Love Island's Gemma Owenhas been announced as the newest ambassador for fashion brand PrettyLittleThing. However, social media have called the clothing giants out for what they see as snubbing fellow Islander Indiyah Polackfrom the million pound deal.
Following in the footsteps of fellow ex-Islander Molly-Mae Hauge, Gemma has joined the fast fashion brand as an ambassador. Speaking on the million pound partnership, Gemma said in a statement, 'This really is a dream come true for me. I wore PrettyLittleThing throughout my time on the show and now being announced as one of their newest ambassadors alongside some incredible talent including Love Island alumni is really special. The team have been amazing and I’m excited to get to work and start designing some collections for you all!' In the year-long partnership Gemma will reportedly be launching her own PLT collections as well as helping the brand launch their new resale platform ‘PLT Marketplace’.
However, social media have called PLT out for their latest signing calling it 'unfair.' During Love Island the PLT Twitter account uploaded a tweet with images of Gemma and Indiyah. They asked their 500k followers to tweet, like and retweet depending on who they thought should get the 'PLT deal.' In the end Indiyah received 10.1k likes whilst Gemma received 500 likes. Overall, Indiyah's tweet gained more engagement and they also posted a lot of images of her thought the series.
As soon as Pretty Little Thing announced their newest brand ambassador on Twitter, users sprung into action to call them out for their social media marketing technique. One fan wrote, 'This is so nasty. I'm sorry but they really used Indiyah for engagement the whole season.' While another said, ' What annoys me about this is that they asked us who we think their next ambassador should be and Indiyah got the most votes.' Users have also commented that Gemma is just 'not the right fit' for the brand.
Speaking on the brands latest signing, CEO Umar Kamani said, 'Gemma is the perfect person to represent the PLT consumer; she’s smart, confident, ambitious and has a much loved, relatable style. We’re very excited to have her joining the PLT family and look forward to sharing lots of exciting content, collections and shoots with our customers.'
Creative Director Molly-Mae previously spoke out about the the PLT Marketplace which would launch as a UK-only app, with an exact launch date to be confirmed, before rolling out to other international markets by the end of the year. In the wake of criticism surrounding the sustainability of the brand, they announced that the marketplace will also allow consumers to sell not only their old PLT items but also second-hand items from other brands as well.
'We’ve been working on it for well over a year now,' explained Molly, 'It will be an app where girls can resell their PLT pieces and pretty much anything pre-loved. It is a massive move for us and something that we think will disrupt the fashion industry, as people aren’t going to expect this from us.'
Molly said that the marketplace would encourage sustainability and for its young customer base to rethink throw-away fashion, adding, 'It will encourage girls to think maybe this piece is actually still in really great condition and to encourage someone else to buy it, and it is great to make a little bit of money for our girls as well.'