Molly-Mae Hague has opened up about the costly mistake her clothing brand, Maebe, faced after a defective garment sparked backlash.
In her new Prime Video series, Molly-Mae: Behind It All, the 25-year-old influencer gives fans a raw glimpse into her life following her broken engagement, her challenges as a single mother, and the struggles of launching her debut fashion label.
The series documented Maebe’s inaugural collection selling out in just 24 minutes, but celebrations were short-lived when a grey oversized blazer from the line went viral for all the wrong reasons.
Customers and fans took to social media to complain about the blazer bobbling after minimal wear, with many criticising the quality and high price point, £140.
Hague admitted the criticism hit hard.
“I’ve taken so much time and spent literally years to make it perfect. All I want is for people to be happy,” she said. “I’ve got to be honest, we’ve faced more negativity than we anticipated. Not all of it has been fair, but I have to hold my hands up and say some of it has been fair.”
Explaining what went wrong, she revealed the issue came down to the fabric.
“The fabric the blazer had been made in was not the fabric we signed off. Our final sample—the one I test wore for probably a year—did not bobble,” she shared.
“It makes me feel crap. It’s my worst nightmare. I want people to love it, and I want this to be a huge success. It massively knocks my confidence.”
To make matters worse, the same fabric was used to produce other pieces in later collections, including two coats. This mistake forced Hague and her team to pull thousands of items, resulting in a staggering £500,000 loss.
Speaking to her dad, Steve Hague, about the launch, she admitted: “It’s a disaster, to be honest with you. It’s not good.
“This blazer situation is eating me up. People are wearing it twice, and the fluff is just balling.
“We’ve got two coats in the exact same fabric. Thousands of pieces... they calculated it’d be like half a million pounds.”
Later in the episode, fan watched as she spoke to her Maebe brand director Elisha Diamond about the extent of the production issue over the phone and discussed addressing the issue with consumers on social media.
Diamond confirmed that there was "a fault with the fabric" and that they would recoup the production cost on hundreds of blazers that were due to be available to buyers.
The Maebe brand director shared: “There was a fault with the fabric so at that point they've remade the blazer fabric sent it, without approval, the fabric not the same and the colour's not the same.
“So we've got like 550 for that second drop, I'm in touch with the factory taking that stock back so they won't charge us for that stock. It's promising but it's disappointing as it's a massive loss of sales for us, one of our pride pieces.”
Molly-Mae: Behind It All eps 1-3 launch exclusively on Prime Video on 17th January. The latter three episodes will drop in Spring 2025
