Two different Black American celebrity women have called out European shops or restaurants in the past thirteen years. Back in 2013, Oprah publicly called out a Zurich shop for treating her rudely and refusing to serve her or show her something. That ended up as a larger controversy as the Zurich shop did not handle it well, being called out for their bitchiness and racism. Then, during the Paris Olympics, Serena Williams was denied a table at a Paris restaurant, and she called them out on social media. There was backlash against Serena and there was a lot of ass-covering from the restaurant, but I absolutely believed that she was treated poorly. Well, we’ve got another one. Savannah James is LeBron James’s wife of 13 years (they’ve been together since 2002 though). LeBron and Savannah are billionaires and moguls with investments everywhere. Savannah likes nice things, and she makes appointments in all of the big designer shops so that she can spend some real time shopping and spending her money. Well, check out what happened:
A friend of LeBron James’ wife Savannah James says Hermès fired a saleswoman at a store in Italy after they were refused service despite having an appointment to shop. Savannah, 39, appeared on the Friday, Aug. 7 episode of Danielle Robay’s Question Everything podcast alongside her own podcast co-host and friend April McDaniel. During the episode, the pair of friends rehashed the alleged incident, during which McDaniel was quick to come to her friend’s defense. McDaniel recounted scheduling Hermès shopping appointments for the pair as they traveled Europe.
“We be hustling,” she said. But at the Italy location, McDaniel claimed “they treated us like s–t. They closed down that whole motherf—–g store.”
“They did,” Savannah said with a sigh. Robay then asked McDaniel to elaborate on the situation, and she then alleged that the incident transpired when a saleswoman turned them away despite having a shopping appointment, leading to what she claims was the saleswoman’s firing.
“And fired the lady,” McDaniel said. “I said, we’ll be back for you. I’ll be right back.”
“We had an appointment,” Savannah shared. “And they tried to act like it was…”
“I said baby you caught the wrong one today,” McDaniel said, adding that Savannah is “very nice” but that McDaniel had no trouble standing up for her.
“We’ll be back here,” she said, adding that they requested to see crocodile leather pieces. “You want some smoke? You done caught one. I am crazy like that. Like…” McDaniel joked.
“I like that kind of crazy,” Robay said with a laugh before asking how the store remedied the situation.
“We was in the private room with champagne and caviar,” McDaniel said. “I said how many bags you got? Ten?”
“They brought out everything,” Savannah chimed in.
“I said I’ll take bathing suits, I’m buying silverware,” McDaniel shared. “I was living my best life.”
The pair of friends then alleged they were met with similar hostility at a Chanel store in France, during which a sales associate allegedly instructed Savannah not to touch a miniature bag multiple times, despite the bag being available to touch. When asked if experiences of this nature ruin luxury designer shopping experiences for her, McDaniel quickly replied, “No.”
“I’m calling the boss,” McDaniel said. “We’re closing the store down. She can go like that. I’m closing it down. You’re fired. That’s the last person… I’m heated, I’m ruining the whole situation.”
First of all, do you even realize how infrequently we hear anything about Savannah? She minds her business, takes care of her family and runs things behind-the-scenes. Which brings me to the larger point – she did all of the things that she was supposed to do. She made the appointments, she let the shops know that she was there to spend real money, and those shops still chose racism. They still chose to snub her and her friend. I’m glad people got fired! But I wouldn’t have spent any money in a place that treated me that way.
I’m including the podcast episode below and I’ve queued it to the part where they’re talking about Hermes. In case it wasn’t clear, Savannah and April went into the Hermes shop in Milan with an appointment, they were told that they would not receive service, and then they got the salesperson fired and Hermes made it up to them by bringing out everything in a private room so they could select anything they wanted. But later on, Savannah sort of indicates that she doesn’t f–k with Chanel anymore after a salesman told her not to touch a purse.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- WEST HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – NOVEMBER 11: Savannah James wearing Dolce and Gabbana arrives at the 2023 Baby2Baby Gala Presented By Paul Mitchell held at the Pacific Design Center on November 11, 2023 in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 821568585, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Pictured: Savannah James , Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- WESTWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – JUNE 01: American professional basketball player LeBron James and wife/American interior designer Savannah James arrive at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Netflix’s ‘Hustle’ held at the Regency Village Theatre on June 1, 2022 in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 696331953, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Pictured: LeBron James, Savannah James , Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- WESTWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – JUNE 01: American interior designer and LeBron James’ wife Savannah James arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Netflix’s ‘Hustle’ held at the Regency Village Theatre on June 1, 2022 in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 696333345, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Pictured: Savannah James , Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- WESTWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – MAY 31: American professional basketball player LeBron James and wife Savannah James arrive at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Peacock’s ‘Shooting Stars’ held at the Regency Village Theatre on May 31, 2023 in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 780682956, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Pictured: LeBron James, Savannah James , Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- Paris Fashion Week – Menswear Spring/Summer 2024 – Louis Vuitton Front Row. Featuring: Savannah James and her husband Lebron James When: 20 Jun 2023 Credit: Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Paris Fashion Week – Menswear Spring/Summer 2024 – Louis Vuitton Front Row. Featuring: Savannah James and her husband Lebron James When: 20 Jun 2023 Credit: Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Good for her. She did everything right and was still mistreated; I’m glad she was able to call it out and stand her ground. It good that hermes reacted quickly/properly as well. More of this, please. If you do wrong, make it right!
From the story, it is hard to understand the events, it’s confusing to gather what happened
Anti-Blackness is what happened. Hope this helps.
It really doesn’t! I’m taking it as given that if they say they were treated like crap, they were treated like crap. But what actually happened? They had their appointment, with champagne & caviar, they were shown bags, silverware, bathing suits, so—? What was it? Overall attitude? Specific words? What?
I don’t understand why they would still shop there and buy so much after being treated that way? I would like, walk out and never return. Why let a racist place make a profit off of you. I doubt it is just one salesperson, it’s an institutional practice.
That’s one way to look at it, and I do understand your point, and even share it to some extent. Another view though, is that if I / we choose not to own or experience any of the things that bigots would like to deny us, we’ll end up with nothing or very little.
Not that it’s on the same level as an exorbitantly priced bag, but my parents were among the first Black families to buy a house in a neighborhood that was previously legally racially segregated. Should they have refused to go up against an institutional practice? A good chunk of my formal education took place at a school that was previously all male and overwhelmingly white. Our current president and his ilk still imagine that I took someone else’s place by being there, and it was not all smooth sailing — to use a very preppy metaphor. Should I have denied myself opportunities in order to refuse to let such a place cash my tuition checks? One last bit: I grew up in what was then nicknamed Chocolate City — because my parents and my grandparents and generations before me took the risks and, at least for a time, caused some of the institutional practices to change.
Sorry to be so wordy, but as my hometown deals with current upheavals, concerns like these have been on my mind a lot of late.
@Blithe — thank you for sharing this.
💛💛💛☀️🌿
@IdlesAtCranky — Thank YOU for your kind comment — and for reading through all of that! 🫶🏽
That salesperson should have been fired just for not knowing who Savannah James is. I know who she is and about her and James philanthropy and I live half a world away. Hermès did the right thing.
Im in Germany, American Sport Stars arent very known in Europe. Many people hve no idea who LeBeon or Tom Brady are. Its the same when European (real) Football stars are in the Us. But that’s not important, nobody deserves to be treated like that, especially when you have an appointment and these salespeople know only very rich people do that which means they could have easily google them to be prepared. Ive been to plenty of these elite shops, most salespeople there are awfully arrogant. Its not fun. And with the rise of the far right in Europe (with lots of help from American tech bros: Musk, Thiel) the racism is unfortunately rising enormously.
I’m an NBA season ticketholder and I’ve met LeBron and his mother Gloria. Savannah is totally off my radar and I couldn’t have told you what she looked like without the pictures on this thread.
I live about 30 minutes away from where the Jameses used to live in OH and until I read this and looked at the photos I had no clue who she was or what she looked like . I am just not a sports fan. You should not have to be famous to be treated well if you have the money to shop somewhere high end like Hermes. I too would’ve declined to give that store any of my money after treatment like that.
I don’t expect them to know who she is. She seems to keep a pretty low profile and he’s an American athlete/celeb, not a local one. But I do expect them to treat people with respect and courtesy and they clearly failed that test.
My son is a Labron-aloony and I have no idea what his wife’s name was until I read this article.
April McDaniel would not be my first choice to go luxury shopping with.
Do these sales associates or these people who go viral for doing something nasty ever really get fired??? Does the Internet do a follow up? I think they are put on a hiatus and definitely come back when things die down.
Good for Savannah James. She made an appointment, so if the salesperson didn’t know who she was by name, that sales person had ample opportunity to look her up in their records. Hermès keep meticulous records of nearly every customer. Definitely every customer who buys a wallet or bag.
Colours, styles, what they’re looking for, which stores they visit, and how much they spend, plus more.
This was bigotry.
Everybody deserves to be treated like a Queen, but especially If they make a private appointment and shutsdown the entire store. Maybe the employee should google them! Knowing who they are seems to be a basic part of the job,
This podcast was infuriating. She went back and willingly spent a lot of money there, lol. I will never understand why people continue to spend money at businesses and places that have made it clear that they don’t value them as friggin people. They will practically throw money at them and beg people to take their money, it’s ridiculous. The best thing to do would have been to simply NOT spend money there and tell all your celeb friends to stop shopping at Hermes.
Today, I’m going to pull out my Telfar tote. Especially with discretionary purchases, spending with intentionality – in accordance with our values – is the way to go.
I found this whole thing very confusing; the manner in which it was related made no sense. Did they go twice? They were in a private shopping room with champagne & caviar–which is how these luxury stores do these things–and the sales person was rude there?
They should have gifted her a purse because the bad press they got from this story cannot be undone. But those who prefer racism over humanity will patron the store.