New model Liu Jo was sued by Italian fashion house Kendall Jenner for an alleged breach of contract.
According to lawsuit documents obtained by Fox Business, Liu Jo sued the 25-year-old model, Elite World Group, LLC, and The Society Model Mangement, Inc. for $1.8 million.
In a complaint filed in the Southern District of New York on Monday, Jenner seeks recovery of damages from Liu Jo, which fashion house claims skipped out on a modeling contract signed back in 2019.
Jenner claims the contract stated Liu Jo would star for the Italian fashion company in two photoshoots. The second was intended for its Spring 2020 campaign and the first was intended for the fall winter 2020 campaign of the company.
Per the Docs, the fashion designer agreed to pay Jenner $1.5 million and a 20% service fee for her work. Jenner claims it offered to reschedule Jenner's second shoot in the fall of 2020.
Ms. Jenner suggested multiple alternate dates and locations to Liu Jo for the second photoshoot to take place. Ms. Jenner repeatedly refused to provide Liu Jo with competent answers to all of Liu Jo's proposals, proposed no reasonable alternatives, and ultimately turned down all of Liu Jo's good-faith offers of compromise, the legal docs claim.
Jenner and the fashion house settled on a date August 28, 2020 for the second shoot, but Jenner reneged and instead proposed that the photoshoot take place in October, the fashion house furthers the complaint.
A spokesperson for The Society Management denied the claims in a statement to Fox Business on Thursday.
This suit has no merit. The Society Management, on behalf of Ms. Kendall Jenner, has continuously offered alternate dates and locations for Liu Jo To fulfill an agreement that had to be delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Jenner has willingly offered to complete services honoring her commitments, it reads.
Jenner accuses Liu Jo of contradicting her claims that it would be impossible to travel to Italy in September 2020 for the second photoshoot by allegedly doing so for a different designer that same month.
Jenner claims multiple efforts to assist Liu Jo in traveling to Italy garnered no response from the model, therefore leading the fashion agency to inform her that she was in breach of her obligations, docs state.
Due to Ms. Jenner's refusal to negotiate in good faith, Liu Jo was forced at great expense to Liu Jo to find replacement models and restructure its entire Summer 2021 photoshoot at great expense due to Ms. Jenner's refusal to uphold her end of the bargain, the complaint claims.
Jenner is now asking that the first two payments to Liu Jo be promptly refunded. Until date, the designer claims to have paid Jenner $1.35 million for her services, including the second photoshoot she claims she didn't attend by herself.
Ms. Jenner has breached the Agreement by failing to meet her obligations under the Agreement and no payments have yet been refunded to Liu Jo by Ms. Jenner, the docs continue.
Liu Jo is seeking no less than $1.8 million in damages. Jenner is the most top-paid model in the world. She rose to fame on her husband's hit E! reality show Keeping Up with The Kardashians before launching her modeling career. Recent, she launched her own Tequila brand, 818 Tequila.