Flip through a typical fashion magazine today, and you’ll find headlines like “Why I’m Cheating on My Husband” or “I Planned an Orgy with My Best Friend. It was the Most Liberating Experience of My Life” and even “Is Having a Baby in 2021 Pure Environmental Vandalism?” But a huge swathe of young women in this country, many of whom consider themselves conservative, find this woke, hyper-sexualized approach to the world a big turn off.
Jayme Franklin, 24 and Isabelle Redfield 23, decided to do something about this.
The Conservateur was founded by trendy San Francisco residents two years ago. It is an alternative platform for women who feel left behind by the mainstream style bibles. Their site, which offers stories under verticals like “Style,” “Beauty,” “Politics” and “Faith,” has so far amassed more than 30,000 followers on Instagram. The Conservateur stands out from other conservative websites which are usually disguised in camouflage or aimed at men with its stunning photos and sleek design.
“There are so many conservative women who are just not represented by the likes of Vanity Fair, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Glamour. People are rejecting it, and they’re coming to us,” Redfield said.
“Our main components are faith, freedom, family and friends. We’re concentrating on uplifting young women. We want to be builders, not wreckers.”
The Conservateur presents its stories in the same punchy and provocative style as Cosmopolitan, but with headlines you’ll never see in a fashion mag, such as “Abortion Empowers the ‘Patriarchy’,” “Sex Is No Longer Sacred,” and “Shopping on the #BidenBudget.”
“The Abolition of Women,” a story that argues against the current notion that gender is a concept and states that “women are not men, and men are not women,” would set fire to the hairstyles of the collective Condé Nast workforce.
In the summer 2020, the idea for the site was first born. The two had just graduated college (Franklin from Berkeley, Redfield from Southern Methodist University). They were living together and interning in Washington, DC (Franklin at Senate, Redfield at White House).
“We were both fashionable girls, but we couldn’t read Vogue anymore,” Redfield said. “Everything was just going so left, and we were so turned off by it. We felt their content was very toxic and harmful for young women and realized that conservative women needed an outlet. So we ditched our [magazine] subscriptions and got to writing.”
The founders said their site primarily attracts college-aged girls — plus a lot of interested mothers — mostly from Dallas, New York and DC, who are craving a refuge from the woke fashion world along with some smart political commentary. Redfield claimed that her Instagram account is flooded with thousands of messages by fans who believe in the mission.
The Conservateur staff has grown from a core team consisting of four people to 15 contributors since its inception. Franklin and Redfield said they are overwhelmed by the number of applications from college-aged women wanting to help. “We can’t even keep up with the applications,” Redfield said. “It’s unbelievable. They’re all fantastic girls.”
As they look towards the future, Redfield and Franklin, both still living in DC and employed by Laura Ingraham and Fox News respectively, would like to make their project a full-time career and branch out into different mediums like podcasting. They’re also continuing a lucrative business selling their hot-pink Make America Hot Again hat, which Lara Trump recently modeled. And they’re planning to post profiles on influential women in the conservative movement, such as South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who might run for president in 2024.
Redfield is bullish about their prospects, declaring: “We believe we’re the new frontier of the conservative movement.”
Rikki Schlott (22 years old) is a student, journalist, activist and journalist.
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