TikTok sensation Heidi D'Amelio back in New Orleans for Fashion Week: 'It’s all happened so fast'
/Influencer heads up 'First Family of TikTok' with Hulu show, music, clothes and millions of followers.
By Kimberley Singletary
Four years ago, Lafayette native Heidi D’Amelio was a stay-at-home mom enjoying typical family life with her husband, Marc, and two daughters — 15-year-old Charli and 18-year-old Dixie — in Norwalk, Connecticut, and planning regular family trips back to Lafayette and New Orleans.
On Sept. 21, however, D’Amelio will return to New Orleans on a solo trip with a different mission.
Tracee Dundas Baker, the founder of NOLA Fashion Week, is a longtime friend of the D'Amelios who helped with the launch of the family's footwear company.
Now the matriarch of a multimillion-dollar family recognized worldwide as the “first family of TikTok,” D’Amelio will be featured in multiple ways at this year’s New Orleans Fashion Week, thanks to a friendship formed with fashion week founder and creative director Tracee Dundas Baker back when D’Amelio was working as a model out of high school for an agency Baker owned.
On Thursday night, the former model will be walking the runway for Houma-based Indigo Boutique at Solari Orleans, an event venue on St. Charles Avenue. She, and all the models, will be wearing her family’s branded D’Amelio Footwear, from their women’s shoe company focused on marrying style with comfort, which launched in May.
D’Amelio will then be the main attraction at a public meet and greet promoting D’Amelio Footwear at Indigo Boutique’s newly opened third location at 1 p.m. Saturday at Canal Place. The event will feature a Champagne bar, red carpet and DJ.
Finally, D’Amelio will complete her fashion week presence by modeling at the New Orleans Fashion Week Designer Runway Showcase at Gallier Hall on Saturday night.
“It’s all happened so fast,” D’Amelio said of the launch of the new company, "but it’s been incredible.” She echoed the same sentiments about her family’s rise to fame and fortune.
In 2019, in the early days of TikTok, D’Amelio’s teen daughter Charli, a competitive dancer for more than 10 years, began using the app.
“Her friends had accounts, but she didn’t,” D’Amelio said. “They would ask her to learn a dance and teach it to them and she would and post it using their accounts. Charli then got her own account in May 2019, and her first video went viral in July. By the end of October, she had hit 1 million followers, which is when Dixie got on too. After that Charli was gaining 1 million followers a day.”
“All of a sudden, people were starting to reach out to us — heads of Disney and Nickelodeon and record labels,” Heidi D’Amelio said. “We went to so many boardrooms in New York and Los Angeles. It was wild.”
The whole family signed with United Talent Agency in January 2020.
“(UTA) saw us as a family doing something in this world, and Marc and I felt like if we did this as a family it would take some pressure off the kids," Heidi D’Amelio said.
Romaissa Platform Sandal from D’Amelio Footwear
Charli D’Amelio became the first person to surpass 50 million, and then 100 million followers, and remained the most followed creator on the platform until June 2022. Mom Heidi has a relatively modest 10.2 million followers.
All of the D’Amelio family has gotten in on the action, however. Older sister Dixie D’Amelio became the eighth most-followed individual on TikTok. The sisters have partnered on public service campaigns, released their own music, created their own podcast and lent their fame to multiple brands.
Last year, Charli D’Amelio and her mother made history as the first family members to compete against each other on the 31st season of "Dancing with the Stars." Charli D’Amelio ended up winning the dance competition show.
In a Kardashian-esque move, the family also stars in their own show on Hulu called "The D’Amelio Show," the third season of which was released Sept. 20.
Needless to say, wealth has followed. Charli alone is worth $20 million. This week, she and Dixie are at Fashion Week in Milan, Italy.
Meanwhile, Marc D’Amelio founded two apparel companies — Madsoul Clothing Co. in 2000, and Level 4 Collective Showroom in 2007, both to great success.
“The branding side, that’s Marc’s comfort zone,” Heidi D’Amelio said. “We all felt that owning our own brands is a way to create a life for us that is not dependent on the next brand deal. It’s ours from start to finish and it’s giving the girls an opportunity to learn about business.
Rayva Platform Heel from D’Amelio Footwear
"They’re 19 and 22 right now and we want to make sure that if someday they don’t want to do social media anymore, they have the freedom to find their passion projects."
For Heidi D’Amelio, however, this particular family adventure has allowed her to keep in touch with a treasured part of her past.
“We actually hired Tracee (Dundas Baker) to come to Los Angeles and help us book models and produce the show for the launch of D’Amelio Footwear," she said. "Just getting to bring her into something I am now helping to create was really fun."