s been “a very long and very sleepless journey” for Hicks. For the past several months, Hicks has been touring the United States meeting with the women who have signed up to host events, what the brand calls ‘ambassadors.’ “These women have partnered with me,” she says. “They’re not working for me in any way. They’re running their own business.” The brand sells a business builder kit for $399 and a starter kit for $119; they also offer ambassadors their own “microsite” off the main India Hicks website, which they can curate and customize as they see fit.
“It’s brilliant for the woman who needs to earn a living because there’s a considerable amount of money you can make from this business model,” says Hicks. But Hicks also thinks the “get togethers” will be fun socializing and networking events for women: “[It’s] for the woman who just had a baby and hasn’t talked to a grownup in ages, for the woman who moved to a new neighborhood and doesn’t know anyone.” The experience is almost as important as the product. “Obviously not everyone will be able to put on a tea like this,” says Hicks, gesturing to the gorgeous classic English tea set up displayed on Shields’ kitchen table. “But we’re going to guide people, tell them ‘put a white table cloth on the table, put an English rose at the center of the table.’ We’re going to help them curate the event as well.” Hicks is also encouraging her ambassadors to host these “get togethers” virtually, over phone chats or
Skype sessions.
It’s such a female-targeted business, that I have to ask if Hicks counts female-empowerment as one of the businesses aims. “Yes. Well, I don’t like to use the word ‘empowering’ anymore because over the past eight months I’ve met the traditional direct sales women, and they’re already strong, capable women,” she says. “There’s a different, fresh woman who is ready to come on board and I think direct sales has a little bit of dust on it that we need to blow it off. When you think about it, it’s a very exciting idea.” Indeed.
