Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s fashion brand, The Row, was supposed to bring a sense of luxury into more people’s lives. “The word luxury is used pretty much everywhere now, but for us it’s something that makes your life easier,” Mary-Kate told i-D in June 2021 (via Verily). Unfortunately, life was not made easier for a number of interns who worked for the child stars turned fashion moguls. A class action suit was filed against the company in August 2015 when around 40 former interns filed a joint-complaint against The Row’s parent company Dualstar Entertainment Group. Shahista Lalani, who worked for The Row in 2012, was the main complainant. “They’re kind of mean to you. Other interns have cried. I’d see a lot of kids crying doing coffee runs, photocopying stuff,” Lalani told Page Six about the designers at The Row in 2015.
While the headline of former interns suing the Olsen twins’ company made good fodder, it should be noted that none of the interns worked directly for the “Full House” alums. “They’re really nice people. They were never mean to anyone,” Lalani said about Mary-Kate and Ashley. A settlement was eventually reached in March 2017 for $140,000. By that time, the number of past and present interns involved in the suit had ballooned to around 180 people. Even though the Olsen twins were committed to their fashion brand there was still chatter that they may return to acting.
