Senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump is shutting down her eponymous fashion line.
In a statement, she said, "After 17 months in Washington, I do not know when or if I will ever return to the business, but I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington. So making this decision now is the only fair outcome for my team and partners."
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Apparel sales at the brand, which Ms. Trump launched in its current form in 2014, soared in the year of the 2016 presidential election. But the company also became a lightning rod for critics of her father’s policies, with one anti-Trump group last year urging shoppers to boycott stores selling Trump-branded goods. Retailers including Nordstrom Inc. and Hudson’s Bay have stopped selling Ivanka Trump products in the past 18 months, citing their performance...
Ms. Trump had contemplated the move in recent months as she grew frustrated by the restrictions she placed on the company, IT Collection LLC, to avoid possible conflicts of interest while serving in the White House.
In May, she won seven trademarks in China for "a broad collection of businesses, including books, housewares and cushions" as her father, the president of the United States, worked on ways to allow the Chinese telecom ZTE operate in the U.S.
The younger Trump's ties to her fashion line were skewered on Saturday Night Live last year, with Melissa McCarthy-as-Sean Spicer defending the products, "That’s Nordstrom’s loss, because these are high, high-quality products. In fact, I’m wearing one of her bangles right now. It’s beautiful, it’s shimmery, it’s elegant. And it’s $39.99? It’s unbelievably affordable. OK?":
A source told Page Six that the company was shutting down "ASAP" and that staff is being laid off.
Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director, had first worked for the Trumps as a publicist for Ivanka's fashion line.
