Top label owes us thousands, say staff who made dresses adored by Princess Kate and Meghan Markle
Fifty cutters and machinists are said to be owed up to three months' unpaid wages and redundancy money, which was allegedly due after the Istanbul studio closed in April.
It is the luxury London fashion house that designed some of the Princess of Wales and Duchess of Sussex’s most famous dresses – as well as the gown worn by former Tory cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt to King Charles’s Coronation.
But glamorous label Safiyaa is facing allegations that fabric workers who made many of its stunning outfits are owed tens of thousands of pounds by a supplier that ran a factory in Turkey.
Fifty cutters and machinists are said to be owed up to three months’ unpaid wages and redundancy money, which was allegedly due after the studio in Istanbul where they worked suddenly closed in April.
The Mail on Sunday has been told that 14 staff are still owed between £2,600 and £9,000 each by the supplier, while others have received a fraction of the money due after a payment Safiyaa described as a ‘good-faith gesture’.
Last night furious former staff accused the company, which sells dresses for up to £5,000 each, of leaving them jobless and struggling to support their families.
Kadir Ates, 43, a supervisor who cut the fabric for Dame Penny’s Coronation dress, told the MoS: ‘We want to stand up for people’s rights and justice, and we want the Royal Family in the UK to know what has happened to us. Perhaps they can do something to help us.
‘We are going to be chasing this until the end. We just want what we deserve, and nothing more. We feel we’ve been abused.’
Safiyaa said the Turkish factory was an independent third-party supplier and had sole responsibility for its workforce, including wage payments.
Safiyaa created the £1,295 scarlet dress worn by Meghan when she and Prince Harry attended a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2020
Meanwhile, the Princess of Wales wore a purple dress by Safiyaa at Wimbledon last year.
Founded in 2011 by German-born Daniela Karnuts, the label also created the £1,295 scarlet dress worn by Meghan when she and Prince Harry attended a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2020 – one of their last Royal engagements before leaving the UK.
Meanwhile, the Princess of Wales wore a purple dress by the designer at Wimbledon last year.
Ms Karnuts, 42 who sells her dresses from a private showroom in Mayfair, initially had them all made in a second-floor workshop in a backstreet of Istanbul. Staff say she would visit the factory three or four times a year.