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Is Black Friday living the dream, or a nightmare?
For smaller retailers, the year’s biggest shopping day presents a new set of challenges
While underwear is the core product for Stripe & Stare, Katie Lopes’s company, its loungewear was suddenly in demand during lockdowns, bringing new challenges
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
Appearing on a list of Oprah Winfrey’s “favourite things” at the beginning of the biggest shopping month of the year should be a dream come true. Yet for Katie Lopes, the founder of Stripe & Stare, a British brand selling knickers and loungewear, the plug from one of America’s biggest celebrities induced a bout of anxiety.
This month the talk show queen waxed lyrical on her Oprah Daily website about the brand’s lounge pant and sweatshirt set: “I have three of these sets in green, three in pink, three in white. And now I’ve added three more. I wear them as pyjamas. I work out in them. I wear them all the time.” The resulting surge in orders ahead of this week’s Black Friday sale
