In Regency-era London, ladies of the ton—ladies of society—were dressed in imperial waist-length gowns. “Bridgerton’s” diamond, Daphne’s beautiful, restrained elegance earned her Queen Charlotte’s decree of “flawless”, while, unfortunately, the gauche Featherington daughters received only her scorn.

Daphne’s younger sisters, Eloise and Francesca, made their own fashion statement with chiffon collared dresses called chemisettes, while poor Penelope Featherington cut a chubby figure in whatever she wore.

Queenly wanted to give all their fans a taste of “Brigerton” and created the Fever Ball partnership with Netflix
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, acquiring regency-style dresses from admirers. These types of dresses are usually only worn once, so it was important to Queenly to promote circularity and ensure future Bridgerton Experience attendees have access to these types of dresses. Queenly has created a category page for attendees to reference. There’s also the Queen’s Ball: a page about the “Bridgerton” experience. All guests are given 15% discount codes to purchase Regency dresses at Queenly and resell them there after the event.

“You are invited to a once-in-a-lifetime night out in a Regency-style world,” Queenly said on its dedicated Queen’s Ball page. “Join us at a magnificent ball for a unique party of drinks, music, dancing and exuberant romance. Just as the Duke and Daphne found love in season one, watch the love story unfold before your eyes at the Queen’s Ball.”

Prospective guests are invited to step back in time and learn new Regency dance steps while interacting with actors dressed in period costumes. “The Queen is hosting this grand ball herself, so be on your guard because she’s going to be looking for her diamond of the night,” Queenly said. “Get ready to party like it’s 1813.”

The IRL event promises live music and signature cocktails like the Bridgerton-inspired Whistledown & Dirty and Lady Bridgerton.

The immersive experience includes set recreations and photo ops, opportunities to interact with actors dressed in elegant period costumes, learn group ballroom dances and introduce yourself to the Queen – all in the magical setting of a Regency ballroom.

There are also live theater and acrobatic shows and a love story told through dance as beautiful performers move through the enchanting ballroom.

“I always say that I learn a lot from my employees,” said Trisha Bantingue, Queenly’s co-founder and CEO. “I have a lot of younger Gen Z employees. Early last year I heard about the ‘Bridgerton’ show and I thought it was so cool and a good thing for Queenly because we’re a formal wear market.”

In March 2023, Queenly expanded into Canada, its first international expansion, after seeing strong demand/inbound requests from Canadian consumers on social media.

Queenly has seen 35x customer growth and 3x year-over-year gross merchandise value (GMV) growth since 2020.

To date, Queenly has racked up over 700,000 downloads across the Apple App Store and Google Play and has signed over 40 partners, including Mac Duggal, Terani, Portia & Scarlett and more.

Bantingue heard about the “Bridgerton” experience and attended it.

“I wanted to do some market research on the ground,” she said. “I asked people, ‘Where did you get your dress? I like the color.’ Nine out of 10 of them said they got their dresses from Amazon
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. It was disappointing because I could tell they were a bit more on the lower end – fast fashion, like Shein type dresses.

“I asked them, ‘Do you know of any other markets or any other sites where you can find dresses.’ They said, ‘No, it was very difficult to find Regency style dresses.’ A light bulb went on in my head,” Bantingue said. “I thought this would be a good idea to let ‘Bridgerton’ fans know that there are many more options for dresses and they don’t have to be expensive.

“It can be more sustainable,” Bantingue said. “I started reaching out to ‘Bridgerton’ and I finally gave myself to the right person to partner with. Big corporations are really slow. Last month we were able to sign the contract and get this live.”

“A lot of Regency style dresses come from costume sources,” Bantingue said. “Guests who are full of their character’s Regency-style outfits had to get them. All these participants buy dresses to wear only for this event. Afterward, she will have nowhere to put her clothes on. We’ve started a campaign with ‘Bridgerton’ and Fever to make sure they understand that they can make this more viable by reselling on the platform after that.”

The average cost of a dress on Queenly is around $200. The median is pulled by “really expensive dresses that are sold on Queenly,” Bantingue said. “I believe 15% of our sales are over $1,000. There are $2,500 beaded couture dresses or wedding dresses.”

Pinks and pastels are very popular colors for dresses. “It’s a multifaceted thing because we have Barbie,” Bantingue said. “Last year red was the most popular. This year it’s a lot of bright pinks, bright yellows, and then we’re starting to get into the Barbie core with fuchsia. I see our brand catering to many current trends and what the Gen Z audience wants. We can present ourselves more as a social commerce platform rather than a B2C site. We want to stay very close to our customers and what they like and enjoy right now.”

While Barbie has been criticized for not being a feminist role model for young girls, Bantingue said there is hope for the next generation of doll owners. “There are some Barbies that came up, like the first Filipino doll, which is a doctor. I hope that our platform on Queenly which offers more variety of different dresses will promote [diversity and inclusion]. We started in 2019 from my personal experience. I was actually an emancipated young man at the age of 17, I realized that there were not many resources for me.

“My financial aid for college was maxed out to the point where every financial advisor told me to just give up and go to college,” Bantingue said. “I did a lot of research and discovered that election organizations are one of the biggest scholarship holders of women in this country. I never in a million years imagined myself competing in a pageant. I only knew about it from ‘Miss Congeniality’, Sandra Bullock. I felt I had to go to school, I had to get this degree. I ended up competing for about eight years and it was crucial for me to pay my school fees.

“That’s when I started to realize how difficult it is to find a dress and what happens to the dress after the event,” Bantingue said. “I researched the prom industry, the wedding industry, everything related to formal wear. There really wasn’t a satisfactory platform to serve that vertical. I decided to create this specifically for that vertical for girls and women, who deserved better. The goal was to democratize formal wear.”