The company that licenses Ivanka Trump’s fashion line has relabeled inventory without the First Daughter’s knowledge in order to sell the merchandise at a discount retailer.
G-III Apparel Group, the company that owns the rights to manufacture and distribute Trump’s line, has admitted to changing the labels on some items to Adrienne Vittadini Studio, according to Business of Fashion.
American discount retailer Stein Mart is selling the clothing under Trump’s new alias. Business of Fashion broke the story by posting photos of identical articles of clothing, some labeled as Trump and others with the Adrienne Vittadini Studio tag.
“G-III accepts responsibility for resolving this issue, which occurred without the knowledge or consent of the Ivanka Trump organization,” G-III said in a statement to BoF. “G-III has already begun to take corrective actions, including facilitating the immediate removal of any mistakenly labeled merchandise from its customer. The Ivanka Trump brand continues to grow and remains very strong.”
Adrienne Vittadini is in fact its own label and is in no way affiliated with Trump or her clothing empire.
Since the election of her father, Ivanka Trump-branded merchandise has been dropped from several prominent American retailers, most notably Nordstrom.
Stein Mart has received negative feedback from customers regarding Trump’s clothing line, with one customer spitting on a blouse in front of a cashier before storming out of a store, according to BoF.
However, the net sales of the First Daughter’s merchandise increased by $17.9 million in 2016, compared to 2015, according to G-III. “It could be argued that G-III was simply looking to protect the Ivanka Trump brand from being associated with a discount retailer,” BoF reported.
Trump recently canceled a tour to promote her upcoming book, citing concerns of government ethics rules. She has an office in the White House and is an official advisor to her father, so promoting a book could appear that she is using her government position for personal gain.
Perhaps she should have had Adrienne Vittadini write the book.