Ivanka Trump’s brand is built on the idea that, if you invest in the correct bangles and shift dresses, any working woman can be as glamorous and successful as she is. But did you know that once in 2012, Ivanka’s own lawyers claimed her own jewelry was turning people’s skin green? Sad!
Back in 2012, Madison Avenue Diamonds LLC (which did business as Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry) got sued by its supplier, KGK, for some $2 million in unpaid fees. (Sound familiar?) Madison Avenue Diamonds’ (a.k.a. Ivanka’s) lawyers shot back that KGK had delivered counterfeit materials and that some “gold” pieces had even “at times turned wearers’ skin green.” By the time they became aware of the problem, they claimed, they’d already sold a large number of pieces, “potentially creating a public relations disaster.” (Bet Ivanka’s definition of “public relations disaster” has changed a bit since then.)
While the authenticity of the fineries in question was never proven or disproven, the court ruled against Trump twice for an unrelated reason, finding a one-day late delivery of a single CAD file did not invalidate their entire contract with the company. That was the initial excuse Ivanka’s lawyers had made for not paying; they only tacked on the bit about the green fingers when they realized the first reason might not hold up. Madison Avenue Diamonds was ordered to pay $3 million to KGK.
Far be it from me to impugn the good name of Ivanka Trump, but if her jewelry line was really on the brink of a PR disaster, would they have waited until they were getting sued for non-payment to speak up about it? And, barring that, wouldn’t the lawyers have at least included it in their initial defense filing?
It sounds to me like a classic bit of Trumpian fuckery whereby payment is withheld on the grounds that the work is somehow unsatisfactory, and the injured party is then buried in mountains of expensive legal filings. It just so happens that a diamond supplier is better able to stand up for itself than, say, an architect.
In related news, Ivanka held a private viewing of her products in Tokyo at the same time she sat in on her father’s meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan. Now she is nearing a licensing deal with Sanei International, an apparel company whose largest shareholder is… the Japanese government. A conflict of interest, for sure, but let’s reassure ourselves with the fact that the Japanese people’s interest in Ivanka and her baubles has got to be at least partly ironic.
[NYT | Photo: Getty]
