Kendall and Kylie Jenner have issued a response to claims they haven’t been fairly paying their clothing line workers amid the pandemic. Curently, the Jenner sisters have been hit with another controversy surrounding unfair pay for clothing line workers.
Along with Kylie and Kendall, many other celebrities, including Cardi B, have been hit with claims that Global Brand Group, the company who own the clothing lines sold and marketed under their names, has left thousands of garment workers “starving” around the world.
According to a recent report, Kylie and Kendall have refused to pay their factory workers in Bangladesh, who create the garments for their Kendall + Kylie fashion line amid the pandemic. The fashion non-profit company Remake published the report that also claims that clothing makers would not be paid for garments made in February and March due to sudden drops in sales.
CEO of Global Brand Groups, Rick Darling, issued a statement, saying QUOTE, “Given the unpredictability of the situation, our retail partners have canceled orders, and existing inventory and product in production may have no sell-through. Consequently, we have no choice but to make the difficult decision to cancel all S/S 2020 orders from all suppliers (without liability).”
Remake fired back claiming that Global Brands Group does have a choice but the company is “just choosing not to implement it”. Global Brand Group’s decision resulted in more than 50,000 factory workers in Bangladesh and Los Angeles being left in a vulnerable position, some even at risk of “starving to death,” while others have lost out on receiving government assistance.
Furthermore, they also pointed out that those disproportionately affected by the pulled contracts are mostly “black and brown women who work 10-12 hour days and live paycheck to paycheck.” These women also live in “crowded urban dwellings and take congested transportation to get to work.”
Kendall and Kylie, who has since issued a statement to their official clothing company Instagram account completely slamming these claims. The statement read QUOTE, “We would like to address the unfortunate and incorrect rumor that Global Brands Group owns th Kendall + Kylie brand and that we have neglected to pay factory workers in Bangladesh as a result of th COVID-19 pandemic. This is untrue. The Kendall + Kylie brand is owned by 3072541 Canada Inc., not GBG. The brand has worked with CAA-GBG in the past in a sales and business development capacity only.”
Later, it goes on to say, “We know these are trying times for the fashion industry and garment workers as a whole, and we continue to support all of our partners working in factories who produce our products. We manufacture in countries all over the world and have not received any concerns from the factories who produce our goods.”