To receive the Glossy Pop newsletter in your inbox every Friday, click here.
All products featured on Glossy Pop are independently selected by our editorial team. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
LoveShackFancy, the 11-year-old brand known for its ruffled, bow-adorned dresses, has a new cohort of obsessed fans: sorority girls. The business picked up among the college-aged set in 2021, when #BamaRush became a thing. It was the advent of rushees chronicling their adventures — and outfits — while seeking membership in the sororities of their dreams.
At first, Rebecca Hessel Cohen, LoveShackFancy’s founder and creative director, was nonplussed when she saw the brand pop up in TikToks filmed at colleges. “I was like, ‘No, we can’t be a [brand for] college sorority girls. Remove them from online — this is ridiculous. Like, what is TikTok, and what are OOTDs?'” The brand’s typical shopper is 25-45 years old, but it proudly serves a multigenerational shopper base, Hessel Cohen said.
Flash forward, and Hessel Cohen started using TikTok this March and already has 167,000 followers — a tour of her New York City home with creator Caleb Simpson (8.6 million followers) went viral in July with over 41 million views. LoveShackFancy has been active on the platform since 2021 and has 340,000 followers. On Instagram, Hessel Cohen has 271,000 followers and the brand has 1.3 million.
Through a collaboration earlier this year, in April, between LoveShackFancy and Kendra Scott, Hessel Cohen came to see that the sorority girl fans of the brand weren’t all “mean girls,” she said, referencing stereotypes about sororities.
“What I’ve discovered, getting to know some of these college girls and sororities, is all the hard work, all the philanthropic things they do, and all the teamwork, professionalism, sisterhood. I’m like, ‘Wow, can you all come work for us?'”
The LoveShackFancy brand has evolved since 2021. “We didn’t really have product [variety] back then,” Hessel Cohen said.
But, a year ago, the brand entered the beauty industry, launching three perfumes that debuted at Sephora shortly thereafter. Since then, the retailer advised the brand to expand to the burgeoning body spray category. The result, to start, is a collection of three $42 Body & Hair Perfume Mists, which launched September 4. “They smell delicious and are sweeter than anything else we’ve done,” Hessel Cohen said.
“The body mist is a lower price point, [targeting] a younger demo. It’s a totally new category for us,” said Annie Taube, LoveShackFancy’s head of marketing. As the category’s launch date fell so close to New York Fashion Week and LoveShackFancy’s corresponding market appointments, on September 10, the brand didn’t want to do a New York City pop-up. Instead, the team decided to host a contest for sororities, announcing it via social media.
LoveShackFancy employees had seen dorm makeover content featuring its Pottery Barn collection and observed as sororities hosted LoveShackFancy-themed parties entirely of their own volition. They focus on an aesthetic centered on floral patterns, bows and lace. The demo can’t always afford or wear the brand, but, as Hessel Cohen put it, “LoveShackFancy has just become an adjective to them.” And they often get the look by buying the brand during a sale or through one of its collaborations — for example, with Stanley, State bags, Roller Rabbit or Target.
LoveShackFancy put out a call via a social media post shared across Hessel Cohen and the brand’s accounts to sororities to enter a contest to win a LoveShackFancy party and sorority house makeover, among other tiers of prizes. Within five days, the brand had received 1,239 responses, which it gathered via a Google Form — the form asked respondents about the size of their sorority, its values, philanthropy and goals, and why it deserved to win a LoveShackFancy party.
The brand considered the answers while “ensuring the sororities had a social media presence that felt aligned with our brand DNA,” said Taube, of the 39 sororities selected as finalists. Each has been sent the brand’s Mists. Now, they have a new challenge: to create a one-minute video about the new Body Mists. It’s off to the races.
Taube and Hessel Cohen have tapped some brand partners to help underwrite the contest. “This party, when we go to [the winning] sorority will be extremely expensive,” Taube said. The partners will also provide perks to winners of each tier. The 39 sororities that received the Body Mist assortment also received products from Sally Hansen and Laneige and cases of Saint James iced tea. Finally, the boxes included three LoveShackFancy mini skirts — specifically, the $225 Ruffle Mini Heritage Skirt.
The nine-page brief instructs participants on the dos and don’ts of the contest. For example: DO: create a video that showcases all three scents or choose to feature one of the scents that speaks the most to your chapter. DO NOT: wear clothing that prominently features logos of other brands. DO: tag @loveshackfancy and @sephora in your caption. Use trending sounds, “upbeat music that celebrates girlhood,” and big-time hashtags like #rushtok. (The hashtag has generated billions of views.) The hashtag for the contest, specifically, is #LSFMistContent, which has been used on 20 posts thus far.
In addition to the sorority that wins the party, two sororities will win Get Ready with Me Kits, including items like LoveShackFancy bathrobes, headbands and Body Mists. Finally, three sororities will win self-explanatory “Mists and Mini Packages.”
The winners will be announced on September 13, in tandem with the in-store launch of the Body Mists at Sephora.
Sales are not necessarily the goal here, according to the brand. After all, LSF’s general price point, at least for its apparel, isn’t exactly friendly to most college students. A “Campus Chic” edit featured on the brand’s site includes items ranging from $22 notebooks to a $1,295 pink leather jacket.
“I want to make sure we’re celebrating these incredible women who have done a lot to support our brand and been huge brand fans. I want to bring something special to them. I want to make them feel amazing,” Taube said, speaking to her goals for the contest. “I want to get them in our product — they love the brand. But also, I’m assuming we’ll have some amazing content.”
Inside our coverage
Exclusive: Cetaphil taps Katie Fang for its first influencer-fronted campaign
Inside YSL Beauty’s 8-day experiential retail activation in East Hampton
One-stop shop: How Botox and fillers made their way to the dentist’s office
