The company that owns the right to manufacture and distribute Ivanka Trump's clothing line has been secretly relabeling garments as "Adrienne Vittadini Studio" and selling them to discount retailer Stein Mart, The Business of Fashion has learned. The relabeling occurred "without the knowledge or consent of the Ivanka Trump organization," a spokesperson for the distributor, G-III, said in a statement. It isn't immediately clear if Adrienne Vittadini was aware its labels were being swapped into the Ivanka Trump line.
Relabeling designer items for sale in discount stores is a normal, legal practice in the fashion world in order to protect brand names from being associated with less high-end stores. G-III could have theoretically been attempting to protect the Ivanka Trump brand, but with major retailers including Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus dropping the Ivanka Trump line, claiming weak sales, G-III might have possibly been trying to avoid associations with Ivanka Trump's name instead. "According to a source within Stein Mart, the retailer has received negative feedback from customers regarding Ivanka Trump products, with one customer spitting on a blouse in front of a cashier before storming out of a store," BOF reports.
Stein Mart's chief executive said the relabeling wasn't about politics. "We've had both labels for a while. We may see more Adrienne Vittadini in the short term," he said. "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."
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