Alexis Bittar regained his company after selling it to Brooks Brothers when the 206-year-old brand filed for bankruptcy in 2020. At the time, having rights to his name alone would have been money well spent. Instead, the designer revived his Lucite-based jewelry by redesigning new stores in new locations, adding categories such as handbags, and re-engaging the current and new audiences through clever campaigns.
The latter’s current push—which involves the quirky, lovable characters the designer and the brand always gravitated towards—has pushed the boundaries of the meaning of advertising and marketing with a cheeky narrative video series playing out on the tiles of Instagram. FashionNetwork.com spoke to Bittar about the viral campaign and how it has affected his bottom line.
A lot had changed in the industry during the six years Bittar took time off to raise his twins (who now have another sibling).
The print media world is now teetering on the edge of extinction, while traditional retailers feel squeezed as the rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands and distribution has become commonplace. Thus, the designer said he had to get his bearings on a new brand DNA.
“When I came back to the business, everyone was so sensitive, hypersensitive to pronouns, and it felt like there were a lot of rules,” Bittar said over a Zoom interview, adding, “I’m not an Instagram person, I hate it, and the phone is one of the worst creations. But I think the traditional fashion media marketing model was blown out unless you are a luxury house. It didn’t make sense to spend a quarter-of-a-million dollars on ad pages when everyone is addicted to their phones.”
While he may have rethought the vehicle, his approach was a similar vein, a bit of humor and a touch of social commentary, and all completely organic. (Past campaigns included iconic figures such as Joan Collins and Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley of ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ in a pre-internet era when these names had not made a comeback).
For this go-round, he began organically posting campaigns with topics and people that interested him, championing the first openly transgender model, Ines Rau, or activist Ericka Hart, bearing her double mastectomy.
His first developed character was Theresa, a vivacious and lascivious Coney Island broad in a bathing suit and deep tan, whose role is what he calls a ‘love letter’ to his hometown, New York.
“The city was still coming out of Covid and really beaten up; people were leaving. I wanted to show these amazing things about the city; she is one of them, living the dream in a Brooklyn parking lot. She was counterintuitive to ‘fashion,’ it was the opposite of elitism,” he continued, noting Theresa’s character addressed ageism, still portrayed as a sexual being.
“We don’t usually see an older woman as a three-dimensional person. It resonated with people,” he said.
To show another side of New York, the character Margeaux was born and played by friend, stylist, actor, and transwoman Patricia Black.
“She was a counterbalance to Theresa, to speak to a luxury customer; she is very ‘fashion’ but also an abusive Upper East Side shopping addict with an emotional IQ score of zero,” he explained. Thus, a skit was born around the character, which organically developed and was aided by the data and comments of the viewers.
(To date, the storyline has included several assistants whom Margeaux continues to call each Jules after the first assistant; another sued her for workplace abuse, winning several million dollars; Susan Sarandon appeared in some episodes after Bittar met her through his friend, her agent; other fashion and media characters such as Tamron Hall, Mel Ottenberg, Mickey Drexler, Coco Rocha, Connie Fleming and Kelly Cutrone have also appeared in the videos, lightly spoofing themselves).
Both characters harken back to an era, for better or worse, that no longer exists.
“They aren’t from today; the idea of them is 2005 or before. It’s not sanitized; they tell it like it is and aren’t controlling how they present,” Bittar surmised.
For the designer, it was a freer form of expression than is usually seen in today’s Insta-ready world.
“Before, I was more commercial because my business then was 75 percent with wholesale accounts in department stores. Today, I have more creative freedom and can have fun with it,” he added.
It isn’t to say it’s all fun and games; creating the segments is still an investment. His shoots with videographer Kayhl Cooper run just under $50K per shoot day (thus far, they have gathered the content in about five shoot days with at least as many planned for future content).
His in-house team has become a de facto film production team as Bittar, who also appears in some of the episodes despite never acting, comes up with the plot line as the series continues. Reviewing data and comments helps dictate where the story goes next. The running narrative has yielded some impressive stats, too.
Since the launch of Margeaux & Jules in December 2023, which runs on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, the brand increased its Instagram followers by 161%, with the majority of the uptick occurring in the first couple of months. According to a company spokesperson, the Alexis Bittar TikTok account increased 500%, and the brand conservatively estimates 16 million total views across all platforms.
The brand’s e-commerce has seen sessions up 41% YoY, and the store has also seen upticks in traffic since the series launch combined with other factors such as updated product offerings, newly designed stores, new website design, and increased press attention thanks to key moments at the Met Gala or Sarandon’s appearance in the series. In terms of the product, customers are gravitating towards larger statement styles seen worn by the characters.
With the next four months mapped out, Bittar says the series will focus on Jules carving out a new life post-abused assistant while Margeaux will find herself kidnapped by a group of Bushwick-based LGBTQIA+ radicals fighting gentrification, a plot line that is very au courant in New York City. (Margeaux’s husband is in real estate; thus, she is a perfect target of their ire).
The jeweler fantasizes about Michelle Obama—who frequently wears his designs—appearing on the Webby Award-winning series he describes as “a fashion telenovela that is equal parts ‘Little Britain’, ‘AbFab’, through the lens of Cassavetes’ ‘Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’ with a very New York sensibility.”
In any case, it’s clear Bittar is enjoying his newest creation. “I might as well have fun and enjoy it,” he said of the newfound marketing tactic, adding, “Down the road, this could be a proper TV show.”
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