G-III switched Ivanka Trump labels to sell more product

By

Cassidy Mantor

Published
Apr 26, 2017

G-III Apparel Group, owner of the Ivanka Trump brand license, has admitted to switching labels on the first daughter's apparel line, replacing Trump's labels with those of politically neutral brand Adrienne Vittadini.

The issue arose when consumers became angry after recognizing Ivanka Trump product was being sold at a discount retailer under a fake label.

In an official statement released by G-III, a company representative said that “G-III accepts responsibility for resolving this issue, which occurred without the knowledge or consent of the Ivanka Trump organization."

Although Amazon saw Ivanka Trump sales grow, and the label is hot in China, major US-based retailers, notably Nordstrom, have distanced themselves from the brand.

As G-III was left with dead merchandise, it appears to have resorted to label switching to try to move the product and mitigate the loss. While label switching is a dark fact of the fashion industry, it frequently happens during manufacturing with respect to changing labels that reveal the countries of origin.

Labels can be removed and restitched claiming the clothing was made in a more consumer friendly place of manufacturing. As long as the label is affixed in the country printed on the label, there is nothing technically illegal about this practice.

Even after clothing hits the shop floor, if it does not sell -- and is then sent to an off price retailer -- labels may be switched in transit to prevent consumers from seeing certain brands at a discount.

This was not the case with G-III, however, as the distributor unquestioningly designed Trump's pieces this way to avoid huge product. Most perplexing is that G-III does not own the Adrienne Vittadini license, Authentic Brands does.

G-III further stated via a spokesperson that they are taking "corrective actions" to fix the mislabeled goods. So far, neither Vittadini nor Authentic Brands have released a statement.