Initiate: Style Sense

Dear breast cancer marketing leaders and related product/web/experience designers, 

BOY are you missing out on properly targeting a stylish gal like me. You do know that 1) Raquel Welch is not within even the first 1,000 of my personal style icons, 2) I willingly spend hundreds of dollars every other month on hair coloring and styling to stay on-trend and 3) I've avoided dumpy bucket hats like the plague even WHEN they were popular!  

So... What. Are. You. Doing?

I've decided, just this once free-of-charge 😈, I will provide you with some invaluable guidance on new *design principles* you might consider employing if you'd like to capture more wallet share from the depressingly growing market called women diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 40. 

Think: wigs, hair scarves and head wraps, loungewear, mastectomy bras, all packaged and consumable goods within self care and healthy food categories... I could go ON.

1. COLOR IS THERAPY

Chemotherapy robs women of enjoying basically all of the scent therapy they love most due to the way it triggers nausea (farewell my beloved lavender oils, pink grapefruit candle, and luxury laundry soap). Which is why when confronting pounds of medical therapy, women find themselves hunting for every possible pick-me-up. So when it comes to color, WHY have you not yet evolved past pale pink since starting the ribbon campaign? 

Don't get me wrong, I live for blush pink in my home decor (it's basically my go-to neutral). But when it comes to wearable colors, it seems you are completely unaware that chemotherapy patients struggle with skin changes as unfortunate as turning grey and yellow!? Newsflash: baby pink is NOT a helpful shade to offset the problem. 

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for now and assume you're just in need of a little inspiration, so here you go:

• Liberty of London - masterfully skilled at ditzy prints, color combinations, and pure feminine cheer
• Dolce & Gabbana - the Sicilian-inspired campaign ('nuff said), florals for days, unadulterated joy
• Hermes - scarves that warrant their own pop-up shops, prints so beautiful you want to frame them

So take some cues, invest in design, and stop depressing me worse than the adult diaper section of my local pharmacy.

2. HAIR SCARVES & WIGS IS A WHOLE VIBE

True fashion icons dating back to the 1940's, 50's, and 60's basically wrote the book on pulling off a stunning head-covered look so chic it stops traffic. So it's not like you haven't had ample time to pick up on it. In my humble opinion, you're missing a major point here: the cueball-head problem shouldn't be attacked as a wig OR a head wrap -- it's a whole look solution we require. Again, take notes.  

Sophia Loren taught us how to look hotter than an arrabbiata meatball. Gotta shell some out extra credit points, too, as both she and the inimitable Audrey Hepburn figured out how to pull off the two-for-one head & neck cover combo with ease, straight wrappin' it back like a boss. 

  

Then, of course, was the image that most likely came to mind when I brought up the subject (if you were raised on black and white classics like I was): Grace Kelly. This is when you are reminded that sunglasses, earrings, and a strong red lip can heal just about anything that ails you (or at least your feelings on the inside). 

And yet still today women are presented with boring, dated wigs and sad, basic turbans. You've clearly missed the memo.  So that's gonna be a rock hard pass. 

Anthropologie gets it. Of COURSE Dolce gets it. But even H&M gets it. So get with it. 

3. SURE WE'RE PRETTY SICK, BUT WE STILL WANT TO BE PRETTY WHILE SICK

You seem to have forgotten while targeting us breast cancer patients that we were much more vibrant and effortlessly beautiful before being pumped full of drugs trying to literally KILL OFF some of our insides. Just because we're sick does NOT mean we want to give up on looking our best. It's just harder. 

It's obvious that appealing to our emotional brains was left somewhere on your cutting room floor. Otherwise these would not be the first products I'd hit on Google when searching simple phrases like "chemo scarf", "chemo wig" or "chemo beauty". So very disappointing and -- dare-I-say it -- tone-deaf.  

 

As for me, I've decided I'm stepping into my personal nightmare with a few worthy muses and fashion moments in mind that I intend to channel. I suggest you add these to your style inspiration board yourselves. 

Final thing I'll add: Consider this a warning shot from the bough. I have an MBA, a big Italian mouth, and a platform I'm not afraid to use to fill this market gap myself. I just have this little issue called getting healthy in my way. 

So step it up or I'm stepping in.  ✌