The partnership to end all partnerships.
Elle's Véronique Hyland cited what made Reformation choose to make Monica Lewinsky the face of the campaign as "the universal jaw drop of her name coming up."
This collaboration has so many layers… let's just dive right in.
Firstly, Reformation's new workwear collection laid the foundation for a natural partnership between America's most famous intern and the brand. Instead of having a model or an influencer who - let's face it - does not exude workplace/professionalism/corporate-America vibes, the Reformation team chose someone whose name speaks for itself. I'm only 23 years old, which means I wasn't even born when she and President Clinton had their affair, and I know her name. This leads me to my next point.
Secondly, Hyland explains that "Lewinsky is someone many Gen X, millennial, and Gen Z women see as a personal hero." I was taught about this scandal in school, but I also grew up seeing her become a #MeToo icon. I grew up seeing her transform her story while helping other women.
Reformation is a very young brand tailoring to millennials and Gen Z consumers. As a member of Gen Z and someone who just got her first post-grad job (yay!) I, alongside people my age, just now have the kind of funds and necessity to buy high-quality workwear. Making this collection already an instant success. The cherry on top? Having 50-year-old Lewinsky reach Gen Z and millennials, while Reformation plays a major role in her iconic rebrand. Killing two birds with one stone! I saw a TikTok by @lydiarosehawken, who says this partnership was the last piece to the puzzle of "her rebrand from Bill Clinton's mistress to modern-day feminist icon."
Thirdly, Lewinsky has since made a difference in the world of women's empowerment and public shaming. I listened to the TedTalk Hyland cited, which had made Lauren Caris Cohan, Reformation's chief creative officer, a fan of Lewinsky almost ten years ago. In it, Lewinsky deep dives into her public humiliation of 1998. When her "parents feared that [she] would be humiliated to death… literally." She stressed how social media and the internet brought many good things, like virtual connection, but also bad things, like cyberbullying. It made me think that maybe Lewinsky is one of the first cases of Cancel Culture? The world praised one party and dragged the other.
She ended her TedTalk by explaining why she chose to tell her story now: "Because it's time. Time to stop tiptoeing around my past, time to stop living a life of opprobrium, and time to take back my narrative." She encourages other victims of public scrutiny that "you can insist on a different ending to your story." This partnership is a great demonstration of her doing just that.
I also read her Vanity Fair exposé from 2018, "Monica Lewinsky: Emerging from "the House of Gaslight" in the Age of #MeToo," where she revisited her account of 1998 and how it was affected by those around her: "I've lived for such a long time in the House of Gaslight, clinging to my experiences as they unfolded in my 20s and railing against the untruths that painted me… an inability to deviate from the internal script of what I actually experienced left little room for re-evaluation; I cleaved to what I 'knew.'"
Fourthly, this has made Reformation the brand on everyone's lips. This partnership is genuinely so iconic that I bet very few people ever thought this was possible. I have loved seeing Lewinksy take back her name and her story. This is simply iconic. Full stop.
Lastly, Reformation and Lewinsky aren't the only people in this collaboration. Reformation partnered with vote.org for the third consecutive election to encourage people to vote. Glamour's Stephanie McNeal explains that this partnership is "to launch a new workwear collection—all with the goal of getting voters to the polls." To add to the perfection that already is this collaboration, Lewinsky made herself a name in Washington DC and politics (definitely not in the way she wanted or expected). She explains the importance of voting: "That's where our power is."
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