NEW YORK — You’ve read those “Fifty Shades of Grey” books a time or three. You know who you are.
Well, no need to skulk about at naughty shops or the hardware store as Fifty Shades of Consumption makes it further into the mainstream.
Stuart Weitzman and Marc New York have Grey-struck campaigns in the fat September issues of fashion magazines, the former touting black stilletos and high, Anastasia Steele-worthy boots called “Fifty Fifty,” named not for the blockbuster bondage books but equal parts leather and stretch.
“Stuart has always known that people just think shoes. They daydream shoes. They lust after shoes 24/7,” said Susan Duffy, Weitzman’s senior vice president of marketing. “It’s almost like ‘Fifty Shades of Grey.’ People want 50 pairs of shoes. It’s a love affair.”
EMI Music is feeling the love. It’s putting out “Fifty Shades of Grey: The Classical Album” next month in partnership with EL James herself, ahead of the British writer’s first visit to the Pacific Northwest locales where her hunky gazillionaire Christian Grey and his new-to-kink love interest dwell.
James let loose Monday with her first licensing agreements for a range of products in North America.
Coming soon: official Fifty stockings and garters and printed tights. Undies and jammies and robes. T-shirts and knit tops and hoodies.
Add those to a slew of parody books, many self-published, beauty giant Bobbi Brown’s new set of “Come-Hither Shades” for eyes in, yes, grays and marketing references and tie-ins for everything from iPad covers to bathroom fixtures. There’s even a critical reader’s guide, “Lighter Shades of Grey,” that counts the number of times Ana mutters “Oh, my.”
These days, we’re all Fifty Shades of something.
“We don’t always get a chance to connect our clients’ brands to current day entertainment or news. But when we do, tie us down and hold us back!” said David R. Schlocker, founder and president of DRS and Associates, a luxury marketing and PR firm in Los Angeles for architectural, interior design and building clients.
The company recently pitched “Shades of Gray” kitchen and bath decor, including a Laufen washbasin with seductive curves and edgy Graff faucets in a brushed nickel.
Grey-sessed consumers have kept the books atop best-seller lists for more than 25 weeks, shot pre-orders for the EMI album to the top of classical picks on iTunes and Amazon — and breathlessly lobbied online for their choices to play Christian and Ana in the movie.
Meanwhile, Town & Country magazine bares a teaser on its September cover, “50 Shades of Rockefeller,” for a story about a great-great-granddaughter of John D. and her new book, appropos of nothing more than the fresh-faced lexicon.
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