#boycott jewelry corporations and businesses | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

samosoapsoup · 6 years ago

Text

How to Buy a Rock

J. Jezewska Stevens

The Paris Review, May 8, 2019

George Plimpton, illustrious patrician multi-hyphenate and longtime editor of The Paris Review, helped establish the genre of “Participatory Journalism.” In terms he almost certainly would have disapproved of, that means “doing stuff just to write about it.” Plimpton stepped into the ring with a professional boxer, played triangle for the New York Philharmonic, swung from a circus trapeze, and far more, resulting in essays that shaped the landscape of nonfiction for decades to come. In keeping with this legacy, we’ve invited contributors from our Spring 2019 issue to live the experiences they depicted in their fiction. In J. Jezewska Stevens’s story “Honeymoon,” the narrator works behind a jewelry counter. “In my line of work you get a sense for the truth,” she writes. “The jewelry nook is a confessional, a place of transience and vulnerability, where what you’re vulnerable to is yourself.” For this assignment, Stevens headed to New York’s Diamond District to explore those long-standing confessionals.

There’s a self-contained atmosphere, a throwback sense of endurance, on West Forty-Seventh Street. It’s an attitude that fewer and fewer Midtown streets can claim; most of Manhattan seems to be converging on the sterile luxury of Hudson Yards. But on this modest one-block stretch, bookended by Fifth and Sixth, there are no experience spaces, whitewashed cafés, or glassy high-rises that double as malls. The storefronts are cramped, indifferent, tinged with elbow grease. The famous arcades, where narrow aisles maximize the number of jeweler’s booths, are brassy but austere—at least in comparison to the corporate mansions of Tiffany’s and Cartier. On Forty-Seventh, the whole street buzzes with the modest energy of the hustle, which only serves to heighten the intrigue of the diamonds on display.

When The Daily asked if I’d be interested in writing a piece of participatory journalism inspired by my story “Honeymoon,” I thought immediately of the Diamond District. My friends are getting engaged. They’re married with children. I find myself, like the newlywed narrator of that story (who happens to work behind a jewelry counter), at a stage of life when the idea of diamonds weighs heavily on the mind. I wondered if the District might strike me differently than it did a few years ago, when I used to pass through it on my old commute. I was working then as an analyst and coder on Forty-Eighth. The hours were demanding, and more than once I found myself walking through the District after midnight. I remember the naked mannequin hands, the ghostly grated windows. There was a sense of possibility in the abandoned displays.

Now, in the lunch-hour rush, in the first manifestation of spring, the street is anything but deserted. When I arrive, hawkers in gold chains and jeans hover in doorways. You buying? Selling? Buying? A weary shopper steadies herself against a length of scaffolding to swap a pair of lacy heels for a set of leopard-print flats, while a vendor directs a client around the corner for a meal. Kosher Deluxe! A woman in knee-high black boots, trailed by a beau in Burberry plaid, is immediately engulfed as she tries to cross the street. She’s ushered into Fantasy Diamonds on the corner of Sixth Ave.

The diamond trade has a long and venerable history in New York, and it hasn’t always been centered in Midtown. Until the twenties, the heart of the industry lay just north of Wall Street, on Maiden Lane. Additional outposts prospered on Canal, where a few noble holdouts can still be found today. At the fin de siècle, when financial institutions began to edge their way into the neighborhood, rents rose, and real estate developers broke ground on Forty-Seventh, erecting art deco lofts with the express intention of attracting diamond vendors. After the Nazi invasions of Belgium and Netherlands, a wave of refugees brought a fresh influx of jewelers and wholesalers to the city’s diamond community, which had by this time firmly consolidated in Midtown. Today, as then, the district remains largely Dutch, Belgian, Jewish, and Orthodox; on Shabbat, many of the booths are closed.

A stone’s origins are often elusive. Over 90 percent of diamonds imported to the United States now pass through Forty-Seventh, and as of 2003, according to a piece of Bush-era legislation known as the Kimberley Process, those stones are supposed to be conflict-free. But when a diamond changes hands eight to ten times on the journey from gem mine to display case, this is next to impossible to guarantee. Consumers seeking absolute reassurance are probably best off dealing in the District’s antiques or buying synthetics, though even this can lead to paradox: some argue that in places like the Congo—where entire communities depend on revenue from certified mines, diamond boycotts, or shifts to synthetic stones—this only makes things worse. To try on a ring is to be reminded of one’s complicity. Beauty is often linked to violence in some way.

I visit a few times. The first is on a Saturday. The half-empty arcades turn out to be a boon for a woman shopping alone. On this quiet afternoon, vendors are more likely to speak to an inauspicious customer like myself. As a saleswoman slips an empty band onto my ring finger and sets a grade-D stone into the crown, she leans forward to deliver a trade secret. “People aren’t going to pay attention to you,” she says, referring to the fact that I’ve arrived without an escort. “Don’t you care what they think. You try on your rings.” The advice comes so quickly, and so sincerely, that in my appreciation I almost forget to tell her I’m here as a writer, not a fianceé.

All the women in the arcade are going through the same exercise. We try on empty bands (the most popular choice is white gold) while salespeople use tweezers to settle princess stones into the crowns. Whereas retail outlets like Tiffany’s or Zales might host a greater variety of designs, the same quality stone will come at a substantial markup. (For other reasons to avoid retail chains, look no further than New York Magazine’s exposé on sexual harassment and gender discrimination at Zales, Kay, and other subsidiaries of Sterling Jewelers Inc.) In other words: what we’re really shopping for here are not rings, but the diamonds themselves. The jewels emerge from small manila envelopes, nestled into hole-punched tags that record the clarity, karat, and cut; in any given price range, as the size increases, the quality falls. An honest vendor will set two stones side-by-side on a white index card to reveal a hint of yellow, or offer a magnifying glass to point out a carbon inclusion.

This street-level pluck—vendors coaxing customers, customers bargaining for deals—is the most salient and immediate theater, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. There’s a whole ecosystem thriving above the arcades. Tucked above the shops are diamond setters and cutters and wholesalers, upscale boutiques on upper floors that show by appointment only. From the sidewalk, the entrance to the headquarters of GIA, the premier gem-grading agency, is a notable anomaly: bright lobby, security guards, gleaming elevator bank.

The density and diversity of tradesmen means that everything one needs to make a ring from scratch can be found on this one block. For Peter Germano, who has spent over forty years in the business, this is one of the best parts of both the District and his job. “I just walk down the street,” he says, if he needs a band or setting, or if a wholesaler calls him to assess a stone just arrived from Liberia. It’s casual, brisk, efficient; he can visit on his way for coffee. But beneath the breeziness of these negotiations lies a complex network. “It’s all about relationships,” Germano says. It strikes me that his no-nonsense affability serves him well on these errands—he’s easy to talk to, but he’s not a man with time to waste. When he was just starting out, he tells me, he used to pass a storefront whose display was nearly empty. “And I thought to myself, now that’s success.” The owner paid the premium for prime, street-level real estate only to eschew advertising to passersby, suggesting an indifference to operating costs that today makes Germano smile. “I thought, I want to be as successful as that.”

Germano, who now runs a ninth-floor boutique on the corner of Forty-Seventh and Fifth, also started out at street level (“the street”), though you “couldn’t pay him” to go back. He explains the etiology of the sort of hustle I noted there: rent is expensive. Storefronts trade at twenty to thirty thousand a month, and this puts serious pressure on the salespeople at the counter. Having secured a customer’s attention, everyone is trying to prevent a potential buyer from flipping to what is called a “be back,” someone who promises she’ll come back for a ring but doesn’t. “It’s a sales game,” Germano says, and he insists that the secret is as simple as honesty. Whatever his strategy, it seems to have worked. During his years behind a booth, he managed to curate a loyal clientele. Now he no longer needs to advertise via the arcades. The rent and the view are superior up here, where he depends on word of mouth, not walk-ins.

The claim to uniqueness is ubiquitous in the Diamond District: “He’s not your typical Forty-Seventh Street guy,” Germano’s assistant told me when I called to set up an interview, “you can talk to him.” Meanwhile, in the arcades, vendors are forever warning you against the tricks other sellers will try to pull. But the assistant’s assessment strikes me as sincere. Germano is casual but authoritative, with a disarming fuggedaboutit charisma. Looking around his office, it’s hard not to be taken in by the gallery of cards, pictures, and thank-you notes that fill his walls. Couples have sent photos of proposals on mountaintops and sea-sides. A card eases open to reveal the message: I love my rockstar earrings! (The signature, “J Lo,” is a joke.)

I ask Germano if, with gentrification putting the squeeze on small retailers throughout the five boroughs, he thinks the Diamond District will endure. “Of course,” he says. Then he pauses. There are some empty storefronts up for rent. “You never used to see that,” he says. But for the most part, the District has weathered the decline of retail fairly well. He hands me a thimble-size magnifying glass to detect an inclusion in an SI-2 stone—it’s hard to buy a diamond over the internet. “But online comments help,” he says. “That’s new.” And word of mouth on the web casts a wider net. “We get a lot of people from Ireland, Israel, and the UK,” he says.

When I wrote “Honeymoon,” I did not have the famous De Beers slogan—“A diamond is forever”—in mind. I was thinking about contingency and doubt; about how love, like faith, might be understood as a constant negotiation. I was thinking about how art, like any object of desire, changes depending on where and when we see it in the context of our own lives. I was wondering whether love, like art—or like the Catholic idea of divine grace—also exists as a function of time and setting and chance, or at least more so than we’d like to admit. And if there’s some truth to any of the above, if the matters of the heart are constantly in flux, then it seems to me one has to make the decision to stay in love again and again. It’s a process, rather than a discrete moment when rings are exchanged. Like all processes, it will eventually come to a stop, or else extend forever—in that sense, perhaps De Beers was not so far off. Anyway, we all exaggerate in love. But diamonds, too, I learn, are not without contingencies. They depend on the light, on their cut and luster, the tendency to retain smut. Germano steams the crown of a princess stone dimmed by the oily residue of fingerprints. I am surprised to learn that diamonds can even be repaired. “Of course,” he says.

The charm of the Diamond District, I think, is this: it’s alarmingly easy to talk. Amid the chaos, everyone is carving out a private conversation that feels secret, intimate. People here listen; they make you feel special. Back in the arcades, I see princess stones, oval stones, bands in rose and white gold. A saleswoman asks me how I shop for clothes. Do I look at how they’re made, the quality? Do I turn garments inside out to check the seams? I watch another sell a ring to a family of tourists laden with bags. The wife is debating, and they’re already late for a Broadway show. “As a friend, I’d take it,” the saleswoman says. As a friend! She’s not a friend, I think. Then it’s my turn at the counter, and I fall immediately under her spell. She’s always been a saleswoman, she tells me. She tells me a lot of things. Like any skilled fiction writer, she establishes authority by becoming more vulnerable herself: “Let me tell you something you’d never expect,” she says. Twenty years ago, she worked in cosmetics, and she was on her way to a job interview at Saks when someone stopped her right here on Forty-Seventh. He happened to be one half of the pair of brothers that owns the booth we’re standing at now. She points out the window, toward the street, to the setting of the serendipitous scene. “He asked me, You need a job? Can you believe it? Of course I need a job!” She’d been in the U.S. all of two weeks. “He says to me, I’m looking for someone like you.”

Let me tell you something you’d never expect: This isn’t my first time shopping for an engagement ring. When I was eleven, I went with my father to an Indianapolis mall to buy one for my mother. My parents have—and had—been married for many years. I remember we brought the ring home in a little velvet box. My mother has an academic’s sense of humor—she’s the kind of woman who wears plastic brontosaurus earrings to work. My parents hadn’t bought wedding rings until six years after they tied the knot, and even then only because my grandmother had dropped a bewildered hint to my aunt: “Is it a real marriage,” she’d asked, “if they don’t have rings?” She asked with the same concern she’d once directed toward my mother’s Ph.D. in biochemistry. “When will you have you learned enough that you can teach high school?”

I called my mom to ask what she felt when she unhinged that box to find such a belated, ostentatious gift, a sapphire on a white-gold band. It’s the most expensive item she’s ever owned. “At first,” she said, “when I opened it, I thought, it’s way too much. Too much for little old me.” She thought for a moment. “But then when I saw how excited your father was to be able to give me that gift, well …” She trailed off, and in the silence on the line, I was reminded that perhaps the best way to stay in love is to learn how to accept, to gracefully receive.

0 notes

ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly · 8 years ago

Photo

LONDON — Ivanka Trump calls her father a homebody. “If it were up to him, he’d seldom leave New York,” she once wrote.

By contrast, she has been her family’s leading globalist — doing deals around the world in her father’s name and her own. Even since her father took office, her own fashion brand has continued to look abroad, filing four new trademarks in Canada and the Philippines, according to a New York Times analysis of trademark records.

The continued activity is tricky territory for Ms. Trump’s new job as White House adviser. While she has stepped down from both her own fashion company and from the Trump Organization and put her brand in a trust, she has not given up her financial control, an unusual situation to navigate now that she is subject to federal ethics rules on conflicts of interest.

Even though many of her trademark applications were filed long before she took her government job, they could be decided on by foreign governments while she works in the White House, creating ethical issues with little precedent. While trademarks do not directly confer financial gains, they protect the use of logos and other intellectual property, making them valuable tools for companies looking to build new ventures or expand existing operations.

Earlier this month, China approved three new trademarks for Ms. Trump’s brand on the same day she met China’s president, Xi Jinping, according to an Associated Press report. Japan also approved trademarks in Ms. Trump’s name in February that included footwear, handbags and other apparel, records show. And trademark applications in Ms. Trump’s name are awaiting decisions in 10 countries, the Times analysis showed, including Kuwait, Qatar, Panama and Brazil.

Ms. Trump has long been conducting a corporate two-step, trying to build her own global brand as she has helped push her father’s name into new parts of the world. Over all, Ivanka Trump Marks L.L.C., her trademarking business, has filed 173 foreign trademarks in 21 countries, as well as in Hong Kong and the European Union, in little more than a decade, according to the Times analysis. There are probably more, since there is no single repository of all global trademarks. All of the applications on record took place before she was a White House adviser.

Ms. Trump’s previous role as an informal adviser to President Trump had already raised questions. She is a woman with a multitude of overseas business ventures who since the election has been afforded prime seating at meetings with a who’s who of foreign leaders — from Justin Trudeau to Shinzo Abe to Angela Merkel.

Now such issues become more complex. While presidents are exempt from federal conflict of interest law, Ms. Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, another senior White House aide, are not. They are barred from making decisions in government that could benefit their financial holdings, which are worth as much as $740 million, according to recent filings. They are also covered by the Constitution’s emoluments clause barring federal officials from accepting “any present, emolument, office or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince or foreign state.”

Whether trademarks run afoul of such rules is a matter of debate between the Trump administration and its critics. Trademarks are certainly valuable assets as companies seek exclusive control over their global brands, and Ms. Trump herself has said that the first step in building a brand is to “do a comprehensive trademark search.”

Ms. Trump has taken steps to separate herself from her company. Her brother-in-law and sister-in-law serve as trustees, while Abigail Klem, her brand’s president, runs the company’s day-to-day operations.

But she has kept her financial interest in the company and retains the ability to approve or veto certain deals through her trust arrangement. Ms. Trump also maintains a stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, just down the street from the White House.

“When they weren’t going into the White House, I thought there was a lot of leeway there,” said John Pudner, the executive director of the conservative nonprofit Take Back Our Republic.

Now, he said, “anything can be viewed as influence.”

“I think it’s bad for the administration,” added Mr. Pudner, who voted for Mr. Trump. “It could call into question any decision made, people wondering if there’s a business angle to it.”

The White House referred comments to the Trump Organization, which did not comment.

Ms. Klem, president of Ms. Trump’s brand, said in a statement, “The brand has filed, updated and rigorously protected its international trademarks over the past several years in the normal course of business, especially in regions where trademark infringement is rampant.

“We have recently seen a surge in trademark filings by unrelated third parties trying to capitalize on the name, and it is our responsibility to diligently protect our trademark.”

Ms. Trump has long had an international outlook. In her 2009 book, “The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life,” she credited the influence of her mother, Ivana, for her own love of travel. And not long after she joined the Trump Organization in 2005, she helped lead her father’s business abroad.

“Before my brothers and I joined the company, our business was primarily a New York-based operation,” she wrote in her book, adding that her father would say, “There are plenty of great deals right here in New York.”

It was not long before she began to concurrently push her own brand in many of the same markets as her father’s.

While she was overseeing the development of a controversial Trump Tower in Azerbaijan, which has since been abandoned, she was also filing trademarks for her own brand, for clothes and cosmetics.

In China, while she was helping her father’s company make inroads, she developed her own following, taking out at least 23 trademarks for everything from swimwear to wedding dresses, both to battle locals trying to infringe on her name and to support her own interests.

Ms. Trump has a following in China, where young professionals often equate material wealth with success. A video of her daughter singing in Chinese even went viral. But for many Chinese, Ms. Trump is the epitome of the fuerdai, a Mandarin expression that means “rich second generation,” a term provoking a mix of respect and resentment.

A spokesman for the brand said several of its licensees wholesale products in China. More than a dozen of Ms. Trump’s own Chinese trademarks were filed during the election campaign.

In Manila, Ms. Trump was the linchpin for a new Trump Tower rising in Makati City, a project that “came about from a meeting that took place between Ivanka and I,” Robbie Antonio, the son of a prominent Filipino developer, once said in a promotional video.

Ms. Trump’s friendship with Mr. Antonio is not hard to understand. He has a bit of Trumpian flair himself — an art collector who once commissioned a Rem Koolhaas-designed home filled with portraits of himself.

Ms. Trump and Mr. Antonio have also been involved in a plan to sell her jewelry in the Philippines, but a spokesman for the brand said it did not have any current plans to open a store there. And records show her business has applied for three new trademarks in the country this year.

It is not clear how Ms. Trump, now a federal employee, will navigate continuing ties to far-flung foreign business interests. Robert Weissman, the president of Public Citizen, a left-leaning watchdog group, said that if Ms. Trump’s brand was trying to expand operations or import from other countries, there could be “meaningful interaction” with foreign governments. Foreign companies, too, might also try to cut special deals with the brand to curry favor with the Trump administration, Mr. Weissman added.

“Then you get into the issue about improper influence,” he said.

Jamie Gorelick, a Washington ethics lawyer who is acting as an independent adviser to Ms. Trump’s trust, said in a statement that since Ms. Trump had resigned from her company, she “has had no involvement with trademark applications submitted by the business.”

“The federal ethics rules do not require you to recuse from any matter concerning a foreign country just because a business that you have an ownership interest in has a trademark application pending there,” she added. “Ivanka will recuse from particular matters where she has a conflict of interest or where the White House counsel determines her participation would present appearance or impartiality concerns.”

For Ms. Trump, the risks may be necessary. Helping steady her father’s presidency could be critical to preserving the appeal of both her brand and her father’s. Certainly, his scorching rhetoric has led to a complicated period for Ms. Trump’s brand, both at home and abroad.

Her business interests have faced boycotts, and Nordstrom, citing poor sales, said in February that it would no longer sell Ms. Trump’s shoes and clothes. There was also a backlash to the backlash, as online sales of Ivanka Trump-branded products skyrocketed right after Nordstrom’s decision, according to Lyst, a fashion e-commerce site.

Ms. Trump also made waves in China in February by posting a video of her 5-year-old daughter, Arabella, singing in Chinese on Instagram, a move some saw as aimed at soothing raw feelings between China and the Trump administration.

And in March, “Saturday Night Live” featured a sketch, starring Scarlett Johansson, that had Ms. Trump selling a perfume called “Complicit.” (Ms. Trump recently told CBS, “If being complicit is wanting to, is wanting to be a force for good and to make a positive impact, then I’m complicit.”)

“Everything she does,” said Mr. Weissman of Public Citizen, “is effectively an advertisement for the Ivanka Trump brand.”

0 notes

repwincoml4a0a5 · 8 years ago

Text

Ivanka Trump Cleared Hurdle For Chinese Trademarks Same Day She Dined With Xi Jinping

SHANGHAI (AP) — On April 6, Ivanka Trump’s company won provisional approval from the Chinese government for three new trademarks, giving it monopoly rights to sell Ivanka brand jewelry, bags and spa services in the world’s second-largest economy. That night, the first daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, sat next to the president of China and his wife for a steak and Dover sole dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

The scenario underscores how difficult it is for Trump, who has tried to distance herself from the brand that bears her name, to separate business from politics in her new position at the White House.

As the first daughter crafts a political career from her West Wing office, her brand is flourishing, despite boycotts and several stores limiting her merchandise. U.S. imports, almost all of them from China, shot up an estimated 166 percent last year, while sales hit record levels in 2017. The brand, which Trump still owns, says distribution is growing. It has launched new activewear and affordable jewelry lines and is working to expand its global intellectual property footprint. In addition to winning the approvals from China, Ivanka Trump Marks LLC applied for at least nine new trademarks in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Canada and the U.S. after the election.

The commercial currents of the Trump White House are unprecedented in modern American politics, ethics lawyers say. They have created an unfamiliar landscape riven with ethical pitfalls, and forced consumers and retailers to wrestle with the unlikely passions now inspired by Ivanka Trump’s mid-market collection of ruffled blouses, shifts and wedges.

Using the prestige of government service to build a brand is not illegal. But criminal conflict of interest law prohibits federal officials, like Trump and her husband, from participating in government matters that could impact their own financial interest or that of their spouse. Some argue that the more her business broadens its scope, the more it threatens to encroach on the ability of two trusted advisers to deliver credible counsel to the president on core issues like trade, intellectual property, and the value of the Chinese currency.

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advised Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

To address ethical concerns, Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts.

“Ivanka will not weigh in on business strategy, marketing issues, or the commercial terms of agreements,” her attorney, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement. “She has retained authority to direct the trustees to terminate agreements that she determines create a conflict of interest or the appearance of one.”

In a recent interview with CBS News, Trump argued that her business would be doing even better if she hadn’t moved to Washington and placed restrictions on her team to ensure that “any growth is done with extreme caution.”

China, however, remains a nagging concern. “Ivanka has so many China ties and conflicts, yet she and Jared appear deeply involved in China contacts and policy. I would never have allowed it,” said Norman Eisen, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under Barack Obama. “For their own sake, and the country’s, Ivanka and Jared should consider stepping away from China matters.”

Instead, the first daughter and her husband have emerged as prominent interlocutors with China, where they have both had significant business ties. Last year, Kushner pursued hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate investments from Anbang Insurance Group, a financial conglomerate with close ties to the Chinese state. After media reports about the deal, talks were called off.

Publicly, Ivanka has taken a gracious, charming approach toward Beijing. During the Mar-a-Lago meetings, her daughter, 5-year-old Arabella stood in a gilded room and sang a traditional Chinese song, in Mandarin, for China’s president, Xi Jinping. The video, which was lavishly praised by Chinese state media, played over 2.2 million times on China’s popular news portal qq.com.

The week of the summit, 3.4 tons of Ivanka Trump handbags, wallets and blouses arrived in the U.S. from Hong Kong and Shanghai. U.S. imports of her merchandise grew an estimated 40 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to Panjiva Inc., which maintains and analyzes global shipping records.

Painter, the former Bush administration lawyer, recommended full recusal from issues related to trade with China. That is likely to be difficult because trade is so deeply embedded in the US-China relationship and has been linked with other matters, like North Korea.

“The danger is that with any discussion with the Chinese, one party or the other may try to bring up trade,” he said. “That’s a slippery slope that may require her or Jared to step out of the room.”

Gorelick, Ivanka Trump’s attorney, said that Ivanka and her husband would steer clear of specific areas that could impact her business, or be seen as conflicts of interest, but are under no legal obligation to step back from huge swaths of policy, like trade with China.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Trademarks can be signs of corporate ambition, though many countries — such as China, where trademark squatting is rampant — also allow for defensive filings to prevent copycats from using a brand.

Trademarks pose ethical, and possibly legal, implications for government employees because they are granted by foreign states and confer the monopoly right to sell branded product in a particular country — an entitlement that can be enormously valuable. Intellectual property lawyers say trademarks are also a crucial prerequisite for cutting licensing deals, which form the basis of both Ivanka and Donald Trump’s global business strategy.

Today, Ivanka Trump Marks LLC has 16 registered trademarks in China and 32 pending applications, along with a total of four marks granted preliminary approval since the inauguration, according to China’s Trademark Office. Altogether, they cover a wide range of goods and services, including cosmetics, jewelry, leather handbags, luggage, clothes, shoes, retail, spa and beauty services. There is no sign the recent approvals were particularly swift. China’s Trademark Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Globally, the company has more than 180 pending and registered trademarks in countries including Canada, India, Japan, Israel, Mexico, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, as well as the U.S. and Europe, public records show. In December, the company applied for five trademarks, covering handbags and wallets in Puerto Rico, and lingerie and other clothes in the U.S. After the inauguration, the company filed four more applications, for branded clothing and shoes in the Philippines, and perfume and other items in Canada.

Trump did not sign off on the new trademark applications, her brand said in a statement, adding that they are “not necessarily an indication that the brand is planning to launch a category or a store in a specific territory.”

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

The brand itself claims revenues rose 21 percent last year, with early February seeing some of the “best performance ever,” according to a statement by Abigail Klem, president of the Ivanka Trump brand. Because it is privately held, the brand does not have to declare its earnings or where revenues come from. The actual corporate structure of Trump’s retail business remains opaque. Kushner’s financial disclosure form lists two dozen corporate entities that appear directly related to his wife’s brand. Trump herself has yet to file a disclosure.

Data from Lyst, a massive fashion e-commerce platform, indicates some of this growth coincided with specific political events.

The number of Ivanka Trump items sold through Lyst was 46 percent higher the month her father was elected president than in November 2015. Sales spiked 771 percent in February over the same month last year, after White House counselor Kellyanne Conway exhorted Fox viewers to “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff.” Conway was later reprimanded. The bounce appears somewhat sustained. March sales on Lyst were up 262 percent over the same period last year.

“You can’t separate Ivanka from her role in life and from her business,” said Allen Adamson, founder of BrandSimpleConsulting. “Her celebrity status is now not only being fueled by her wealth and her family connection, but by her huge role in the White House. All that buzz is hardwired to her products.” That, he added, is a competitive advantage other brands just can’t match — though it does come with risk.

Things could easily cut the other way for the first daughter. Ashley King, 28 of Calabasas, California, bought Ivanka Trump black flats and a cardigan several years ago. But King, who voted for Hillary Clinton, said she believes Trump’s role in the White House represents a conflict of interest.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

___

Online:

Daily change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lyst – http://ift.tt/2ptK1zd

Monthly change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lsyt – http://ift.tt/2oHgZJl

The Ivanka Trump Collection Quarterly US Imports – http://ift.tt/2pu1uYi

Associated Press reporter Catherine Lucey in Washington, researcher Fu Ting in Shanghai, and reporters Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Teresa Cerojano in Manila and Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Follow Kinetz on Twitter at twitter.com/ekinetz

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oRk37J

#DIYS

0 notes

rtscrndr53704 · 8 years ago

Text

Ivanka Trump Cleared Hurdle For Chinese Trademarks Same Day She Dined With Xi Jinping

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advised Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

To address ethical concerns, Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

Data from Lyst, a massive fashion e-commerce platform, indicates some of this growth coincided with specific political events.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

___

Online:

Daily change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lyst – http://ift.tt/2ptK1zd

Monthly change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lsyt – http://ift.tt/2oHgZJl

The Ivanka Trump Collection Quarterly US Imports – http://ift.tt/2pu1uYi

Follow Kinetz on Twitter at twitter.com/ekinetz

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oRk37J

#DIYS

0 notes

realestate63141 · 8 years ago

Text

Ivanka Trump Cleared Hurdle For Chinese Trademarks Same Day She Dined With Xi Jinping

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advised Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

To address ethical concerns, Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

Data from Lyst, a massive fashion e-commerce platform, indicates some of this growth coincided with specific political events.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

___

Online:

Daily change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lyst – http://ift.tt/2ptK1zd

Monthly change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lsyt – http://ift.tt/2oHgZJl

The Ivanka Trump Collection Quarterly US Imports – http://ift.tt/2pu1uYi

Follow Kinetz on Twitter at twitter.com/ekinetz

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oRk37J

#DIYS

0 notes

grgedoors02142 · 8 years ago

Text

Ivanka Trump Cleared Hurdle For Chinese Trademarks Same Day She Dined With Xi Jinping

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advised Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

To address ethical concerns, Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

Data from Lyst, a massive fashion e-commerce platform, indicates some of this growth coincided with specific political events.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

___

Online:

Daily change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lyst – http://ift.tt/2ptK1zd

Monthly change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lsyt – http://ift.tt/2oHgZJl

The Ivanka Trump Collection Quarterly US Imports – http://ift.tt/2pu1uYi

Follow Kinetz on Twitter at twitter.com/ekinetz

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oRk37J

#DIYS

0 notes

exfrenchdorsl4p0a1 · 8 years ago

Text

Ivanka Trump Cleared Hurdle For Chinese Trademarks Same Day She Dined With Xi Jinping

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advised Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

To address ethical concerns, Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

Data from Lyst, a massive fashion e-commerce platform, indicates some of this growth coincided with specific political events.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

___

Online:

Daily change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lyst – http://ift.tt/2ptK1zd

Monthly change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lsyt – http://ift.tt/2oHgZJl

The Ivanka Trump Collection Quarterly US Imports – http://ift.tt/2pu1uYi

Follow Kinetz on Twitter at twitter.com/ekinetz

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oRk37J

#DIYS

0 notes

chpatdoorsl3z0a1 · 8 years ago

Text

Ivanka Trump Cleared Hurdle For Chinese Trademarks Same Day She Dined With Xi Jinping

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advised Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

To address ethical concerns, Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

Data from Lyst, a massive fashion e-commerce platform, indicates some of this growth coincided with specific political events.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

___

Online:

Daily change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lyst – http://ift.tt/2ptK1zd

Monthly change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lsyt – http://ift.tt/2oHgZJl

The Ivanka Trump Collection Quarterly US Imports – http://ift.tt/2pu1uYi

Follow Kinetz on Twitter at twitter.com/ekinetz

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oRk37J

#DIYS

0 notes

repwinpril9y0a1 · 8 years ago

Text

Ivanka Trump Cleared Hurdle For Chinese Trademarks Same Day She Dined With Xi Jinping

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advised Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

To address ethical concerns, Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

Data from Lyst, a massive fashion e-commerce platform, indicates some of this growth coincided with specific political events.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

___

Online:

Daily change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lyst – http://ift.tt/2ptK1zd

Monthly change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lsyt – http://ift.tt/2oHgZJl

The Ivanka Trump Collection Quarterly US Imports – http://ift.tt/2pu1uYi

Follow Kinetz on Twitter at twitter.com/ekinetz

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oRk37J

#DIYS

0 notes

pat78701 · 8 years ago

Text

Ivanka Trump Cleared Hurdle For Chinese Trademarks Same Day She Dined With Xi Jinping

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advised Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

To address ethical concerns, Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

Data from Lyst, a massive fashion e-commerce platform, indicates some of this growth coincided with specific political events.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

___

Online:

Daily change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lyst – http://ift.tt/2ptK1zd

Monthly change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lsyt – http://ift.tt/2oHgZJl

The Ivanka Trump Collection Quarterly US Imports – http://ift.tt/2pu1uYi

Follow Kinetz on Twitter at twitter.com/ekinetz

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oRk37J

#DIYS

0 notes

stormdoors78476 · 8 years ago

Text

Ivanka Trump Cleared Hurdle For Chinese Trademarks Same Day She Dined With Xi Jinping

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advised Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

To address ethical concerns, Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

Data from Lyst, a massive fashion e-commerce platform, indicates some of this growth coincided with specific political events.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

___

Online:

Daily change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lyst – http://ift.tt/2ptK1zd

Monthly change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lsyt – http://ift.tt/2oHgZJl

The Ivanka Trump Collection Quarterly US Imports – http://ift.tt/2pu1uYi

Follow Kinetz on Twitter at twitter.com/ekinetz

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oRk37J

#DIYS

0 notes

rtawngs20815 · 8 years ago

Text

Ivanka Trump Cleared Hurdle For Chinese Trademarks Same Day She Dined With Xi Jinping

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advised Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

To address ethical concerns, Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

Data from Lyst, a massive fashion e-commerce platform, indicates some of this growth coincided with specific political events.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

___

Online:

Daily change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lyst – http://ift.tt/2ptK1zd

Monthly change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lsyt – http://ift.tt/2oHgZJl

The Ivanka Trump Collection Quarterly US Imports – http://ift.tt/2pu1uYi

Follow Kinetz on Twitter at twitter.com/ekinetz

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oRk37J

#DIYS

0 notes