Hedge fund coach claims ‘Billions’ trolling her by dressing character in favorite outfit
It’s not about who wore it better, it’s about who wore it first.
Hedge fund performance coach Denise Shull says the creators of hit TV show “Billions” are thumbing their noses at her claims that she was the inspiration for one of their lead characters by dressing that character in one of her favorite outfits.
Shull — who’s working to revive her lawsuit against the “Showtime” show after it was tossed last year— says a “Billions” episode that aired on May 24 shows Wendy Rhoades, played by Maggie Siff, in a dress that appears identical to one Shull wore in interviews that appeared on YouTube in early 2019.
“It’s a little hard to argue there’s no likelihood of confusion when they’re raiding my closet,” Shull told The Post of the distinctive navy blue pencil dress with an asymmetrical neckline that she wore during two video-recorded interviews last year.
Shull and her legal team think the folks behind “Billions” — including executive producers Andrew Ross Sorkin, Brian Koppelman and David Levien — may have dressed the women alike after the case was tossed in October. Neither Showtime nor lawyers for the defendants returned calls for comment, but the most recent season of “Billions” began filming in the late fall of last year.
“I’m actually surprised they would pull these stunts,” Shull said. “Maybe Koppelman wants to troll me — but it seems more like playing chicken with the court.”
Shull first sued the Showtime network and creators in 2018, alleging that they used her persona and aspects of her book, “Market Mind Games,” to create the Wendy Rhoades character, a performance coach at fictional hedge fund Axe Capital.
“Billions” co-creator and New York Times financial columnist Sorkin sought Shull’s help to develop the character, but she was never compensated, she has said.
The case was tossed by a federal judge in October, but Shull and her new layers are back on the warpath. In January, they filed an amended complaint against the “Billions” team citing multiple instances in which Shull was contacted by people, including clients, congratulating her on the success of the series and Wendy Rhoades — or questioning if she, too, is a dominatrix.
“If I have been asked if I am a dominatrix once, I’ve been asked that 100 times,” Shull said after the case was tossed last year. “Once their show began airing, I could not escape comments from my clients, followers and audiences mentioning the similarity between Wendy and me.”
“We believe that we have a meritorious case and a meritorious motion and that there are ongoing and continued instances of using Denise’s persona and content,” said Shull lawyer Avi Turkel. “There is no greater evidence than when consumers in the marketplace are actually confused.”
Shoppers Returned in May, Likely Spurring Increased Retail Sales
Economists expect retail sales rose 7.7% in May following record declines during coronavirus lockdowns
Shoppers opened their pocketbooks in May as states eased coronavirus-related restrictions on businesses and consumers, likely prompting a pickup in retail sales following record declines during lockdowns.
The May retail sales report from the Commerce Department, to be released Tuesday, is expected to offer another sign that the worst of the economic shock from the pandemic likely occurred in late March and April when widespread shutdowns to contain the virus were in place across the country. Employers, for instance, added 2.5 million jobs last month, and the jobless rate fell to 13.3% from April’s 14.7%.
In recent weeks, retail executives said that spending picked up at the end of April and into May, and that shoppers returned to reopened stores faster than expected. Private data also suggest that economic activity continued to rise in early June.
Costco Wholesale Corp. ’s comparable sales, those from stores or digital channels operating at least 12 months, rose 9.7% in May. Sales of discretionary and nonfood items such as bedding, appliances and sporting goods “rebounded in May compared to recent months,” while food sales stayed strong, a Costco executive said on a prerecorded call to discuss monthly sales. Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. executives also said last month that spending picked up at the end of their most recent quarters in late April.
Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect that retail sales, a measure of purchases at stores, at restaurants and online, increased 7.7% in May from a month earlier. That would mark the strongest month-over-month increase in retail sales since records began in 1992, but following two months of record drops and at levels that would remain well below prepandemic levels.
Retail sales were $403.9 billion in April, more than 20% below the $527.3 billion recorded in February.
The U.S. economy still has a long way to go to recover—economists project it could take years—and recent increases in coronavirus cases in more than a dozen states are casting a cloud over reopening efforts.
“We still have so far to go,” said André Kurmann, associate professor of economics at Drexel University. “We are still so far below the prepandemic employment levels.”
“Stores can reopen to some extent, but how many people are going to come back is the big question,” he added.
As states allow businesses to reopen there are signs consumers are ready to spend, at least a little. Shoppers flocked to a T.J. Maxx store in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Monday, many eager to see and touch clothes, jewelry and shoes in real life.
Sheri Hudson, a retired 55-year-old who lives in Monroe, Mich., said she has been shopping more as stores reopened in recent weeks, including driving half an hour south to Ohio because stores opened there in May. “The whole time we were on house arrest, I went down there to do my shopping,” said Ms. Hudson, placing discounted designer clothes in her cart.
Some shoppers say they are being cautious with their spending, even though they are still employed. “I’ve cut back a lot because the economy is the way it is,” said Sue Vaandering, a 51-year-old from Brighton, Mich. She is buying essentials for her family such as food and household goods, and starting to buy more summer supplies, but is cutting back on clothes, she said.
Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., said she is watching to see how much consumers spent and on what in May, the third month of the pandemic-related disruptions in the U.S.
“It’s going to be interesting to see exactly how families and individuals rearrange spending on a month-to-month basis,” she said, amid uneven business reopenings and hesitation about re-entering stores and malls.
Brendan Coughlin, head of consumer banking at Citizens Financial Group Inc., said at a Morgan Stanley virtual conference last week that debit-card spending has picked up after a coronavirus-related plunge.
“While the economy is not out of the woods, while the banking system’s not out of the woods, while our customers are not out of the woods, we are seeing some very encouraging return-to-life signs from our retail customer base,” he said.
Online sales have grown quickly during the coronavirus pandemic as more shoppers stayed home and more retailers offered new services such as parking lot pickup of online orders. Nonstore retail sales, which includes sales from online sellers such as Amazon.com Inc., grew 8.4% in April, compared with the previous month amid a steep decline in overall retail sales.
Economists say that while an increase in retail sales may offer signs of a turnaround it won’t reach prepandemic levels and isn’t a sign the impact from the pandemic is over.
They also expect the effect on personal income from trillions of dollars in government stimulus—including one-time payments of up to $1,200 and enhanced unemployment payments—will fade before the pandemic ends.
“The labor market should keep recovering, but support from stimulus payments will fade, some states may have to pause their reopening amidst new uptrends in Covid infections, and supplemental unemployment benefits will likely be less generous after the current program expires at the end of July,” Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. macro strategist at TD Securities, said in a note to clients Monday.
The Logic Behind Givenchy's New Designer Appointment
Matthew M. Williams, founder of the luxury streetwear-inspired label 1017 ALYX 9SM, succeeds Clare Waight Keller. What expertise does he bring to the LVMH-owned brand?
PARIS, France — Givenchy is gearing up for another creative reset.
The LVMH-owned brand announced on Monday that designer Matthew M. Williams, the 34-year-old founder of luxury streetwear-inspired label 1017 ALYX 9SM, will be its new creative director, in the designer’s first major director role. He succeeds Clare Waight Keller after her exit in April, and will present his first collection in Paris in October. Williams will continue to operate Alyx independently.
The appointment will particularly excite Millennial and Gen-Z shoppers, who are projected to represent at least half of luxury shoppers by 2025, according to Bain & Company, and who drive consumption in China, the world’s largest market for personal luxury goods.
Williams’ new role marks the second time a designer rooted in street fashion has taken the helm of a major legacy luxury brand, following Virgil Abloh’s hiring at Louis Vuitton in 2018. In recent years, luxury brands have sought to keep up with a generational change in shoppers by appointing designers who, like young people from Europe to China, grew up on hip hop and Supreme. The designer behind Alyx, with its cult-following and cultural cachet that warrants it a name-check in Drake’s most recent song, is not a surprising choice to many in the industry.
Williams will likely further push Givenchy in a streetwear direction, though he joins the luxury couture house during a period of turbulence for the fashion industry. The pandemic is expected to shrink the luxury market by as much as 35 percent this year due to store closures and decreased travel and consumer spending. His first collections will likely not be able to debut at the kinds of highly anticipated runway shows the industry expects from new creative eras at major luxury houses.
And, Williams will be joining the label during a moment of profound societal change, during which consumers are questioning how all the institutions they interact with are actively fighting discrimination. Streetwear owes a significant debt to black culture, arguably its largest influence, though most of its leading brands or designers are white. At LVMH, for instance, all but three of the 15 artistic or creative directors at its fashion brands are men, and only two are people of colour.
"I am grateful to the LVMH group for trusting me with the opportunity to fulfill my lifelong dream," Williams said in a statement. "In these unprecedented times for the world, I want to send a message of hope, together with my community and colleagues, and intend to contribute towards positive change."
Williams, who grew up in California and will now relocate to Paris from Ferrara, Italy, entered the fashion business through the music industry and is known for his work with Lady Gaga, Abloh and Kanye West. He is also a close collaborator of Abloh’s; they were among the co-founders of the creative collective Been Trill in 2012. Both designers are West-associated creatives who have ascended to the highest ranks of the fashion industry in recent years.
Williams launched women’s fashion label Alyx in 2015 — backed by sportswear distributor and cultural arbiter Slam Jam, led by Luca Benini — and was a finalist for the LVMH Prize the following year. In 2017, he added a men’s line, which has become more prominent than the women’s collection.
“Streetwear is a very loaded term,” Williams said onstage at BoF’s VOICES in November. “I’m interested in modern craft. As designers, we need to be proposing what the future could look like. I see myself as a bridge for kids who are into T-shirts and sneakers but through Alyx they can find out about tailoring or leather pieces.”
Alyx is understated in its style, although inspired by punk rock and gothic fashion, and is a hit with the hypebeast set and beyond as Williams’ profile and the label’s cult-like status has grown. With the label, Williams has collaborated over the years with Vans, Nike and Kim Jones at Dior, among others, while making noise about the importance of manufacturing in Italy — he even moved there in order to be close to production.
Williams' focus on materials and sustainability was also likely appealing to Givenchy. Consumers were already demanding more transparency about the environmental impact of fashion products before the pandemic, and in light of the recession, quality and craftsmanship will likely take on even greater weight for shoppers.
At Givenchy, Wiliams will likely be expected to deliver the types of collections that drive customers to queue up to shop, but on a much larger scale than he has operated before. At Givenchy, a couture house with a rich history, there are major growth expectations. Former Chief Executive Philippe Fortunato told BoF in 2018 that parent company LVMH hoped the label would grow to Dior-like size, meaning revenue exceeding €2 billion ($2.14 billion).
Waight Keller broke firmly from former creative director Riccardo Tisci’s approach, and her couture collections were widely praised. But market sources said customers were cool on the offering except for the more streetwear-leaning men’s collections, which represented about half of sales when she joined the label. Fortunato exited in February, replaced by former Dior Americas executive Renaud de Lesquen.
"I believe [Williams'] singular vision of modernity will be a great opportunity for Givenchy to write its new chapter with strength and success," said Sidney Toledano, chairman and Chief Executive of LVMH's Fashion Group, in a statement.
Richemont Nabs LVMH Veteran to Head Fashion Division
Philippe Fortunato was most recently chief executive officer of Givenchy.
Richemont confirmed the hire early Tuesday.
Fortunato, most recently chief executive officer of Givenchy, is poised to become head of Richemont’s fashion and accessories maisons, which include Chloé, Dunhill, Maison Alaïa and the golf and luxury performance apparel brand Peter Millar.
Richemont also recently entered into a a joint venture with designer Alber Elbaz known as AZfashion, a from-scratch project aimed at wardrobe “solutions” for women.
Sources said Fortunato would also join the executive committee of Richemont, parent of Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Montblanc and a bevy of luxury watch brands including A. Lange & Söhne and IWC.
Most recently, Fortunato spent six years helming Givenchy. A dynamic and seasoned executive, he ramped up retail expansion, brought couture back to the runway, oversaw the brand’s arrival on e-commerce, and also put the spotlight on its men’s wear division with a slate of initiatives.
He exited the French house in March and was mum about his plans.
Prior to Givenchy, Fortunato had been president and ceo of the North Asia region of Louis Vuitton, and was seen as a high-potential manager at the luxury giant. He has also been managing director of Fendi, and worked for Christian Dior and Vuitton in China.
Earlier in his career, Fortunato spent two years in the French navy, after which he worked for French lingerie firm Chantelle and Dubai-based retailer Chalhoub Group.
Fortunato is to take up responsibilities previously held by Eric Vallat, who exited Richemont’s fashion and accessories division in September 2019, a little over a year after taking up the job, and in an ever-more challenging market.
His challenge will be to help unlock potential at brands such as Chloé and Maison Alaïa, which recently welcomed new ceos, and to help Richemont to better navigate the finicky fashion world.
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