We just received a call from Zina Eva, the designer of the bag line. She was very gracious and apologized for any inappropriate behavior from the PR company and stated she has fired them. I feel sorry for her as she had no clue what the PR company was doing to us. Zina also said that everyone has different tastes in bags, some people love her bags, some don't- and she is okay with that. But that does not mean we should be subjected to harassment of any kind.
We'd like to thank Zina for her message and applaud her for graciously apologizing for the behavior of the PR firm (and like we said, we didn't plan on mentioning the line on our site at all, it was the dozen of hate emails from the PR girl that prompted us to post this).
Now, the matter is closed and we will not discuss it any further. A big thank you to all of our friends for their support.
Wow, that is big of her. Usually it's the designer that goes nuts and the PR firm who has to handle the mess.
Maybe Zina should do her own PR?!?!
i am glad zina apologized, and i sincerely hope you never have to experience something like this again. i am sorry that you had to even go through this at all.
I'm not sure what all happened here. However , I have met Zina Eva before at NM Palm Beach and she is very down to earth and just a kind hearted warm soul hoping to venture out and show the world her awesome handbags. I wish her the best and I'm sure she will do great!!!
That was gracious of Zina Eva, and she is one smart cookie to boot!
Who is this PR firm? I'd like to make sure HOBO International, who i design for, never uses them!!
This girl will most likely, and should, lose her job. Bad decisin considering how many Important) people you girls know in this business ~ she probably will have a tough time getting hired again by someone else.
Love you guys!! Hey, would you maybe ever want to feature a HOBO bag?? :) They are all real 100% leather, uber-useful with tons of pockets and compartments on the inside, and so trend-right.
I'm pretty sure based on personal experiences with the designer that Zina Eva is and always has been her own PR person. I actually googled her line of handbags hearing that she has become somewhat successful thinking "good for her" even though I myself have never been a fan of the product. I came across your blog and all the related comments. I had to speak up and let you know that I think your original post and assessment were "dead on" and the resulting apologies were backpeddling brown-nosing.
You are absolutely one hundred percent correct. Zina Eva is a very small company and they do not have a PR firm. It might not have been Zina herself that responded, they do have a few sales people, but most likely it could have been her husband. He actually runs the company and he is very racist. I have personally heard him degrade his own employees of his factory in the Dominican Republic with hateful, racist comments, sometimes to there faces. He constantly refers to Dominicans as morons, liars, and thieves. There is a lot more to know about what goes on at Zina International, the name of their factory in the D.R. where they make the bags, including their current head designer and plant manager, Aenri Swissa. If anyone is interested in his past in counterfeit goods in Miami or the abuses of the employees at Zina International respond to this post and I can provide proof of my accusations. I know every detail to their opration in Dominican Republic.
You do realise how much publicity you've given them as there are now some 39 comments on your previous post. Having been a fashion editor for ten years now, for some of the best, including Vogue, this is certainly not the last altercation you can expect to have with a crazy publicist. I've dealt with ones who badmouthed me to each other but sent me the email instead, I've had ones send parcels for market layouts to other publications then harass my staff for returns, I've had ones call me the 'c' word when I declined to feature their products (yes, in writing) and had their managing directors then side with their staffers. I've even had a designer recall a dress she made for me then refuse to return my money and follow it up with a series of increasingly abusive emails. Welcome to the world of fashion. As with any other business, there are crazy people. The best publicity for them is no publicity. At least that's how I've handled it at Vogue and other places.
Zina Eva does not have a PR firm. They are a small company with a few sales people. Zina's husband runs the business. They have a factory in the Dominican Republic with about 40 employees working on production where they produce between 10 to 40 bags per day. Their head designer and plant manager, Aenri Swissa, was convicted in Miami,Fl for selling counterfeit rolexes in 1999 and his store was busted for selling counterfeit bags, sun glasses, and watches in 2005. His 19 year old daughter took the fall for the store, but he was the owner. I have witnessed Zina's husband degrade his own employees, many times to their faces, with racist statements about Dominicans, calling them morons, liars, and thieves. There are more serious abuses of their employees that are going on and when I reported these abuses to Zina I was ignored and no action has been taken to halt the abuse. I believe Zina was ignorant of the abuses because she has never even been to the factory, however she is now aware and nothing has changed.