A woman was left shocked after discovering the £42 Karen Millen skirt she had bought was available on the Oasis website for £30.
Joanna Sikora, 39, from Winchester, said she felt ‘lied to’ when she discovered the label on her Karen Millen skirt had been altered to hide the fact it was originally from Oasis.
Both brands are owned by fast fashion online retailer Boohoo.
Speaking to the BBC, Joanna said the label on the skirt had been blacked out with pen, and the Oasis name had been cut out.
Boohoo came under fire last week when it was revealed it was selling the same clothes for different prices across its various brands.
Joanna Sikora, 39, from Winchester, revealed how the dress she bought from Karen Millen for £42, left, was actually from Oasis, right where it sold at £30
Joanna shared a picture of the label, which had been blacked out with pen to hide the dress’s original brand
The disgruntled customer showed how the Oasis label had been cut out and replaced with a Karen Millen label
FEMAIL has contacted Boohoo for comment. The retailer told the BBC the ‘miscommunication was not intentional.’
Joanna, a long time Karen Millen customer, said: ‘What was really disappointing was that I felt lied to. They didn’t even try very hard to hide what they had done and thought consumers would be stupid enough not to realise.
‘Prior to Karen Millen being owned by Boohoo, I trusted them. I would purposely shop there because I liked the designs, the quality and the fit. But I will never shop with Karen Millen again now.’
Joanna said she bought the skirt in 2020, a year after Karen Millen was bought out by Boohoo in 2019. She came forward following similar revelations over recent weeks.
Boohoo, which owns Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Warehouse, Oasis, and Karen Millen among others, launched a probe after a BBC investigation found the same identical mushroom was available for £89 in upmarket retailer Coast but just £65 at Dorothy Perkins.
And the coat isn’t the only item with a price disparity across the Boohoo brands, with the group selling a black coat in Warehouse for £18, while it was 150 per cent more expensive in Oasis at £27.
The same coat is also listed in Dorothy Perkins for £20, while Debenhams list the coat online as a Dorothy Perkins item for just £18.
Yesterday the Boohoo group revealed they were launching a probe after an investigation revealed their brands were selling identical items for vastly different prices. And it appears the coat isn’t the only item with a price disparity across the Boohoo brands, with the group selling a black coat in Warehouse for £18, while it was 150 per cent more expensive in Oasis at £27.
At Warehouse, an identical coat was only £18, 150 per cent less than in Oasis
The coat is listed on Debenham’s website as an item from Dorothy Perkins, where it cost £18, reduced from £65
But on the Dorothy Perkins website itself, the coat is £20, despite being identical to the one sold for £18 and £27 in other Boohoo-owned brands
All the items were on sale, with their original prices also vastly different.
In Debenhams and Dorothy Perkins, the coat was originally £65, while in Warehouse and Oasis it was £89.
The retailer told the BBC after the original discovery that it is investigating the differences across the Boohoo-owned brands and say that the error was ‘not intentional’.
It added: ‘All Boohoo group brands work independently, and so this miscommunication was not intentional as teams are not privy to what’s being bought and sold across the other group brands.
‘Our internal investigation continues and we will be re-pricing all the crossover stock to be aligned.’
Fashion giant Boohoo owns several different brands after buying up businesses when their owners fell into administration.
In February they announced a £25.2million deal to buy Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton after Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia empire collapsed amid the pandemic.
The online retailer said they would be buying the brands and stock but would shut all 214 physical stores, concessions or franchises with 2,450 job losses.
The retailer is no stranger to controversy.
The BBC investigation found a padded coat was originally sold for £89 at Oasis but was retailing for £65 at Dorothy Perkins
The same coat was in the sale for £30 in Warehouse and £66.75 in Coast
Investigations over the past five years revealed concerns over low pay and poor working conditions at their Leicester clothes factories.
The working conditions at the factories were further highligted when there was an outbreak of Covid amongst the workers at the start of the pandemic.
A damning report released last year also indicated directors were aware of questions over its supply chain much earlier after reporters and politicians raised the issue.
Boohoo was founded by British businessman Mahmud Kamani, 55, who before launching the company started his business selling handbags at a traders’ stall in Manchester.
He spotted the potential of internet sales and set up his online retailer in 2006 with the aim of delivering their own-branded fashion at rock bottom prices.
It since became synonymous with the wildly popular, yet equally controversial, fast-fashion phenomenon.
Its sales topped £850 million in 2019, propelling Mr Kamani to 131st place on The Sunday Times Rich List, with a family fortune of £1.16 billion.
Boohoo was contacted by Mail Online for comment.
Indian-born billionaire who launched fast fashion firm Boohoo from Manchester market stall and expanded online with his playboy children
Boohoo founder Mahmud Kamani, pictured right, alongside his son Umar, didn’t want to spoil his children, but helped them set up Pretty Little Thing
The Indian-born founder of fast-fashion company Boohoo grew his Manchester market stall into a £2.6billion business.
Before Boohoo shot onto the ever-growing fast fashion scene, its owner Mahmud Kamani, 55, sold handbags in traders’ stall.
He spotted the potential of internet sales and set up his online retailer in 2006 with the aim of delivering their own-branded fashion at rock bottom prices.
It since became synonymous with the wildly popular, yet equally controversial, fast-fashion phenomenon.
Its sales topped £850 million in 2019, propelling Mr Kamani to 131st place on The Sunday Times Rich List, with a family fortune of £1.16 billion.
Mr Kamani’s parents, who were originally from India, arrived in Manchester from Kenya in 1969 when his father was just two years old.
The Kamanis were forced to flee to Britain by increasing unrest and draconian employment laws that favoured native Kenyans.
Entrepreneurial Mahmud sold handbags on a market stall. He invested his money wisely in property and began a wholesale business, Pinstripe, sourcing garments from India.
By the early 2000s, the company was selling £50 million-worth a year to high street brands such as Topshop and Primark, which led to Mahmud setting up the Boohoo brand in 2006.
The company’s growth quickly skyrocketed and is now believed to be worth £2billion or more and employing 2,352 people.