At the core of Boll & Branch’s industry leading bedding products are its luxurious fabrics, made out of the finest 100% organic cotton. When The Costume Institute revealed that the 2024 Met Gala theme would be Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, it sparked an audacious idea to bring our fabrics to life in a new way and showcase Boll & Branch’s material excellence on a grander scale. What better stage than the Met Gala to turn a bed sheet into a red carpet gown?
To make our debut in the world of high fashion, we partnered with designer Prabal Gurung, an esteemed creative who similarly embodies Boll & Branch’s values around sustainability, design excellence, and impact. With Prabal’s repertoire of showstopping looks, we knew he’d be the perfect partner for Boll & Branch’s first red carpet moment. Together, we transformed Boll & Branch fabric into an atelier gown worn by tennis legend Maria Sharapova.
Said Prabal, “Normally for Met Gala moments, we use silks and duchess satins. Boll & Branch has the most luxurious, finest cotton that I've ever seen and touched. I grew up in India, so finding a cotton fabric made in an exceptionally luxurious way felt like the chicest expression of this theme and a beautiful way to tie-in our values.”
The Met Gala creative campaign was an opportunity for Boll & Branch to create a historic brand moment anchored around two key goals: generating organic brand awareness for enduring impact and elevating the brand.
This first-of-its-kind activation brought together fashion, home, celebrity, and culture, pushing the boundaries of what a traditional brand partnership looks like. First, we needed to make the dress. Then, we had to tell the story of Boll & Branch’s historic partnership that put bed sheets on the red carpet for the first time ever.
Both posed unique challenges. How were we going to transform a fabric that we hadn’t even brought to market into a couture gown, and how could our storytelling inspire a new perspective on Boll & Branch’s sheets?
The creation of the dress, made exclusively out of our newest Summit Supima fabrication, involved lockstep coordination with our farmers in Texas, factories in India, and Prabal’s studio in Manhattan. Prabal was one of the first people to experience Summit Supima’s unparalleled smoothness and luster, and the collection proved to be the perfect canvas for his artistic expression. He drew the most exceptional characteristics out of the finest natural material on earth, and we watched with the world as our Boll & Branch x Prabal Gurung gown made its debut with Maria Sharapova on fashion’s most glamorous stage.
At the intersection of clothing and bedding is fabric, and we honed in on showcasing Boll & Branch as the purveyor of the world’s best.
PR WEEK: HOW A GOWN CREATED FROM BEDDING FABRIC MADE IT TO THE MET GALA
TOWN & COUNTRY: PRABAL GURUNG AND MARIA SHARAPOVA ON HER “FAIRYTALE MET GALA DRESS”
HOME TEXTILES TODAY: HERE’S HOW BOLL & BRANCH ENDED UP ON THE MET GALA RED CARPET
The final marketing activation was anchored around three strategic pillars:
1. Content:
Boll & Branch utilized our in-house creative team to develop video content showcasing the end-to-end design process and dress reveal, which set up the main moment with rich context across all channels. These assets, shared across both Boll & Branch and Prabal Gurung’s platforms, highlighted the artistry behind the gown and fabric, and the behind-the-scenes moments of this special collaboration.
2. Social Activations:
We launched a “Get Unready With Me” social campaign, where 15 of our influencer partners shared their wind-down routines while showcasing custom Boll & Branch x Prabal Gurung sleep masks. This creator-driven moment allowed us to generate social conversation and build momentum around Boll & Branch in the lead up to the final dress reveal.
3. Product Integration:
We wanted to create a fully integrated product experience at The Plaza, which is where Prabal Gurung housed all of his talent. We did a full takeover of Maria Sharapova’s hotel suite, outfitting it in Boll & Branch bedding and bath, and directly partnered with her to create content that bridged the glamour of her gown with the comfort of our bedding, amplified across organic and paid channels.
Boll & Branch also leveraged this opportunity to launch our most luxurious collection to date, Summit Supima, which Prabal used for Maria’s gown. We dropped early access sheet sets for purchase and gifted units to VIPs for a seeding moment ahead of launch.
The brand partnership was incredibly successful at driving brand awareness of Boll & Branch. At large, we were able to drive $1.85M in earned media value across press coverage, social posts, and influencer content. Through this campaign, we generated 33 press stories in top-tier publications, a 658% WoW increase in social impressions, and a 930% WoW increase in social engagement.
This impact extended to our ecomm experience. We witnessed a traffic spike during the Met Gala; our hourly sessions after 6PM were 20-30% higher than the previous week. We also saw material impact to new customer acquisition with this campaign, generating a 17% lift in organic new customers week over week.
Our campaign ushered a new frontier of brand relationships and coverage, showcasing its effectiveness in elevating the Boll & Branch brand. We were able to secure press exclusives in Town & Country and Glossy, additional coverage in publications like WWD, Business of Home, and Elle Decor, and organic social mentions from leaders in the fashion space.
Boll & Branch’s pursuit to leverage this cultural moment was transformative. The campaign successfully elevated our brand to the world stage and enabled us to reach new audiences, in a way that was completely unexpected and uniquely ownable.
