عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Fashion

Kendall Jenner Turns to Quinn Emanuel in Fight With Italian Fashion Brand

71st Cannes Film Festival Kendall Jenner 2018 - FILE/REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
71st Cannes Film Festival Kendall Jenner 2018 - FILE/REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
TT
TT

Kendall Jenner Turns to Quinn Emanuel in Fight With Italian Fashion Brand

71st Cannes Film Festival Kendall Jenner 2018 - FILE/REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
71st Cannes Film Festival Kendall Jenner 2018 - FILE/REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

US model Kendall Jenner and her management agency have tapped a pair of practice leaders at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to fend off an $1.8 million lawsuit alleging Jenner breached a contract with an Italian fashion label.

Defending Jenner in the Manhattan federal court fight are Alex Spiro, co-chair of Quinn Emanuel's investigations, government enforcement & white collar defense practice, and Maaren Shah, co-chair of the firm’s art litigation and disputes practice.

Spiro and Shah on Friday moved to dismiss the suit by Italian brand Liu Jo against Jenner, model management company The Society Management, and Elite World Group LLC, The Society's parent company. The Quinn Emanuel lawyers are also representing The Society and Elite World Group, Reuters reported.

The case stems from a fashion shoot that was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Liu Jo hired Jenner for two photoshoots for its 25th anniversary, its complaint said. The first was completed, but the second one, originally set for March 2020 in London, was derailed by travel restrictions.

The fashion brand, which says it has already paid $1.35 million to Jenner, alleged that it obtained no response from Jenner after trying to re-schedule the second one multiple times.

After Liu Jo filed suit in August, a spokesperson for The Society told Reuters that Jenner had "continually offered Liu Jo alternative dates and locations to fulfill an agreement that was forced to be delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic."

"This meritless lawsuit is about an Italian clothing brand’s attempts to avoid its contractual obligations after unilaterally terminating a bargained-for agreement in direct contravention of the explicit terms of that agreement," Spiro and Shah argued in their motion to dismiss on Friday.

Shah cites Elite World Group as a top client on her Quinn Emanuel webpage. Her clients have also included the Andy Warhol Foundation. Spiro, meanwhile, is representing rapper Jay-Z in a lawsuit claiming that the photographer who took the photo of Jay-Z for his debut album "Reasonable Doubt" has been misusing his image to sell merchandise.

Spiro also successfully represented Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk in a defamation lawsuit filed by a British cave explorer who Musk had branded a "pedo guy" on Twitter.

Liu Jo is represented by a team of attorneys from Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox. They did not respond to a request for comment.

The case is Liu Jo S.p.A. v. Kendall Jenner, et al.,

For Liu Jo: Byron Pickard, Matt Zuziak and Nicholas Nowak, of Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox

For defendants: Alex Spiro and Maaren Shah, of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

Most Viewed

 
 
Fashion

Uniqlo’s Chief Says Fast Fashion Must Change with the Times

A woman walks past jumpers for sale at the latest flagship store to open by Fast Retailing clothing brand Uniqlo, in the Shinjuku district of central Tokyo on November 14, 2024. (AFP)
A woman walks past jumpers for sale at the latest flagship store to open by Fast Retailing clothing brand Uniqlo, in the Shinjuku district of central Tokyo on November 14, 2024. (AFP)
TT
TT

Uniqlo’s Chief Says Fast Fashion Must Change with the Times

A woman walks past jumpers for sale at the latest flagship store to open by Fast Retailing clothing brand Uniqlo, in the Shinjuku district of central Tokyo on November 14, 2024. (AFP)
A woman walks past jumpers for sale at the latest flagship store to open by Fast Retailing clothing brand Uniqlo, in the Shinjuku district of central Tokyo on November 14, 2024. (AFP)

Forty years after its founding, Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo has more than 2,500 stores worldwide. Sales at its parent company, Fast Retailing Co., recently topped 3 trillion yen ($20 billion) annually for the first time.

The name Uniqlo comes from joining the words for “unique” and “clothing.” The chain’s basic concept is “LifeWear,” or everyday clothing. Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing Co. Chief Executive Tadashi Yanai, ranked by Forbes as Japan’s richest man and estimated to be worth $48 billion, spoke recently to The Associated Press at the company’s Tokyo headquarters. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What were the biggest challenges over the past 40 years?

A: Actually 40 years, upon reflection, went by so fast they feel more like three years. You know what they say in Japan: Time flies like an arrow. I started a regional business, then expanded nationwide.

When we became No. 2 or No. 3 in Japan’s casual wear, and being No. 1 was right within reach, we became a listed company in 1994. That was followed by our fleece boom, which doubled our revenue in one year to 400 billion yen ($2.6 billion).

I’d been thinking about going global when our revenue reached 300 billion yen ($2 billion) so we opened 50 stores in Great Britain, hoping to be a winner there just like we had conquered Japan.

Instead, we got totally knocked out.

We opened 21 outlets in a year and a half, but had to close 16 of them, leaving just five. We didn’t succeed as we had hoped. This is not an easy job. It’s very tough.

But these days, our sales are strongest in London, and also Paris. We made progress gradually.

Q: What are some of the sustainability and other key issues you have faced over the years?

A: We make clothes that last a long time. Not just clothes that last for one season.

The cashmere sweater I’m wearing today is $99. But please don’t say “cheap.” Please call it “reasonable.” We sell quality products at reasonable prices.

We’ve done various sustainability efforts, and we talk only about what we have really achieved.

Sustainability is crucial to our operations. And we’ve done just about everything — recycling, employing the disabled, support for refugees.

The prices may be cheaper at Wal-Mart, but our products offer real quality for the price. We take the greatest care and time, and involve a lot of people. Our rivals are more careless.

Q: What is behind Uniqlo’s success and what resonated with global buyers?

A: When we say Uniqlo is “made for all,” one might imagine products for the masses, like what’s at a Wal-Mart or a Target.

But what we mean is a high-quality product that appeals to all people, including the extremely rich, not only those with sophisticated taste and intelligence, but also people who don’t know that much about clothes, and the design is fine-tuned, the material fine quality, and sustainability concerns have been addressed.

We were first a retailer, then a manufacturer-cum-retailer. Now we are a digital consumer retailer. That is why we are successful. If we had stayed the same, then we can’t hope to succeed.

Being a digital consumer retail company means we utilize information at a high level to shape the way we do our work. We gain information about our customers, the workers at the store, the market, all that information.

Changing daily is the only way we can hope for stable growth. The world is changing every day.

Q: Are you confident you can keep it up another 40 years?

A: Of course. We’ve been preparing to reach 3 trillion yen ($20 billion) revenue all these years. And we are finally starting to be known. But we still have a long way to go.

We are just getting started, and we are going to keep growing. There is more potential for growth in Europe and the US, as well as China and India, given the 1.4 billion population in each country. Clothing is a necessity, so population size is key.