A DRESS designed by a famed Irish designer sold out yesterday – just minutes after Kate Middleton was seen wearing it.
The Duchess of Cambridge wore the ‘Birdie’ dress at a school visit in Oxford, and photographs of her appearance caused a frenzy of traffic to the designer’s website.
Within minutes all stock of the ‘wool jacquard shirt dress’ – which was on sale for half price, at £162.50 (€193) – had disappeared from the London-based designer’s online store.
Although the dress remains listed on the website, no stock is available in either of the two colours in which it is produced.
Middleton is closely watched for her fashion style, and regularly prompts copies of her clothes to surge in demand – in a phenomenon known as the ‘CopyKate effect’.
Similar effects have been recorded in the United States, where the popularity of certain clothing surges whenever First Lady Michelle Obama is seen wearing it.
