Edie Parker Is Changing How Cannabis Is Marketed to Women

In her new line, Flower by Edie Parker, founder Brett Heyman brings the high-style look the brand’s fans have come to expect of its chic accessories and housewares, except this time, it’s to objets d’cannabis. As detailed in Forbes, the launch delivers “a haute head shop” to Edie Parker’s flagship boutique on New York’s Upper East Side, where Oscar de la Renta, La Perla, and Laudree are neighbors. 

A California native and longtime cannabis user, Heyman wanted to make cannabis accessories that were as coveted as her vintage-inspired handbags, which are clutched on the red carpet by celebrities like Kerry Washington and Zooey Deschanel. Her cheerful, pop art-inflected cannabis collection is “finally bringing fun, a cheeky sense of humor and a much-needed sartorial mindset to a new generation of cannabis smokers,” she told Forbes.

A Sea Change In Cannabis For Women?

Edie Parker is the first high-end fashion brand to enter the multi-billion dollar cannabis market, and its particular positioning toward women is unique. Cannabis has been primarily marketed to women as a “wellness” product — think bath bombs, beauty products, and sleep aids — a method of #selfcare Goop would approve of.

CBD, in particular, with its non-psychoactive effects, has been marketed as an entry point for the cannabis-curious. With so many brands clamoring to reach this segment of women, the market has grown quickly crowded with hues of rose gold and pink, artisan chocolate and healthy cookie edibles.

“Every brand is tripping over themselves to offer wealthy soccer moms a CBD gummy,” as Kimberly Dillon, the CMO for Papa & Barkley Holdings, told AdWeek.

But such a singular focus on solely marketing CBD to women leaves huge segments of both the cannabis and the consumer markets ignored, she said.

“CBD is a huge opportunity to introduce people to the magical powers of the plant, but we have to be cognizant not to do it at the expense of the 70-plus other cannabinoids like THC that we are only just starting to understand the various benefits of.” 

In other words, Dillon clarified: “This means we have a huge opportunity to speak to women who want and use cannabis. Not CBD, but cannabis.”

That segment of women may well be the ideal Flower by Edie Parker shopper, particularly if she’s unfazed by dropping $65 on a pearlescent matchbox or $295 for striped coasters. The brand has also partnered with Flow Kana to release three strains of private label flower with names that sound like mashups of a 1950s Better Homes and Garden Cookbook and an Andy Warhol: Cherry Cheesecake, Pineapple Rising, and Banana Jam.

For a brand that’s all about pretty things that make you feel happy, the products seem like a good fit and natural product line extension. As a way of marketing cannabis to women, it’s a new — and possibly winning — strategy for the high-fashion and deep pockets segment who, like Heyman, live by a Cyndi Lauper-like ethos.

“Yes, cannabis holds plenty of medicinal properties,” Heyman told Fast Company. “But the world feels kind of dark right now, and I really want to just have a good time.”