A British designer has revealed how the Princess of Wales’s support led to an ‘incredible’ surge in sales, allowing them to raise £15,000 for charity.
In the year after Kate’s wedding, market analyst Mintel estimated that the ‘Kate Effect’ was responsible for a £1 billion boost in public spending, and while the focus may now be on Meghan Markle‘s impact on fashion labels, Kate’s influence shows no signs of slowing down.
It’s a phenomenon supported by EARSASS founder, Sophie McGown from Perthshire, who revealed that when Kate wore the Issy star earrings – which tribute Sophie’s niece, 17, who died by suicide last year after battling depression – a global sales boom followed.
Sophie told FEMAIL: ‘My team member, Jaz and I were just like a little factory with all these orders coming in.
‘I still can’t believe that we got through all that, but we did. It was phenomenal, just the two of us and really put some incredible structure into the business to handle it and raise so much money for charity.
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EARSASS has raised £15 thousand for a mental health charity after the Princess of Wales wore one of their designs. (Pictured: Kate hugging Issy’s mother, Sarah Renton, in May last year)
‘Issy’s mum and Issy’s friends all came and helped us pack. It was just such a special time to keep Issy alive and her legacy, and she just went global’.
During a visit to Maidenhead in May, where Issy played rugby, Kate Middleton, 42, shared a sweet moment with Issy’s mother and Sophie’s cousin Sarah Renton, who presented her with the earrings and hugged her.
‘Kate was just so moved by it all, and just at the strength of the club,’ Sophie said in conversation with FEMAIL.
It was a meet that led to ‘mind blowing’ support from the royal, with Kate wearing them during a visit to Birmingham on World Mental Health Day 2023, which surged sales and led EARSASS to raise £15,000 for BraveMind charity.
Discussing Issy, Sophie recalled: ‘She had really struggled with her mental health especially in lockdown, and really battled through it.
‘So, for her age group, who were sucked out of their social bubble, and then [had to] just sit at home, it was just the most wrong thing… and that really did, obviously, impact her’.
‘She was the most incredible human I knew. She was definitely supposed to be somewhere else, and, on the 29 April, she took her own life after struggling for too long with her mental health and depression’.
‘It was horrible. It was just the worst time of our entire family’s life to get that phone call, and the night before, she’d message all of us, telling us how much she loved us.
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The Princess of Wales is seen wearing the Issy Star earrings at Factory Works in Birmingham last year
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17-year-old Issy (pictured) tragically took her own life after grappling with depression in lockdown
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Kate is pictured when she met Issy’s mother, Sarah Renton, in May last year and was presented with the earrings
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EARSASS designer Sophie McGown (pictured) is rebranding the company to focus on mental health awareness
‘It was just a really, a really, really harrowing time. And she was just our angel, absolutely in our family. She was just so supportive of everything. She was so supportive of me with EARSASS, and she came and helped me make earrings.
After the tragic loss, Sophie created the Issy earrings as a tribute to her niece, with five pounds of each purchase going to mental health charity BraveMind.
The level of support that the earrings were soon set to receive was completely unknown to Sophie at the time. She explained: ‘Kate came to Maidenhead Rugby Club, which is where Issy was an amazing rugby coach, plus a player. So is her mother, Sarah.
‘This was all part of the Shaping Us campaign that Kate and William are heavily involved in, which is about getting children into sport at a very young age, [because] they believe that that really shapes and helps their mental health.
During the visit to Maidenhead Rugby Club in May, the Princess of Wales shared a sweet moment with Issy’s mother and Sophie’s cousin Sarah Renton who presented her with the earrings.
The royal was visibly moved by her interaction with Mrs Renton, who coaches the under-14 boys at the club, and put her arm around the mother before giving her a warm hug.
Kate went on to wear the earrings during a visit to Birmingham with Prince William on World Mental Health Day last year, where they attended a summit focusing on the mental wellbeing of young people.
Sophie recalled: ‘On World Mental Health Day last year, she clearly waited and knew what she was going to do and wore them in honour of Issy, and we genuinely didn’t really think she would, you know, I mean, certainly not necessarily on that day.
‘We’d all kind of just thought, right, she would wear them one day, but it kind of went to the side, and then obviously it happened, and it was just mind blowing’.
‘For charity we’ve raised just over £15,000 now. The money is going into education. The charity is going in and educating people within the schools, rugby clubs, universities, and football clubs to spot signs, and they are doing suicide awareness courses with individuals, so they become a leader in suicide’.
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The Princess of Wales later invited the jewellery designer, who created the Issy Star Earrings (pictured on Kate) in memory of 17-year-old Issy Phipps, to her Christmas Carol Concert
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Issy, a budding rugby player who played for Maidenhead RFC, took her own life in April last year after struggling with depression
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Sophie, who designed a pair of earrings in memory of her niece Issy Phipps, revealed on X last year that she was invited to Kate’s Carol Concert
In light of World Mental Health Day on Thursday, EARSASS will launch the Issy Star in rose gold, marking a company rebrand, which will now focus around ‘supporting mental health’.
Sophie explained: ‘We’ve got all these amazing words and quotes that we’re going to be putting out, such as, strength. We want to have a dedicated page on our website with a toolkit. It will include links and support for people to be able to get the support.
‘We’re not saying that we are mental health professionals, but we’re going to structure [the brand] around where you can go to get support.
‘We will continue to support Brave Mind with the five pounds for every pair of earrings sold, which, we will continue to do’.
‘We’re just hoping that she [Kate] might wear them again. You know, it might be a tradition for her to do that now on World Mental Health Day, but we just don’t know, like we didn’t know last time.
In 2023, in another gesture of support to Issy’s family, Sophie was included in the very special guestlist at the Westminster Abbey Christmas carol service.
Posting a photo of her invitation on X at the time, Sophie wrote: ‘So completely and utterly blown away with emotion today when I was handed this incredible and very touching invitation to attend the Princess of Wales carol service this Friday, we are just so honoured by such a wonderful recognition of support.’
