German designer Phillip Plein entertainingly enough has taken to Instagram to respond to a Dolce & Gabbanna letter accusing him of stealing employees, directly @-ing Stefan and Dolce Gabbanna in his letter. Plein posted the letter (written in Italian, which we don’t understand) and responded in the caption:
“Just received a love letter from Dolce and Gabbana’s lawyer accusing me and my people that we would steal their employees……. 1. This is a free country and everybody can choose by themselves who they want to work for !! 2. If people are happy at their job they don’t think about leaving !!! 3. I really love and respect the brand dolce and gabbana , it was an inspiration for me and many others to start my business and to work in fashion !!!!@stefanogabbana @dolcegabbana It’s is sad to say but everybody loves you until you become competition !!!! Since more than 15 years I work 24/7 on realizing my dream and building my company …. I respect everybody and I never received any support from this industry until today !!! I want to take this moment to apologize to absolutely “NOBODY” !!!!”
According to WWD, Dolce & Gabanna has claimed that Phillip Plein in October began reaching out to ten of its employees, mostly sales assistants working at the luxury label’s flagship store in Milan, in an attempt to lure them away to work for Plein’s newly-opened showroom in the same city.
Plein is using the seven-floor showroom to launch Plein Sport, a new luxury activewear line, which eventually will be carried in 50 Plein Sport stores. The first store will open in Milan this month, followed by a store in Paris and Amsterdam.
On the matter of poaching employees, we can say this is a pretty common practice among retailers in New York, though we are no experts on any of the specifics of such practices in Milan.
