‘LuLaRich’ Takes Comedic Look At Collapse Of A Business Empire Built On Leggings – Contenders TV: Docs + Unscripted

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Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason have become pioneers in a new genre within the true-crime category, something they call “true comedy.”The directors/executive producers earned an Emmy nomination for their 2019 documentary Fyre Fraud, about the luxe music festival that turned hilariously bad.

Their latest docuseries, LuLaRich, from Amazon Prime Video, takes a comedic look at the rise and fall of LuLaRoe, a clothing company known for leggings that featured pizza slice prints, grinning pineapples, bespectacled canines and other fanciful designs.Contenders TV Docs + Unscripted — Deadline’s Complete CoverageLuLaRoe was founded by DeAnne and Mark Stidham, a couple steeped in the ways of multi-level marketing – businesses set up like Amway and Avon that sell direct to consumers.“They started in their garage and they had to keep expanding and expanding until they had all their inventory out in a parking lot, which led to it being infested by mold and some of the aromas described in the film,” Furst explained as he, Nason and fellow executive producers Blye Faust and Cori Shepherd Stern appeared at Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted event. “I think it’s a perfect metaphor for ‘bigger is better.’ ”The Stidhams recruited mostly women to sell the apparel out of their homes, dubbing these agents “fashion consultants.” In true multi-level marketing manner, the consultants were urged to sign up other recruits.

Each new recruit paid startup fees to LuLaRoe and had to buy thousands of dollars in inventory, which, oftentimes, they couldn’t unload.“Multi-level marketing is a legal form of a pyramid scheme, essentially,” Nason said.