Beyonce House Of Dereon Ex-Employee Files Law Suit

Article written by: Rodrick Rainey
Posted on: July 27, 2006

Superstar Beyonce’s House of Dereon, the clothing and accessory design company she owns with her mother, Tina, has been sued for $1.5 million by former business associate Greg Walker.

Walker, CEO of Icon Entertainment, says he created the deal for the mom-daughter duo’s House of Dereon clothing line, but was not fully compensated for his work. Walker filed a breach of contract suit against Beyonce and Tina in New York’s Supreme Court. He says he was hired by the two in August 2003 to help secure endorsement licensing deals. In this capacity, he scored a $15 million deal for the House of Dereon with clothing manufacturer Wear Me Apparel, Corp. Of the deal, Walker says he’s only collected $25,000, which he says is quite far from the agreed terms.

“Beyonce and Tina Knowles agreed on the terms of our business relationship, but have failed to properly compensate me for reasons unknown to me,” Walker said in a statement. “I just want to receive my fair share and move on with my business.”

Walker is also suing Wear Me Apparel for neglecting to pay the remainder of his fee. The company has paid him $85,000, he claims.

At presstime, both camps for the House of Dereon and Wear Me Apparel have declined to comment.

As if promoting her new disc, “B’Day” and handling the lawsuit weren’t demanding enough, Beyonce fans are making demands on the star. They’ve started a petition suggesting the singer reshoot her video for the lead single “D’j’ vu” because it’s simply not good enough.

The petition went to her label, Columbia Records, with the statement that fans are angry about the production, the dancing, the costumes, and the love scenes with rapper-boyfriend Jay-Z that are featured in the clip.

House Of Dereon clothing is a limited production brand. According to affiliated resources of SoJones.com, the brand can only be purchased in 50 stores per distribution region. Each House of Dereon region is basically a coast of America, which extends beyond time zone regions, making the brand very limited.

Rumor also has it that the multi-platinum superstar is going to release Dereon Clothing”, a subsidary of House of Dereon. According to a 2nd resource, the Dereon brand will be for the younger generations that are looking for more affordable juniors fashions.