Molly-Mae Hague has opened up about the costly setback her clothing brand, Maebe, faced after a defective blazer sparked significant backlash.
In her new Prime Video series, Molly-Mae: Behind It All, the 25-year-old influencer offers fans an honest look into her life, covering everything from her broken engagement to the challenges of being a single mother, and the difficulties of launching her debut fashion label.
The series documented the success of Maebe’s inaugural collection, which sold out in just 24 minutes. However, celebrations were short-lived when a grey oversized blazer from the line went viral, but not for the right reasons.
Customers took to social media to complain about the blazer bobbling after minimal wear, with many criticizing the quality given its £140 price tag.
Hague admitted that the criticism was hard to take.
“I’ve taken so much time and spent literally years to make it perfect. All I want is for people to be happy,” she said. “I’ve got to be honest, we’ve faced more negativity than we anticipated. Not all of it has been fair, but I have to hold my hands up and say some of it has been fair.”
Explaining the cause of the issue, she revealed that the fabric used for the blazer was the root of the problem.
“The fabric the blazer had been made in was not the fabric we signed off. Our final sample—the one I test-wore for probably a year—did not bobble,” she shared.
“It makes me feel crap. It’s my worst nightmare. I want people to love it, and I want this to be a huge success. It massively knocks my confidence.”
To make matters worse, the same faulty fabric was used in other pieces from later collections, including two coats. This error forced Hague and her team to pull thousands of items, resulting in a staggering £500,000 loss.
Speaking to her father, Steve Hague, about the situation, she said, “It’s a disaster, to be honest with you. It’s not good.”
“This blazer situation is eating me up. People are wearing it twice, and the fluff is just balling. We’ve got two coats in the exact same fabric. Thousands of pieces… they calculated it’d be like half a million pounds.”
Later in the episode, fans watched as Hague discussed the production issue with Maebe’s brand director, Elisha Diamond, over the phone, addressing how they would inform customers on social media.
Diamond confirmed that the blazer’s fabric was faulty and that they would recover the production costs for hundreds of blazers set to be sold.
“There was a fault with the fabric, so at that point, they’ve remade the blazer fabric and sent it, without approval, but the fabric was not the same, and the colour’s not the same,” Diamond explained.
“So we’ve got like 550 for that second drop. I’m in touch with the factory, taking that stock back so they won’t charge us for that stock. It’s promising, but it’s disappointing as it’s a massive loss of sales for us, one of our pride pieces.”
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