Thursday, April 27, 2017

Ivanka Trump Re-Labelled As Different Brand

G-III Apparel Group - the company which owns the license to distribute Ivanka Trump's eponymous fashion label - has revealed that it has been re-labelling product from the first daughter's namesake brand with a different designer tag to sell on to an American discount retailer. The pieces, which were labelled as Adrienne Vittadini Studio, were sold to chain Stein Mart which has over 290 stores in America.

“G-III accepts responsibility for resolving this issue, which occurred without the knowledge or consent of the Ivanka Trump organisation,” a representative for G-III told BoF. “G-III has already begun to take corrective actions, including facilitating the immediate removal of any mistakenly labelled merchandise from its customer. The Ivanka Trump brand continues to grow and remains very strong.”

The motivations for the label swap is unclear, however two main theories have emerged. Firstly, that G-III may not want the Ivanka Trump label (from which the first daughter has stepped down) to be associated with a discount brand (as many high-fashion labels find it damaging) and therefore would prefer to sell the surplus stock anonymously; or secondly, that it was trying to avoid any negative feedback about the brand which has proved divisive since Trump's father became president. Stein Mart CEO D Hunt Hawkins, however, said that the relabelling was not politically motivated.


“We’ve had both labels for a while," he said. "We may see more Adrienne Vittadini in the short term. I’ve had an equal number of customers say that they don’t want and do want the Ivanka Trump merchandise in the store. If we get it, we get.”

While Adrienne Vittadini is a label in its own right (although not owned or licensed by G-III), it is not known if it is aware of the swap having taken place, according to the BoF's research.

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