A Chanel 2006 off-the-runway gown worn as a beach coverup. Loewe Squeeze bags. A plethora of Jacquemus sunnies. (And two custom looks Jacquemus hand-delivered to Koh Samui.) If you’re a luxury brand selling in 2025, odds are, you’re going to make a cameo on The White Lotus, taking place this season in Thailand.
The HBO hit, now in its third season, follows groups of wealthy vacationers as they spend a week trying to escape real life at a luxury resort. The premiere on 16 February drew 2.4 million views, up 57 per cent on season two (and 155 per cent higher than season one). Plus, in the 36 hours post-premiere, the episode grew its initial audience by 90 per cent to 4.6 million viewers, according to HBO. These numbers are expected to climb as the storyline progresses, as in past seasons, making it a prime opportunity for brands to get in front of audiences, even if this season’s critic reviews have been less than glowing.
This season, brands are coming in hot off-screen, as many launch collaborations with Warner Brothers/HBO — from Abercrombie’s graphic staples to Kiehls’s travel-friendly gift set and Banana Republic’s forthcoming capsule collection. It’s an embrace of “fashiontainment”, says Meena Anvary, Banana Republic’s head of marketing. Costume designer Alex Bovaird even launched a resort collection with H&M, modelled by Gabbriette in a series of paparazzi-style shots. “Warner Brothers did a lot of partnerships this year to celebrate the cultural reach of the show,” Bovaird tells Vogue Business. “I was excited that H&M saw the value of collaborating with the costume designer so that we could work side-by-side.”
The show is one of few that manages to permeate the cultural conversation, making it uniquely valuable for brands. “The White Lotus represents an increasingly rare phenomenon in this era of endless choice and hyper-personalised algorithmic recommendation,” says Beth Bentley, founder of brand strategy consultancy Tomorrowism. “It’s one of our few remaining mass entertainment moments with the power to create at-scale, shared anticipation and mass simultaneous eyeballs.”
But what happens when a show predicated on satirising (and critiquing) the ultra-wealthy — and the sheer excess of its characters — engages in mass consumption in this way? Even when audiences love to hate the characters, brands worn on-screen still reap the benefits (as seen with everyone’s favourite ‘love to hate’ leading lady, Emily in Paris). But lower end collaborations that exist entirely outside of the show’s universe save for a White Lotus-printed tag are surely a harder sell — especially when there are too many to count.
This disjuncture isn’t as antithetical to the show as it might seem. “This is The White Lotus’s MO, isn’t it?” Bentley asks. “This show always finds ways to make viewers complicit in the very things it criticises. These product collabs could be the most ingenious version of that yet: turning critique into commerce in ways that both undermine and reinforce the show’s core themes.”
An affordable in. But is it desirable?
As viewers, we’re made to want what’s on screen — even if the characters are anything but aspirational. But is mere association via a mass collaboration enough to drive sales?
For some, yes. Many of the H&M and Abercrombie pieces are already sold out. In Bovaird’s view, these collaborations offer viewers a realistic way into a show they enjoy. “The collection aims to blend all that opulence and wish fulfilment into dreamy pieces so that we can all feel like a million bucks,” she says. “You can wear the total looks with our accessories, or you can pair the bikini top with a pair of jeans. We want to give everybody a The White Lotus moment,” she says.
But how many White Lotus moments do viewers need? As far as brand-screen collabs go, we’re at risk of oversaturation. In fashion Substack Magasin, writer Laura Reilly asked: “Did you guys watch The White Lotus? I mean obviously. But did it make you want to buy anything from the collabs that have come out… ? No? Maybe 10th time’s the charm.”
This season is verging on overkill, experts agree. It’s, in part, down to the timing. The season two partnerships that happened after the fact — Skims casting Italian actresses Simona Tabasco and Beatrice Grannò for Valentine’s Day, Elf Cosmetics’s work with Jennifer Coolidge — felt smarter because they unfolded after the public watched and connected with the narrative, Bentley says. For season three, the onslaught occurred before the premiere even aired. “It’s the commodification of the anticipation, rather than response,” she adds.
Proof of concept
In this vein, brands that first appeared in The White Lotus universe — and saw success IRL — are now creating their own spin-offs.
Australian resortwear brand Camilla was first featured on the show in season one after the costume team visited the brand’s Los Angeles boutique. In season one, Coolidge’s Tanya McQuoid wore the label. In season two, Camilla dressed a slew of vacationing side characters, and even designer Camilla Franks made a cameo: “When I was on an ‘inspiration trip’ for my upcoming collection in Italy, I was invited on set to be part of the fabulous party scene with some of my team, which was surreal.” Creating a White Lotus collection timed to this season was the natural next step, Franks says.
The same goes for luggage brand Away, which was featured throughout the show’s prior seasons — from Belinda’s navy Latitude Tote (season one) to Portia’s pink sticker-covered suitcase (season two). Key is that while the marketing is tied to the show, the products aren’t loudly branded as such. “This collection is full of timeless pieces that stand on their own, whether you’re a fan of the show or not,” says Christine Gallagher, VP of integrated marketing at Away. The raffia textures and Saffiano leather could be a non-branded collection, she notes — the only explicitly White Lotus detail is a hidden lotus flower lining.
These tie-ins feel authentic because the brands have already been in the show (or are this season); both even hired The White Lotus illustrator Lezio Lopes to collaborate on the collections, injecting more of the show’s DNA into the products.
Audiences want to buy into that which they’ve seen in the show’s universe. Just look back at Jonathan Anderson’s sell-out “I Told Ya” T-shirt, designed for Challengers and made and sold by Loewe for $330. When a brand or item exists in the universe of a show, audiences want to buy into it. The slogan tee works because it’s straight out of the film’s universe: Anderson outfitted the Challengers cast and is the creative director of Loewe. The Loewe tee isn’t branded as a ‘Challengers’ collaboration — but if you know, you know.
Banana Republic is banking on this screen-to-closet pipeline. The brand’s season three appearance — worn by Parker Posey’s Victoria — generated lots of chatter online. The dress sold out shortly after the episode aired. Now, there’s an entire collection on the way, dropping 6 March (said dress not included). Can a White Lotus-adjacent collection match the impact of a one-off tee that’s pulled directly off of Zendaya and Josh O’Connor’s backs?
It can if it appeared in the show first (as Banana Republic did), because it has narrative legitimacy, Bentley says. “They’re already part of the show’s universe, so when they break the fourth wall to create shoppable collections, they’re not appropriating or approximating White Lotus’s aesthetic. They are White Lotus’s aesthetic.” It’s the difference between earned versus engineered cultural credibility, she says.
Stick to The White Lotus universe
Some brands prefer not to do anything beyond the silver screen. Perhaps this is the best strategy: stick to the world of the show, release no official collabs and let the clothes speak for themselves. Based on past seasons, they’ll sell.
This was Clio Peppiatt’s approach when the designer’s glittery dresses appeared on Tabasco and Grannò. (They went viral.) “There wasn’t really a built-in marketing strategy behind it,” Peppiatt says. “I guess, like the best marketing, something just happens naturally and creates an impact, and people can feel how genuine it is so it creates an even further impact.” She’s feeling the benefits once again with the new series release, as audiences revisit season two, she adds.
It’s a tried and true ‘non-strategy’. When audiences managed to source Merz B Schwanen’s $105 white tee that Jeremy Allen White wears in The Bear, buzz ensued. “Any brand who thinks they make the perfect white T-shirt should be kicking themselves for not being on Jeremy Allen White,” Michael Scanlon, chief creative officer of creative studio Chandelier, told Vogue Business.
Brands see the merit. Off of last season’s successes, getting brands on board is relatively easy, Bovaird says. “The costume design in season two got a lot of coverage and was talked about, so by the time we did season three, mostly everyone we reached out to wanted to play.”
What’s key for Peppiatt is that the dresses that were featured weren’t new designs, but pieces released about four years prior (that were still for sale). Sales for both styles were up majorly following the season. “Regardless of when a piece was released, it’s new to the potential customer seeing it for the first time,” she says. “The show really did that — it exposed the brand and those dresses to a global audience through everyone’s favourite show.”
This season, Jacquemus took a different approach, designing two custom looks for The White Lotus. Designer Simon Porte Jacquemus reached out to Bovaird on Instagram after season two wrapped. “His team were very inspired and they created a really cool and exceptional collection of clothing for me to try in the fittings,” Bovaird says. The brand hasn’t done any marketing beyond the show.
An on-screen appearance can help grow a brand’s reach for the long haul. “The response we got globally from being featured in the previous seasons of The White Lotus blew my mind,” Franks continues. “The impact goes far beyond sales. It introduced a global audience to Camilla and to resort dressing.” Similarly, Thai heritage brand Jim Thompson, known for its silk kaftans and linen dresses, is relaunching its US website, banking on the feature as a boost, Bovaird notes.
An entertainment-focused collection, on the other hand, is a quicker hit, signalling cultural know-how and capitalising on media buzz. “It’s [a] collaboration between two global brands during an entertainment ‘moment’ with strong alignment, dedicated fans and a distinctive aesthetic,” Franks says.
After last season’s success, Peppiatt isn’t ruling out a White Lotus collection in the future, but she’s not sold on the idea either. “I think sometimes you can lose the organic magic of these kinds of features when it starts to feel too strategised, or too much like a sales opportunity,” she says — before adding, “never say never.”
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