Brands distancing themselves from Louise Linton’s Instagram post
Valentino has no qualms in denying any ties to Louise Linton after the new wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin posted on Instagram an image of herself exiting a government plane and provided a slew of designer hashtags.
A spokeswoman said plainly that “Louise Linton did not receive any gifted merchandise, compensation or loans from Valentino” when asked whether the company had any formal business interest in being tagged in a late Monday post by Linton.
The actress, whose most high-profile role to date is a 2007 appearance on “CSI: NY,” is also not affiliated in any way with and has received no free merchandise from Tom Ford, a brand she also mentioned in her post.
With tags like “#rolandmouret pants,” “#tomford sunnies,” “#hermesscarf,” and “#valentinorockstudheels #valentino,” it seemed like Linton was taking after the growing droves of digital influencers that are compensated for mentioning brands and their products on social media. Instagram is particularly popular for branded influencer-created content.
A spokeswoman for Roland Mouret declined to comment on the post and a representative of Hermès could not be reached.
Linton has since deleted the post and made her account private after a response to an Instagram comment critical of the post went viral.
“Great #daytrip to #Kentucky! #nicest #people #beautiful #countryside,” Linton captioned the photo, before tagging all of the brands she was wearing.
Several of Linton’s followers took issue with the post.
“Please don’t tag your Hermès scarf. Distasteful,” one user wrote.
But it was user Jenni Miller’s comment, “Glad we could pay for your little getaway #deplorable,” that sparked Linton’s snide reply.
“Aw!!! Did you think this was a personal trip?! Adorable!” Linton wrote in response to Miller’s comment. “Do you think the U.S. gov’t paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?! Lololol. Have you given more to the economy than me and my husband? Either as an individual earner in taxes OR in self sacrifice to your country? I’m pretty sure we paid more sacrifices toward our day ‘trip’ than you did. Pretty sure the amount we sacrifice per year is a lot more than you’d be willing to sacrifice if the choice was yours. You’re adorably out of touch. Thanks for the passive aggressive nasty comment.”
Linton reportedly first removed the brand hashtags before deleting the post and making her account, which has roughly 8,000 followers, private.
Her husband, Secretary Mnuchin, is a wealthy former Goldman Sachs banker turned hedge fund manager and movie producer. He’s billed as an executive producer on dozens of movies since 2014, including “Inherent Vice,” “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Wonder Woman.”
He was selected to join the Trump Administration earlier this year.
Leigh Nordstrom contributed to this story.
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