Cut on the bias
Fashionista suit: Nicole Miller axed me for pregnancy
PREGNANCY IS not in fashion at Nicole Miller, a lawsuit charges.
A former high-level employee of the Midtown-based women’s fashion line alleges that its eponymous president took an “unsympathetic and truly reprehensible disposition” toward a pregnant staffer.
Wendy Simchi-Levi, 34, says in the suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court that she was an employee in good standing, reporting directly to Miller, until she revealed she was 20 weeks pregnant with twins in September.
During the meeting, Miller (photo near right) noted that Simchi-Levi (photo far right) had been hired in July, the suit claims.
“Oh, so you knew you were pregnant when you interviewed?” Miller asked, according to papers.
“The disdain in Ms. Miller’s voice was impossible to miss,” the suit adds.
“You won’t want to come back to work after having twins,” Miller allegedly said.
The statement “evinces Ms. Miller’s undeniable discriminatory animus,” papers charge.
Following that conversation, Miller ostracized Simchi-Levi, even refusing to address her directly during meetings, papers claim.
“Nicole hates you,” Simchi-Levi’s co-workers allegedly told her. Soon, Simchi-Levi’s office was moved, making it harder for her to do her job coordinating the Nicole Miller brand with clothing manufacturers, she claims. In November, Miller called Simchi-Levi “a f---ing a--hole” and hung up on her due to delays over a new line of sweaters, papers charge. Simchi-Levi said the delays were Miller’s fault and that the designer was “perhaps blinded by her sheer contempt for Ms. Simchi-Levi.” The next month, as complications forced SimchiLevi into a long stay at a hospital, the company “coerced” her to take unpaid maternity leave though she wanted to continue working, the suit says.
Simchi-Levi, of E. 31st St., gave birth Jan. 1 — and 30 days later, she received a letter telling her she’d been fired due to “ongoing performance issues from last year.”
“We are sensitive to the fact that the timing of this transition may be inconvenient for you on a personal level,” the letter noted.
Simchi-Levi seeks damages to be determined at trial.
“As a successful fashion designer and businesswoman herself, it is disgraceful that Ms. Miller would treat a dedicated and loyal employee who was pregnant with such disdain,” Simchi Levi’s attorney Douglas Wigdor said. An email to Nicole Miller’s press office was not returned. A MAN SHOT a 38-year-old woman in the stomach in Brooklyn late Saturday, cops said.
Travis Bascom, 26, was arrested after he shot the victim in a Sheepshead Bay apartment about 10:30 p.m.
She was taken to Lutheran Medical Center in stable condition.
Two witnesses in the apartment told police that Bascom and the victim — who know each other — entered the apartment and walked to the rear bedroom, and that’s when they heard the shot.
Bascom walked out of the apartment and the witnesses found the woman lying on the floor holding her stomach, cops said.
Police responding to the scene arrested Bascom and charged him with assault, criminal use of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon and menacing.