Lorna Jane slammed for response to former employee’s article

A DAY after Lorna Jane was under fire by a former employee claiming she was used by the company, the Brisbane-based brand is again in the spotlight ... for their response to the former employee’s claims.

A DAY after Lorna Jane was under fire by a former employee claiming she was used by the company, the Brisbane-based brand is again in the spotlight ... for their response to the employee’s claims.

Former Lorna Jane trainer-turned journalist Vanessa Croll’s opinion piece, published yesterday by News Corp, stated why she felt used by the company when she worked for them 10 years ago.

“There was a time when such an awe and sense of admiration came over me while reading articles highlighting the sportswear founder and her lucrative entrepreneurial qualities,” the piece started.

Vanessa went on to “call bush*t” on Lorna Jane’s sobbing on Sunday night’s 60 Minutes, on which Lorna Jane told the program she felt vulnerable.

A floor-to-ceiling photo of Vanessa Croll as it appeared in stores. (Pic: Supplied)

Vanessa’s basis for the claims of “crocodile tears” were in her experience as an employee, where she says she was used. Asked to model for the catalogue and in a poster used in several stores for years to follow, she was paid $70 for one photoshoot and $150 for another.

The article caused a stir yesterday, but it’s the activewear brand’s response on The Courier-Mail’s Facebook post of the article that has again thrown Lorna Jane into the spotlight.

'When I landed a job as a personal trainer for Lorna Jane, I was elated. I was even “lucky” enough to be used as her catalogue model. But it soon became clear I was being taken advantage of.'

Posted by Courier Mail on Tuesday, November 3, 2015

In the response, Lorna Jane’s team calls Vanessa’s article an “an attack by an opportunist trying to benefit from Lorna’s success” and says no concerns were raised during her employment.

The response has had more than 130 replies, mostly of people slamming it as poor PR.

“Public relations 101... Never use your company’s account to reply to an article about them. Do a media release! This will go down in academic books as an example of a PR disaster and how not to do social media management...,” one reader, Daniela Lopez, posted.

Olivia Doolan wrote: “Major PR disaster here... And commenting back on Facebook? There are many other ways to “set the record straight” this just makes it look like a desperate attempt to cover something up....”

LORNA JANE’S FULL RESPONSE ON FACEBOOK

Given Lorna Jane wasn’t approached for comment or our opinion on this article, we felt it appropriate to set the record straight here.

Vanessa was a personal trainer at a gym owned by Lorna Jane more than ten years ago and at that time aspired to be a model. Despite having no experience as a model, Lorna agreed to feature her in some catalogues to give her a break and try to help her in her dream of becoming a model.

Despite featuring Vanessa purely to help her out, she was still paid for her work and was extremely excited and grateful for both the opportunity and money paid to her. Lorna Jane was just a small business at the time, however being a model for the brand was still extremely beneficial to a model’s portfolio.

Lorna Jane and Bill Clarkson. (Pic: Mark Calleja)

It’s very upsetting that ten years later Vanessa has chosen to write this article, which we see as nothing more than an attack by an opportunist trying to benefit from Lorna’s success. Lorna Jane has never been contacted by Vanessa, nor were any concerns raised by her during her time working with Lorna and Bill.

We wish Vanessa every success as a journalist and truly hope she realises that women need to support each other rather than tearing each other down.

All the best in active living.

Response from RendezView editor Sarrah Le Marquand to Lorna Jane’s comments on the Courier-Mail’s Facebook page

“We note with interest that Lorna Jane has publicly confirmed the facts that Vanessa Croll revealed in her opinion piece regarding her experience with the company, which is that after being hired as a personal trainer she was used as a catalogue model.

“As for Lorna Jane’s response that they opted to utilise Vanessa as a model ‘purely to help her out’, we will leave readers to draw their own conclusions as to whether that is the reason a company would choose to feature an iconic floor-to-ceiling photograph of Vanessa in their stores throughout Australia and New Zealand for several years, and also feature her as the sole model in numerous widely distributed catalogues.

“To suggest that the decision to allocate such sustained marketing exposure to a young woman, who by her own admission had no modelling experience, solely ‘to give her a break’ is certainly a claim that will raise eyebrows among those professionally employed in the clothing and modelling industries.

“Since the publication of Vanessa’s opinion piece yesterday, RendezView has been inundated with people getting in contact to share their own experiences of working for the company. We have opted to keep this communication private and believe Vanessa covered everything that needs to be said at this time in her piece. But Lorna Jane is very welcome to submit a response to Vanessa’s piece for publication at RendezView.”