[SBS Star] Jessica's Fashion Brand Gets Evicted After Failing to Pay Rent; the Brand Responds

K-pop artist Jessica's luxury fashion brand Blanc & Eclare was reportedly evicted from their rented-building in Cheongdam-dong for not paying rent. 

On May 24, it was reported that court authorities evicted Blanc & Eclare from their rented-building in Cheongdam-dong―one of Seoul's affluent neighborhoods. 

According to the report, the brand signed a lease with the building owner in September 2020, but has missed rent several times from August 2021. 

Then in December 2021, the brand was sued by the building owner for not paying rent on time. 

At that time, the building owner settled with the brand on the condition that they would be evicted if they failed to pay rent again. 

The report stated that from the end of 2022, nevertheless, Blanc & Eclare started to be delinquent on their rent, which resulted in the brand being evicted on May 24. 
Not long after the release of this report, Blanc & Eclare shared their side of the story. 

"We used the first floor of the building for our designer store and second floor as our restaurant 'Clareau'. When our restaurant faced some financial difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic, we asked the building owner if we could postpone the payment of rent. We got back with a no, and were asked to leave in three months if we couldn't pay our rent during then. We were able to work out a compromise on this issue." 

"But after the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, we demanded the elevator to be operated again after 10 PM. The building owner stopped operating the elevator and closed the main entrance after 10 PM though. Because of this, we often had to guide our restaurant customers through the store on the first floor, that closed hours before, and many of them complained of inconvenience. Even though we had significant operational issues, we just kept going because we had to." 
However, Blanc & Eclare decided that they could no longer run their business in the Cheongdam-dong building in the end, so they recently said to have asked for termination of their lease contract.

Blanc & Eclare said, "But the building owner delayed responding to our request for more than three months, repeatedly claiming that he/she was still reviewing it. Then all of a sudden, we were unexpectedly visited by the legal authorities today, and had our store torn down. Not only were we forced to stop operating in this manner, but we also haven't even received our deposit back. We're preparing to sue the owner of the building right now."
Blanc & Eclare is a brand that Jessica found following her departure from K-pop girl group Girls' Generation in 2014. 

Jessica is the chief designer of the Blanc & Eclare, with her longtime boyfriend, whom she has been with since 2013, Korean-American entrepreneur Tyler Kwon being the CEO of the brand. 

(Credit= 'blancandeclare_official' Instagram) 

(SBS Star)