Image courtesy of hotnewhiphop.com
Fashion designer Rachel Roy somehow manages to keep her name in the papers. Whether it is allegedly being “Becky with the good hair” in one of Beyonce’s songs, or the subject of a fight between Solange Knowles and Jay Z, or her courtroom battle to take back her fashion brand from Jones NY, Rachel Roy is always making headlines.
Rachel is making news this week as ex-hubby Damon Dash is pursuing a fraud lawsuit against Rachel Roy and her company, Rachel Roy Brands. Dash claims that Rachel Roy has been hiding “stacks of cash” that are rightfully his. Dash contends in his fraud allegations that Rachel Roy “manipulated, diverted, misappropriated, transferred, concealed and embezzled funds.”
Damon Dash was a co-founder of Rock-A-Fella Records with Jay Z and Kareem Burke, later serving as Jay Z’s manager. When Rachel Roy founded her fashion company in 2008, she was still married to Damon Dash, and according to Damon Dash he owned shares in her company.
Dash further contends that as a shareholder in his ex-wife’s fashion company he was owned royalty payments of $175,000 in 2014 and over $200,000 in 2015, the sums of which he was never paid. Dash claims that Rachel Roy got around paying these royalty claims by underestimating profits and filing misleading statements about her company’s value. Dash is also suing a host of accountants, lawyers, and others who he claims conspired with Rachel Roy.
Image courtesy of fashionweekdaily.com
The Union has it
Hearst executives have finally met with members of the Union Organization Committee and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE). Hearst staffers and the WGAE contend that Hearst has been involved in staff intimidation and union busting by suppressing the labor rights of some staff members at Hearst. These allegations came to surface in December 2019 and since that time the National Labor Review Board (NLRB) has been called in to investigate the claims.
On Tuesday, some Hearst execs has a positive meeting with the Union Organization Committee and the WGAE; still, all parties are waiting for the NLRB to schedule a meeting for an election to unionize. The Hearst Media Union filed for an election in December, expecting an election to take place in January. However, Hearst executives claim that The Hearst Media Union is not a legitimate union organization.
Image courtesy of dailyfrontrow.com
Trouble for FIT
The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) has come under scrutiny. The fashion industry and many fashion fans have expressed outrage at FIT’s MFA Fashion show, presented during New York Fashion Week (NYFW), in which one of the MFA design graduates (Junkai Huang) presented a collection with models wearing bulbous lips, wooly eyebrows, and monkey ears.
Some fashion industry professionals felt that Huang’s caricatures were reminiscent of Miuccia Prada’s 2018 controversial and racially insensitive, golliwog keychains. One black model, Amy Lefevre, staunchly refused to wear the racially insensitive gear, walking in only Huang’s garments. “As soon as I saw the pieces, I started shaking. I felt it was very racist,” Amy Lefevre, 25, told TODAY Style. “I made it clear that I was uncomfortable.”
FIT President Joyce F. Brown weighed in on the incident, “Regrettably, we failed in this instance to recognize a creative statement that could have negative consequences. There is no room for error, which can be interpreted as racism, homophobia, religious intolerance or any kind of bigotry.”
Image courtesy of cnn.com
Bye bye China
In less than two weeks, Old Navy will be exiting China. Old Navy will close all of its 10 stores, six which are in Beijing on March 1. The Chinese online retail store Tmall has already stopped selling Old Navy merchandise and products.
The decision was made to close Old Navy stores in China so that its parent company, The Gap Inc., can concentrate on stores in North America. Plans to exit China was announced by The Gap, Inc. in November 2019. Old Navy opened its first stores in China in 2014.
Wiliam S. Gooch
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