I just realized that today marks the one month birthday of this little water cooler in the blogosphere! Aren't you happy, Kellwood? :) I know you are. I'm still strategizing and trying to figure out new and more devious ways of sticking it tothe manand we'll get there. And, it's absolutely "we" now Kellwood because the natives are stirring. We really have touched nearly every corner of this globe so far. I'm excited. The word is getting around and were it not for the power of the internet, you would be able to get away with what you did to Kimora Lee Simmons. But, you won't.
See that picture above? That's a lioness by the name of Tamara. She's one of the premiere attractions at the zoo in Amman, Jordan. Those are her little month old cubs in the picture with her. She got a tad agitated when the photographer went to snap that picture of she and her little ones. Funny thing about we females. Very protective of our families and our friends. That's what's going to ruin you, Kellwood. Women get pissed when they hear the whole story about Kimora's departure from Baby Phat/Phat Fashions. See how innocent and benign the cubs look? Like they wouldn't harm a flea. Meanwhile, Tamara looks like she's ready to rip somebody's head off. Yeah. We all know how this story goes. The cubs will grow up and they too will some day be ready and able to rip somebody's head off. Same with this little blog, Kellwood. No respect? No dollars.
Visit KLS.comto find a number of ways to support Kimora. Buy nothing, especially Baby Phat clothing items, from Kellwood. Besides, I need to find out where they're getting those items made anyway. I sure hope I don't find out they are getting that shit made in some sweat shop in Asia. We'll see. --Sugar
Kimora Lee Simmons has always been about creating fashion for women of all sizes. I think this is one of the reasons why so many have been drawn to her for so long. Check out the video of her below from a May, 2010 appearance on "Face 2 Face" with Courtney Friel where she talks about the new line, Kouture by Kimora, and her views on women and fashion. She truly exemplifies the "champion of the people". This is why we can not allow Kellwood Company to get away with what they've done to her.
Support her by visiting KLS.com and checking out the number of ways that you can buy products that are specifically owned by her and not Kellwood. We have to let them know that we will not be played for fools. Don't buy anything from them. No respect? No dollars. --Sugar
I just finished watching the critically acclaimed documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell and while it was far too short for my desires, it was SO amazingly uplifting and inspiring to me where this effort and so many other things in life are concerned. Just average, ordinary women decided that they'd had enough of the madness in Liberia as that tyrant Charles Taylor trampled around and they made a humongous difference.
I'm tired of watching women, especially those of us of color, being treated in the business world as though we are so dispensable. Kimora Lee Simmons has been handling this situation with Baby Phat/Phat Fashions and Kellwood Company with impeccable grace, but I don't have the restraints that I'm sure she's dealing with. So, Kellwood prepare for this effort to go to new levels in the coming weeks. The worse thing that could have happened for you idiots is for me to have watched that documentary tonight. Those women got it DONE! If they were able to, I, with the help of other women like myself, can do the same. You have nobody to blame for this but yourselves.
If only you'd handled this like professionals and at least made a statement. Sent Kimora off with the parting that she deserved. Not just toss her out....maybe this wouldn't be necessary. But, you decided to handle it the way you did. Like assholes. I'll return the favor in kind.
So, while we can't pray you back to the hell from whence you came, we can pray you back to Missouri to lick your "in the red" wounds. Head bowed... --Sugar
Now, this is mighty funny considering that a bunch of fake asses are running Baby Phat as I type this. Earlier this week, a Clinton, Iowa man was sentenced to more than 3 years in prison for trafficking counterfeit goods by top designers, including Baby Phat, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Chanel and Nike. From the Quad City Times:
Charles Edwin Sampson-Snyder, 56, who operates a store named Bama's or Bama & Heather Clothing, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Davenport in February.
He admitted to purchasing and selling $100,000 worth of counterfeit merchandise.
Maybe he was working for Kellwood Company because they damn sure are doing a lot of poaching and counterfeiting right now themselves with their failure to formally let the Baby Phat customer base know that Kimora Lee Simmons is no longer heading up the brand.
Don't buy any apparel from them. Nothing. Not even a pack of shoestrings. The cowardly bastards haven't had the decency to speak to the Phat Fashions customer base as respected clientelle in the face of such a shake up, so let's let them listen to the silence of untouched clothes on a department store rack. Go here to find a number of waysto support Kimora, including information on how to purchase one of her six fragrances. No respect? No dollars. --Sugar
This past weekend, I felt pretty awful. I really wanted to push forward and continue to get the word out about the boycott of all Baby Phat apparel, but I just didn't feel like I'd be able to give it my best. So, I abstained...only to decide that I needed to shuffle my Netflix cue this morning and in the process be brought to shame for my weakness. My American frailty.
I watch a lot of documentaries. They can be entertaining and informative and that's exactly what I need in my life with days that are sometimes jam-packed with to-do lists. So, as I was looking through my Netflix queue, I was pleasantly surprised to find a film by the name of Pray the Devil Back to Hell. I think that it had been there (in the queue) for a while, but I just kind of forgot about it. Today, I felt like something was pushing me towards it.
So, I decide to see what the film was all about and it was all that I could do to keep from weeping right there at my desk at work. This from the film's website:
Thousands of women — ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim — came together to pray for peace and then staged a silent protest outside of the Presidential Palace. Armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they demanded a resolution to the country’s civil war. Their actions were a critical element in bringing about an agreement during the stalled peace talks.
A story of sacrifice, unity and transcendence, Pray the Devil Back to Hell honors the strength and perseverance of the women of Liberia. Inspiring, uplifting,and most of all motivating, it is a compelling testimony of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations.
Check out the trailer below:
Absolutely, we are not talking about bringing an end to civil war in this situation between Kimora Lee Simmons and Kellwood/Baby Phat, but again, it's relavent. It's extremely relavent to the other women in business and the fashion industry, in this country and in fact, the world.
Let me break something down for you. In that last post, I quoted some stats from the United Nations and Oxfam that claim that women do 2/3rds of the work worldwide and yet earn peanuts where salary is concerned and barely own anything where property is concerned. So, these Liberian women, of both of the predominate religions in that country, joined together to make a difference. They don't, for the most part, have access to all of the trappings that we have here in the States. But, they were tired of being made to feel as though their voices were irrelevant and ineffective in helping to bring about change in the midst of such turmoil--and guess what? Their decision to make a stand...worked!
Those women could have been slaughtered...hacked to pieces and fed to animals, but they didn't let that stop them from taking a stand against the injustice that sat before them. If they, our sisters among those who decided to go back to the "Mother land" way back when, could find the courage to stand up against bloodthirsty thugs and a known warlord, we can damn sure stand up against a bunch of cowardly, spineless, limp-dicked corporate thugs who wield nothing more than threats as a part of their arsenal.
A sister has been wronged here. I love her to death, but no matter your feelings towards her, which I can almost guarantee are based upon at least one fistful of lies and misinformation, she deserves just as much support as anyone else in this position. There aren't enough women of color in the fashion industry doing what she does for Kellwood to have disrespected her in this manner. And, unless we forget, they disrespected her and the entire Phat Fashions customer base, of all demographics, when they so nonchalantly discarded her as if we didn't matter.
I'm here to let them know that it did and it does and we are sick and tired of it. This post will make 11 so far for this blog, yet in its infancy, and yet both Kellwood and lawyers representing them, Morgan Lewis, have been crawling all over this space. Feast your eyes below on a few screen shots from the StatCounter (click on the image to enlarge):
What are they so concerned about if they haven't done anything wrong? Why are they crawling all over this blog? And, trust that the two listings for Morgan Lewis are but a cursory glance of their visits to the site. Those are just the two times that I decided to grab at this late hour. They weren't noticeably on the site today, but that doesn't mean they weren't there...
Anyway, what I'm getting at is this. The fashion industry, with its built-in barriers for women and men of color, has enough black eyes without this mishandling of Kimora Lee Simmons and her supporters, the customer base of Phat Fashions, to add to the list. We will not be shooed away this time as you snicker under your breaths, convinced that we will still buy these goods. It ends here. No respect? No dollars. And, I've got a lot more to discuss about this racism and sexism in this industry for the rest of this week. You should have handled this appropriately. How dare you send Kimora off as a mere after-thought and say nothing to us as if we are fools. We'll see who the fools are and I'm just getting started. Others are joining in on the effort. The blog isn't even a whole three weeks old and today I didn't tweet a single post and we got new and varied visitors...planting seeds and farming bitches. I'll expand this week. Holidays are upon us. Remember, red Christmas for you. --Sugar
Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, produce half of the world's food, and yet earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than 1% of the world's property. (Source :End Poverty 2015 Millenium Campaign)
Oxfam tweeted that and other shocking bits of information about women and equality a few weeks ago and I have been unable to get it out of my head. Women work two thirds of the world's working hours, yet earn only 10 percent of the world's income. And, own less than 1 percent of the world's property. That's a serious gut punch. Let it marinate in your mind for a bit...what it means for alllll of the women in the world to do most of the damn work and yet earn a mere pittance of the income and own less than a pittance of the property. Not 2/3rds amongst poor women. Not 2/3rds amongst middle class women. Not 2/3rds of the hours amongst wealthy women. But, ALL of womankind does 2/3rds of the work globally. Not even Oprah could save us from this sorry statistical state that we're in.
So what? So what is that as this situation between Kimora Lee Simmons, Kellwood and Sun Capital plays out, I think it's important that women, especially, really consider what's happening here. If you haven't ever had to deal with a sexist pig at your job, trust me, just give it time and you'll get your chance. They are rude and disrespectful and the last thing they want to deal with is a woman with some power and an opinion. They can't stand it. The way that Kellwood handled parting ways with Kimora reeks with the stench of at least one such pig and it makes me sick.
I think that many women tell themselves, "Kimora's wealthy. She doesn't need me to care. She doesn't need my help. Our struggles are not the same." But, that couldn't be more wrong. Does wealth mean that a woman becomes void of all emotion, incapable of feeling disappointment? Hell no! I imagine that if anything, in moments of reflection, a woman of considerable wealth must shudder to think that even with all of that cash at her disposal, she still has to deal with such bullshit.
Imagine how you would feel had your local newspaper published an article that said you were dismissed from your job (in Kimora's case, a virtual empire that she built from the ground up), in part, because your supervisor thought you were too fat. You'd feel terrible and who wouldn't be able to understand!? Kimora is tough, and at least publically, she's handling this like a champ. Absolutely, we don't know how she's dealing with it away from all of the prying eyes, but as a woman I can imagine and I would hope that any other woman reading this can do the same.
My very best friend in this world was once in a very public position and things went South hard and fast when the pig she was working for crossed the line and then retaliated when she wasn't cool with it. I can remember sitting on the phone with her literally for hours some days as she shared her frustration, shock and disappointment. Her career was just taking off and the drama couldn't have come at a worse time. I will never forget spending hours helping her draft documentation for a mediation session dealing with that bullshit, and that was several years ago. Situations like that just sort of burn themselves into your memory bank and just sit there, ready to provide the needed juice to help another woman get through her own "situation". It's driving me now to help Kimora in this Kellwood situation in whatever small way that I can.
Do not let your intimidation of Kimora's financial status cause you to miss the fact that just like you, she's a woman, a wife, a mother, a daughter and a friend. Men support one another, and most definitely I would hope that they too are as upset about all of this as I certainly am, but we women have got to band together in situations like this. We will never be able to change statistics like those at the top of this post until we do. Support Kimora by visiting her website, KLS.com and find out how you can buy products that she owns without putting a red cent into Kellwood's pockets. No respect? No dollars. Kimora will be stronger than ever once all the dust settles from this mess. I can't wait. It will be a triumph that all women should be proud to witness. --Sugar
The two guys in the photo above are Marc Leder (left) and Rodger Krouse. They are the founders of Sun Capital Partners, a private equity firm. Pretty young guys to be kicking up so much dust to get their hands on Kellwood. Their reputation preceeded them at Kellwood I'm sure, because they've left a trail of tears behind them in their apparent quest for world domination.
Sun Capital Partners, which just a couple of years ago was among the hottest private-equity groups in the country, has fallen upon hard times of late - a victim of the recession, bad management decisions and - according to critics - outright greed.
Jason Bernzweig, vice president of Sun Capital, said the firm is prepared to commit "substantial resources beyond the purchase price to build Kellwood's business" and plans to "work closely with management and employees at Kellwood to strengthen the company and develop its branded portfolio."
Well, we know that's a lie because they got their mitts on Kellwood in February 2008 and before the year was over, Kellwood was trying to give Holly Dunlap and her Hollywould, Inc., maker of handbags and shoes, the boot. Kellwood says that the plans were in place before the takeover by Sun Capital, but I don't believe that either. They did at least have the decency to offer a brief statement about the split, stating that both parties had:
"mutually agreed to explore a range of strategic alternatives for the business".
I'm so sure. What I'm not sure about is why Holly was given the courtesy of a statement when Kimora was not. I have never even heard of any Hollywould, Inc. No disrespect to Holly. Myself and millions of others do know who Kimora Lee Simmons is and she's sent away in the dark of night? The hell?
So, what's the deal? Is Sun Capital a fu*k up that bit off more Kellwood than it could chew, subsequently leading to the untimely dismissal of Kimora Lee Simmons and her staff from Baby Phat/Phat Fashions, or are they both (Kellwood and Sun Capital) fu*k ups who just didn't know what to do with a brand that started out with an urban and African-American slant, but which grew to become so much more, crossing all demographics? Whatever the case, they fu$ked up because I'm going to work hard to see to it that this is a red Christmas for both of them where Baby Phat is concerned. You didn't have the decency to let the customer base know that you've unceremoniously shown Kimora the door, continuing to try to make sales off of unsuspecting buyers. That has to and that will stop. No respect? No dollars. If you want to know how you can still support Kimora, visit her website, KLS.com. --Sugar
