Move over, Kardashians. There’s a new family in town with a reality show on Hulu, endorsement deals and, now, a fashion brand. As Fashionista reports, last week, the D’Amelio family — mom, Heidi; dad, Marc; and TikTok-star daughters, Charli and Dixie — officially launch D’Amelio Footwear. It’s the first brand to launch under the family company, D’Amelio Brands, formulated in 2022.
“When this thing first started happening to Charli, we did a lot of endorsement deals,” Marc tells me over Zoom of his 19-year-old daughter’s TikTok fame. (Since 2019, she’s amassed 150.6 million followers on the platform.) “We were talking with a prominent footwear brand, and someone there was like, ‘You guys could take over the market.'” He enlisted his friend Lauren DiCicco, to help. She happens to be a veteran designer who oversaw Jessica Simpson’s footwear brand and worked on Vince Camuto’s namesake line.
D’Amelio Footwear isn’t the family’s first foray into consumer goods: Dixie and Charli have a fashion line at Hollister called Social Tourist and Charli has a fragrance, Born Dreamer, with Ulta. But this is the first one that’s 100% theirs. They set out to create a footwear brand at an accessible price point (from $80-$200) that the three women in the family actually want to wear.
For Dixie, who has a growing music career jumping around on stage, comfort is key. “There have been so many times where I’ve had to switch outfits and looks because the shoes are uncomfortable,” she says. “And I will not be uncomfortable.” Her favorite style out of the seven-piece line is the Camdon Platform Boot, which comes in three colors. In fact, she and Charli both wore the black platform boots at this year’s Coachella Music Festival. “You don’t have to break them in,” Dixie continues. “I wore them straight fresh from the box to Coachella for three days with no blisters. I’ve never had a boot like that before.”
Charli likes the Camdon Platform Boot but also the Marlania Platform Pump, Eyekonn Platform Sneakers, and Mayvinaa Platform Sandal. If it sounds like she can’t make up her mind, that’s not actually the case. Dixie says Charli has the “biggest opinions.” Even if DiCicco comes to the girls with a trending style on the market, Marc says, Charli isn’t afraid to nix it.
“‘I will never wear that in my entire life. They will not photograph me in that shoe.’ She will say that,” Dixie says, jokingly mocking her sister. “But I mean, that’s what you need,” Charli counters. “Someone who’s going to tell you what they don’t like. That’s how we make sure that we make good shoes.” Otherwise, mom and daughters mostly agree on what they like. And they tested out all the styles. For example, Heidi wore the Helenna Heeled Boot in Japan last spring and was able to pound the pavement in the block heel.
That’s not to say they sacrificed trendiness in the name of function. Many of the shoes come in what we’re now calling “Barbie pink,” a trend based on the upcoming “Barbie” movie, which Dixie says they didn’t see coming. “I know we wanted some color but it worked out perfectly because it feels like the year of pink,” she says. The blues in the collection also feel very current.
Heidi really wanted the line to not only get her daughters’ approval but also be a hit with all age groups. “The line, if we had to explain it to someone who hadn’t seen it, might sound a little all over the board,” she says. “But when you see it all displayed on the shelf, it tells a nice story. There’s something for everyone.”
As the D’Amelio Footwear brand grows, Charli and Dixie hope to see regular people wearing their shoes, not just their famous friends. “It’s just going to be cool to see college kids,” Charli says. “More than any celebrity. Obviously, that’s cool too, but I would much rather see someone wearing them to prom.”
For Heidi, it’s all about other moms. “You can wear jeans and a T-shirt but maybe elevate it a little bit with the platform heel and it’s just an easy go-to shoe,” she says. “But the girls are right. Seeing anybody wearing them out there in the wild is going to be really cool.”
Scroll through the full D’Amelio Footwear collection, out now on dameliofootwear.com.
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Photo Credit: DFree / Shutterstock.com