A former Alexander McQueen employee is suing the luxury fashion house for discrimination.
Moselle Blanco, who used to work at the company’s flagship store in Manhattan, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court last Wednesday claiming that her former bosses called her names like “Goya princess” and “burrito face.” Blanco also alleged that sales manager Max Cantey said she had “greasy hands like a Mexican” and told her not to touch the furs because she would get oil on them. Cantey also allegedly claimed that Blanco was drunk at work, had a claw foot, and gained weight easily.
Blanco said she dealt with the insults for a decade after managers “made light” of her complaints. Some insisted that the insults were due to the “brother-sister” relationship between Blanco and Cantey, who responded by saying that Blanco stole store inventory and claimed she did cocaine in the bathroom.
Moselle Blanco was fired in September 2012 for allegedly failing to retrieve a dress sent to cookbook author Jessica Seinfeld on consignment. According to the New York Daily News , it was considered punishment for her prematurely ringing up clothes , as sales, that had been sent to two other clients.
“Alexander McQueen is committed to equality in the workplace, and we are proud of our diverse employee base,” a McQueen representative said in response to the lawsuit. “We take any allegations of this nature seriously and will always investigate them thoroughly, but we will not comment on individual cases.”
Earlier this year, a black security guard filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming that he was so distraught about the way he was treated that he wanted to hang himself.
Alexander McQueen was found dead of an apparent suicide in his London home in February 2010. The 40-year-old designer was found hanged, and local police said his death would not be “treated as suspicious.”
[Photo credit: CarrieLu / Flickr ]
