On today's show, Mollie mae Haig steps down as creative director of.
Pretty Little Thing, fast fashion brand.
Sheen hosts influencers on a paid trip to its factory, and Madison Wooly reveals she's moving back in with her parents. Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm Sophie Torbert and Amy. On the weekend, you welcomed the little bundle of Joy into your household? Yes, in the
bunny variety. So I've rescued a gorgeous little bunny from the Animal Welfare League, and there are so many animals in need of homes, Especially since COVID, A lot of people have been dumping their animals, which is really sad. Well, I think it also comes as the cost of living crisises here and people are finding that they're either not able to hold onto their houses and are having to move into rentals which don't allow pets. Yeah, I know it's really sad, but we have brought him home and
we're currently looking for a name. I put something up on my Instagram about it and people sending through the best suggestions. One was Pancakes, which is apparently on the OC there was a bunny, a white bunny called Pancake, and I was like, oh, I feel like I have heard pancakes a lot thrown around for rabbits. I think you should call him Benjamin Bunny. Well, he's got a real attitude to him. He kind of like you know the footy players when they wear the crisp white boots.
That's what he looks like hopping around in the backyard. He needs kind of like so far, I was saying, like Jack's, Yeah, it could be my voters for Jack's. I think that would be a really cute name. I also think it could have a Love Island name because your female bunny is called Maura. So I thought Curtis because that's not What about Tommy Fury because he's got blue eyes. Yes, I was actually thinking he looked a
bit like a Tommy. Also, the other contender is Dale and I love down to Abbey, so I thinking of calling him Brant's and I want to say he told merdon no, I think Tommy and Mora because it's kind of ironic because Mora was going after Tommy on Love Island. Well, he has been chasing her non stop and he's been humping her. Apparently it's like a dominant thing because he's been to sex.
There's a lot of change coming up in the next yeah, three months.
Madison Woolly has revealed she's moving back in with her parents as she searches for an apartment to buy. The twenty four year old moved to Sydney five years ago from a hometown of Nuser, but is now returning to Queensland after her landlord put her rental up for sale. Now it is in great timing for Madison because as most influencers do come winter, she is going to Europe for a month and basically as soon as she's back she has to get.
Out of the apartment. She's only got a week to get out.
Yeah. The announcement has raised a few eyebrows because it does coincide with Madison also holding a warehouse sale for her brand twenty third in Madisons and the warehouse sale was of course to get rid of old stock, but there was a lot of stock. I do wonder how successful this sale was because normally influencers will film how many people are there and that there's no stock left. However,
we saw nothing from it. We see when Sammy Robinson has a warehouse sale for one mile that there's literally women queuing for hours down the street, but we definitely didn't see this sort of fanfare, and I'm sure if it did happen, it.
Would have been on TikTok.
It is the end of the financial year, though, so it does make sense that she would hold a warehouse sale. Yeah, I mean, I was really shocked that Madison said that she's basically selling everything in her apartment, considering it's not like she's, you know, your average dough who's just brought
everything off Facebook marketplace. A lot of these pieces of furniture, as we've reported in previous episodes, are very expensive and custom Like she thinks she had her bed made and a couch made specifically for this apartment that she was renting.
Well, can you imagine having to.
Get that from Sydney to Queensland to'd be very difficult. Well, it's just insanity. Let's throw to what she said about it.
I'm actually going to be selling basically everything, though I own it sounds like I'm having like a mid twenties Christis, which potentially I am this current place that I'm in like I loved it for so long, but I just feel like I've grown up a lot since, like designing and decorating, Like this.
Apartment doesn't really feel like me.
So I'm not going to be in Sydney for however long.
Maybe she's realized that buying everything in white wasn't a great idea. The whole thing is we do have to remember she is only twenty five. I don't get why she doesn't just move in with Jonathan for a few months while she's trying to find a comma days ago, because he's going to be still being Sydney. Are they going to do long distance? I mean, Jonathan is originally from Brisbane. I wonder if he's moving back as well, because it's probably just too expensive.
Living on the East Most.
Then again, her parents do live in a freaking mansion. Yeah, but even so, it would be so hard living out of home for five years and then going back to.
Live with your parents.
I bet her parents are doing a europe troop as well, and she's probably home alone. Maybe she's looking after their house for them.
I wonder what this is.
Going to mean for a lot of her influencer jobs though, because I know a lot of influencers moved to Sydney or Melbourne because that's where most of the parties and events.
So that's not true.
A lot of them are on the Gold Coast, so she's not going to be far from it at all. I more questioned what's going on with her business twenty third in Madison, because she has an office since Sydney, she's got an employee's really trying to get rid of stock. Is she going to continue the business from NUSA? And also she's got a podcast she records with her best friend in her in house studio. They've had so many technical difficulties whenever they've tried to.
Record away from each other. What's going to happen to that? Yeah, I do feel for Caitlin.
It would be really tough if you're in business with someone and then they've been either decided to or forced to move back home.
I feel like.
She's going to be in NUSA for a while as well, because she said well, hopefully I'll be back in Sydney before the end of the year.
That's six months.
It is actually quite a smart financial decision though, especially if she's trying to buy a house in this current climate, how much would she say, actually moving back in with her parents, putting lives at risk on the Tellermarine Freeway at almost tripled the speed limit. Entrepreneur Mitch Third, who is best known for being the ex boyfriend of Gold Coast influencer Tylia Scaines, is under fire again, this time
for a very disturbing video that he uploaded to Instagram. Now, the former drink bottle entrepreneur turned energy drink CEO, shared a video to his forty four thousand followers showing a Mercedes swerving through traffic and clogging two hundred and nineteen kilometers an hour on the Tullamarine Freeway near an Essendon DFO.
Now, the footage was.
Captured inside the luxury car, and he captured the video we late dot dot dot slept in and tagged his friend and in the video you can audibly hear the passenger laughing in the background. This vision was disgusting, Like, it's actually scary that somebody thought it was okay to speed that quickly along the highway, the weaving through the cars, they'n lucky they didn't kill anybody. And then to post
it and then have you laughing in the background. The backlash was very swift, with followers calling Mitch out and reporting him to crime stoppers. One follower wrote, this is seriously disgusting, while another said it's not even funny. He could have killed someone. The media were also very quick to jump on this story. Seven News did a story on it, as well as The Herald's son. And I'm really not surprised because from a television perspective, it was
excellent pictures. They love this sort of stuff, and they named Mitch third as well as the driver.
But Mitch has come out and he's denied it.
Yeah. He claims the footage was not his video and that it was filmed two years ago. He wrote, guys, yesterday's video was not my video. I was not driving, filming, or even in that car. I don't condone speeding and shouldn't have reposted the video thinking it was acceptable.
Why did he write we are running late?
Well, I think he is claiming that this is a memory that's popped up from two years ago, because he shared the date of the video and it was the same date, but two years prior. It was probably it probably was a couple of years ago, but he clearly filmed it exactly him laughing in the back sound so much like his life, doesn't it. Well. When the video was posted, he was on a work trip in Melbourne because he normally lives on the Gold Coast, so I can see why people assumed it was a live video.
This has turned into a police matter, so Victorian police are reviewing the vision and it does follow allegations of a very bitter dispute between Talia and Mitch Third and that is over their e commerce company, which is called Third Fixed Collection. And Talia has also accused Mitch of threats of violence, which he has denied. So things aren't looking great for Mitch at the moment in the media. Probably not the best lead up to his energy drink
company launch. I don't think it will matter though, because I think the people that are buying stuff from Mitch, they'd probably think it's hilarious for him to post videos of someone speeding.
Yeah, his target market might be fuck wits.
Well. He did say earlier in the year that he wanted to be canceled, wasn't it. These are the best products I found on she in this week, but don't buy them.
It's a potato cuchin. What's not to.
Love if you guys can believe it, controversial fast fashion brand Sheen has hosted influences on a paid trip to Guangzhou in China to tour one of its factories. So six influencers were brought to what she calls its innovation factory to experience for themselves what goes on behind the scenes, and of course report back to their followers. Can you imagine how highly controlled this tour.
Would have been.
It reminds me when all the prestigious schools do school tours and apparently the word is that they just put all of the troubled students into a room and that's hied them away. Oh, there would have been so much strategy around which factory workers, to include which rooms they're allowed to go into. It also should be noted that she have around six thousand different factories.
So this is the house.
So this innovation factory has clearly been hand picked to be the top factory that influencers in the media can go to. What I'm more shocked about is that they managed to get six influencers to go on this trip. If any of them have managers, you would have assumed they would have been told not to touch this trip
with a ten foot poll. If I was one of the influencers, I would have been scared that this would somehow turn into one of those reality shows where they make them work as the worker or you know, because isn't it.
Wouldn't that be the best show?
Well, things haven't gone down well for influencer Danny Carbonari. She is facing criticis after attending this tour because she seemed to offer a very glowing review of the factory tour. And this is despite the fact that the company has
a very long documented history of labor abuse. Now, to put this into perspective, how much weight Danny's comments have She has nearly half a million followers on Instagram and on her Instagram she did chronicle this influencer trip, sharing a video of the factory tour and writing it's hard for me to put this into words how this trip has impacted me. I was really excited and impressed to
see the working conditions. Now this caption was paired with vision of a clean, brightly lit factory, she continued, saying, I think my biggest takeaway from this trip is to be an independent thinker, get the facts and see it with your own eyes, She finished saying, there's a narrative fed to the US, and I'm one that always likes to be open minded and seek the truth. So I'm grateful for that about myself, and I hope the same for you. Now. Danny wasn't the only one to share
about this trip. The other five influencers shared a very similar sentiment online and also used very similar language referring to misinformation. So influencer DestinE sudo throte, I expected this facility to be so filled with people just slaving away.
I don't really got a use of the word slavery, but I.
Was actually pleasantly surprised now as I touched on. This is one of six thousand factories that Sheen has, so it was clearly hand picked for influences well to refresh everyone's memories. A twenty twenty one investigation by Swiss watchdog group Public Eye found that employees often worked in unsafe conditions. Several factory workers also told researchers that they worked up to seventy five hours a week and got only one
day off each month. It also stated that none of them had been given an employment contract, which is a violation of labor laws in China. Also, you guys will remember there was that Channel four documentary in twenty twenty two called Inside the Sheine Machine that was the worst publicity Sheine could have ever. God, I don't understand, Like, can't people see how transparent it is. They've had this documentary and their PR team's gone, oh.
What can we do.
We'll get these idiot influences in to brainwash everyone.
Oh no, these conditions are great. Thank god people are seeing through it.
Well, for those who haven't seen the documentary yet, they found that workers were only being paid two cents per item that they made. And the host of the documentary, Aman Amani, she actually hit out in Danny's comments section, so she wrote, I hosted the Channel four documentary that did the undercover investigation into factories that provide clothes to Sheen. There is video evidence of laws being broken.
They aren't rumors.
It is very sad that you have decided to let yourself be used to defend these practices. Yeah, wouldn't it have been better if they actually sent journalists in, like send Stacy Duley and send a man in like it's absolutely ridiculous as a reason why they don't want them, Well, I think that Danny thought that she was a journalist, because she also copped shit for basically doing an interview with an employee who she said answered all of her questions authentically and honestly.
They've begun to their back to say it's great.
Yeah, So one follower said, you're not an investigative journalists, You're a puppet for a company that is actively destroying our planet and exploiting vulnerable workers. Now, the backlash has been so widespread to Danny's videos that they have gone viral on TikTok and also Twitter because people are using them to try and correct the public record about this disgusting company.
How much she reckoned.
She actually paid these influences to attend because it's such a blow to their reputation.
It would have to.
Be a ton of money for anyone to pair their brand machines, and it is quite clear that Sheen is trying to rope in young influencers to help clean up its image and this factory to it. It just came a couple of weeks following the Ribka Twins from Australia launching a collection with She's quite clear that they are making a big play for the gen Z market, and it's just so transparent. They're trying to pull the wool over consumers' eyes and make people think that they've got it all wrong.
Interesting that the Riubka twins weren't in attendance. Yeah, they probably were washing their hair or something.
Maybe, you know, the collection hasn't gone down so well with followers, or they might have pretended that they've already been there before, because it would be a bit weird being like, oh, we've launched a collection, now we're checking out what it's like. Even the Ribka Twins were saying in that interview that, oh, Sheen is cleaning up its act, you know, emissions are getting better.
They were spilling the same bullshit.
And the thing that is worrying is at the moment, with the cost of living crisis, people don't have money to buy a sustainable clothes. So I'm worried that people will see this fake messaging that's been put out and think, oh, okay.
Maybe I will buy that.
I don't think people are that stupid. I mean, we saw the backlash in the comments. No one is buying this. Instead of spending all the money on influences, why don't they actually spend it on appropriately paying their workers, or because it's too much money. Yeah, improve the conditions. It's absolutely ridiculous. Hey, daddy, I want to non pulumpa.
I want you to get men on pu lumper.
Right away, all right, Roker, all right, I'll get you one before that. I want to now. Roxy Desenko has shared her daughter Pixie's very lavish birthday wish list ahead of her twelfth birthday, which is in August now. The list is three pages long, with one page dedicated to close and the other two for shoes. It's estimated that this wish list adds up to ten thousand dollars, but to be fair, some of the items were in the
hundreds rather than the thousands. So well, it doesn't mean that you get every single item on your wish list. I mean I wouldn't be surprised though if they do. I do love how Roxy shared it to her Instagram story with the caption Pixie Curtis was quiet. It's clear why she then added the face palm emoji. It's nice how Pixie's giving her parents six or seven weeks so to save up because at birthday, as you said's not to August. I love how detailed the descriptions of each item were.
They were very specific.
She didn't want her parents to mess up, particularly when it comes to close. I mean, it's so funny because over the weekend I actually followed Pixie Curtis.
I was one of those people who sort of.
Maybe checked in in her life, but now I'm actually following her because she's in Europe at the moment. Has the whole family.
Moved or what?
Because she put up a post saying it's my last day of school.
They moved Singapore. Yeah, they moved to Singapore.
Oh I'm not across Yeah, because we spoke about a couple of weeks ago how their family homes sold for sixteen million dollars and everyone was like, oh, they're getting a divorce. But Oliver Roxy's partner is working in Singapore, so they've made the move over there. I do love that Pixie divided her list into expensive gifts as well as cheap slash mid range gifts, just to.
Help them out.
Well. In terms of the expensive gifts, they were designer, so there was a Oney three hundred and fifty dollars Saint Laurent hoodie and a five hundred and eighty dollar Alexander McQueen T shirt. She also added seventeen pairs of shoes.
To the list.
Look, she's not going to really need a jumper. If she's living in Singapore, it's going to be bloody hot and human there. I mean, this list actually wasn't as bad as her Christmas list last year because in that list she had a nine thousand dollar designer bag listed.
Proply got it as well.
I'm very excited to see what Pixie does to celebrate her twelfth birthday party because last year we were talking about it, everyone was talking about it, the Neon disco themed birthday party, which was rumored to cost forty thousand dollars.
Now, this birthday party, to.
Refresh people's memory, included a mocktail bar, live DJ, a dance floor, three sixty photo booth, and a fire breathing performance artist. She'll probably end up flying all of her friends to Singapore for a huge birthday party.
Is it too late to befriend her?
There is no drama, There is absolutely no tea.
There's nothing that's gone on.
Molly May is stepping down from her role as creative director of Pretty Little Thing less than two years after being controversially appointed, the influencer has decided to focus on being a mum, and in doing so, is reportedly stepping away from a ten million pounds a year salary. She made the shock announcement at the nineteen minute mark of a YouTube video where she answered fan questions in her car. She said a more formal announcement on Instagram would follow,
but is yet to post one. Were you guys surprised? I wasn't in highly surprised by this news. I definitely think that this role had an expiration date to it. There was so much controversy when it was announced that she was going to be the creative director, and also a lot of questions as to what the role actually included, and I think that it was sort of a bit of a trial. So, particularly now that she is on maternity leave, I think that they probably thought, well, we're
paying her a fuck ton of money. I think that she is better utilized in a marketing role as the face of the brand as opposed to someone who is.
A creative director of it.
And Pretty Little Thing copped a lot of criticism when they did announce Molly as creative director, So if they were wanting to move her along. It's pretty clever timing the fact that she is on maternity leave, and it kind of does organically look like maybe this was Molly's decision. Yeah, it sort of makes sense that she's stepping back a little bit and maybe working on her own personal brand as well. Well. She was quick to assure fans that
there was no bad blood between her and PLT. She also referred to PLT as literally family and said she's going to continue as a brand ambassador. And she didn't reveal that it was her decision to step down from the role, but later in the video she did say this.
Myself and PRT we've decided, like collectively that the creative director role as much as it was incredible, and I've literally loved being the creative director of PRT more than anything. It was such an amazing chapter for me. It's just like naturally come to an end. Like I'm a mum now.
I never really gave myself a maternity leave. I kind of got straight back into work instantly because my work is my phone, and I don't know, like showing my life is my work, and I just felt like, yeah, there we was just certain areas of my life where I had to sort of reevaluate. The last thing I'd want to do would be to be in a role that I can't fulfill right now at this moment in my life.
I am very curious to know whether this role is going to be filled by someone else, because if it isn't, it is quite apparent that this role was really smoke and mirrors.
It was a PR stunt.
It was a PR stunt to get it to look like Molly May isn't just your average influencer that's the face of a brand. She is invested in this bread and she is selecting the outfit, she's.
Doing the marketing, she's doing everything.
She's sitting in that office when we all know that that wasn't the reality of the situation. And it is interesting that it has been about two years since those infamous comments that Molly made about everyone having the same twenty four hours in a day, because she faced heavy criticism for not recognizing her own privilege. So I wonder if they were like, fuck, we better weigh at least two years for her to have had this role so
it doesn't look like she couldn't hack it. I don't think that those comments have anything to do with it. I think that they would have been happy that it created more publicity for their brand.
Probably.
What do you guys think about this rumored ten million dollar salary, because I recall at the time newsbroke of her becoming the creative director, people were saying it was more like two million pounds. I think it would have to be a lot for her to make a bold announcement at the time that she was no longer an influencer anymore. She was saying, you know, this momentous moment showed that she's much more than an influencer, So it
would have had to be a hefty paycheck. Maybe it's ten million pounds across a couple of years, so maybe it's the two year deal. Do you think, though, that she could have honestly just gone, I don't have time to do this anymore. I'd rather spend time at home with my family. Well, look, I feel like that is
legitimately a part of this. But the timing is pretty interesting because just two months ago, pretty little things long standing co founder Umar Khmani step down as CEO, and him stepping down adds an extra layer of intrigue over this decision because It's like, was he the one backing Molly? And now that he's gone, you know, someone's come in and looked at the books and being like, why are you paying this person all this money? She doesn't even
come into the office from memory. Wasn't he really a huge part of getting her over? He was, Yeah, I know when she was on Love Island. He's like, we need that girl. She is the future. I mean. The thing is he still is connected to the brand because his father's company, Boohoo Group, did take over PLT. But again, I'm sure there's a lot of decisions that are being
reviewed now to see what is the best path moving forward. Yeah, particularly considering this cost of living crisis that we're in at the moment, a lot of brands, even large brands like PLT, are having to look at the books, reflect on how they're spending their money and whether it's the best way going forward. That's such a good point because sales have dropped during the pandemic. Everyone was in a buying frenzy because of all the government stimulus, so it's
actually a great point. They're probably not making as much money to be able to afford for these kind of pr stunts. I think they're a sector that's not really struggling as much as others, considering their sells such cheap clothing and a lot of people that were buying expensive stuff maybe looking for fast fashion options now, but not to the same volume that they would have during the pandemic. Perhaps not. I mean, we are speculating here, but I do think it has a lot to do with how
much Molly May has struggled with motherhood. She's made no secrets about it. She has been documenting the highs and lows of it, and she said that she's made this realization that she's never going to get this time back with Bambi. I did love how open she was, because she's like, people have been asking me when am I going to have my next lot of children or how many am I going to have? And she's like, to be honest, after having one.
I don't know if I can have anymore.
It's quite apparent that this announcement was hidden amongst this YouTube video though, because it's sort of in the halfway point.
Of the video. It was a team minute mile.
Yeah, and it wasn't you know, it wasn't the title of the video. I'm stepping down or anything. I think that they are trying to hide this. They don't want to make it a big deal because it was such a big deal when she got this position.
But she obviously had to acknowledge it.
I actually think it looks worse that they didn't do something more professional, like a statement together, because as you said, it just looks fishy that it's.
Been hidden in a YouTube video.
And I do wonder if there actually is any bad blood. It'll be interesting to see how long the partnership continues from this point. Well, I think that is all we have time for. Thank you so much for joining us for today's episode. If you have enjoyed it, could you please make sure you are subscribed on Spotify and also Apple Podcasts. We will be dropping our subscriber episode tomorrow, so if you aren't yet a subscriber, make sure you sign up. We've got so many great deep dives on
there at the moment, as well as chatty episodes. Now, this podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the Gana people of the Adelaide Planes. We pay respect to elders past and present, and if you haven't already, we'd love if you go and leave us a five star review