Hundreds of Ralph Lauren interns have been left too cash-strapped to afford one of the designer’s outfits — even after winning a lawsuit settlement against the fashion house.
The large group of former interns took home only $305 each out of a $323,000 settlement because the lawyers in the case scooped up $108,000 for themselves, court records show.
That’s barely half the cost of one of Lauren’s signature $598 double-breasted wool blazers.
Lead plaintiff Nadine Craparotta, 28, of Lindenhurst, LI, will be the only former Lauren intern able to go on a shopping spree. She gets $7,500 for her top position in the Manhattan Supreme Court suit, which was settled last week.
The Fashion Institute of Technology grad’s lawyers, from the firms of Virginia & Ambinder and Leeds Brown Law, will take 33 percent of the settlement.
Craparotta’s attorneys claim the deal is “fair and reasonable,” even though their original suit argued that more than 200 interns should have been paid at least minimum wage, or between $114 and $210 weekly, for 24 hours of work each week.
The suit claimed interns were paid nothing to prep samples for fit meetings, create product codes, update progress reports and review designs.
“Ralph Lauren denied significant benefit from the work performed by” the interns, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said in 2015 court papers.
Former Ambinder lawyer Alison Genova said the payout “represents a significant recovery given the potential damages and the substantial risks if the case were to proceed to trial.”
Tom Stebbins of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance said the case showed “how broken the class-action system is because you have people who actually were not paid money getting pennies on the dollar while lawyers are walking away with over $100,000.”
Interns who worked at Lauren’s Fifth Avenue headquarters from 2009 through 2017 have at least until mid-June to object the settlement terms.
Craparotta and her lawyers did not return messages requesting comment.
Reps for Ralph Lauren did not comment.
