PrettyLittleThing ‘disappoints’ shoppers after giving Love Island’s Gemma Owen a six-figure deal despite poll favouring Indiyah Pollock

Pretty Little Thing have left many of their loyal shoppers “disappointed” after handing a six-figure deal to Love Island’s Gemma Owen.

The fast-fashion brand, based in Manchester, announced their decision to work with the former dressage rider and daughter of footballer Michael Owen on Twitter and Instagram.

The 19-year-old donned a white shirt and beamed for the camera for a snap, PLT captioned: “IT’S OFFICIAL 😍💕 Welcome to the PLT family @gemowen_1 ✨ We can’t wait to show everyone what we’re working on…👀”

The post racked up over 80,000 likes, however not everone was impressed with the decision which came after a social media poll.

Former Love Island star Molly-Mae Hauge is the Creative Director of Pretty Little Thing and has her own collection with the brand.

It has become expected that many stars from the ITV reality show will also get a fashion brand deal and earn eye-watering sums for promoting campaigns after leaving the villa.

During the last week of the 2022 series, PLT took to Twitter to ask their followers which female islander should get there “#PLTdeal”.

Based on audience engagement, Gemma was the least favourite to get the deal, while Indiyah Pollock got the most interactions and over 10,000 likes.

Since the announcement of Gemma’s deal with PLT, fans have spoken out about their disappointment.

One user accused the brand is “using black people for click bait”, while another called out PLT for being “clout chasers”.

“If they were gonna give Gemma this deal anyway why did PLT ask the public to vote and Indiyah won the vote… just another day of brands using black people for click bait and nothing else,” one wrote.

Another said: “PLT did two polls to see who should get their £1m deal, Indiyah won both times and they still chose Gemma? my suspicions have been confirmed.”

A third commented: “What annoys me about this is that they asked us who we think the next ambassador is and Indiyah got the most votes. Also, Gemma is boring af and cannot dress for s***. PLT are clout chasers and I’m disappointed. Definitely won’t be getting anything from Gemma’s edit. ☺️”

A fourth added: “Gemma the multi millionaire with her own clothing brand is exactly who the public wanted 😍 lol if I remember correctly indiyah got the most noise . Nvm we won’t be supporting enjoy”

Elsewhere, people complained that the series was meant to showcase pre-loved fashion, with author Lorraine Candy saying PLT “doesn’t seem to be line with the PR” for the show.

Agreeing, another Twitter user wrote: “eBay and @TwinBrett_ worked hard to put second hand fashion on the reality tv map, the devil (PLT) works harder to use their profits (that they’ve made by exploiting garment makers) to pay a hugely privileged influencer to peddle us more clothes that we don’t need. this ain’t it.”

This comes after former Love Island star Brett Saintfield worked alongside Ebay to see the ITV reality show use more pre-loved clothes and less fast-fashion.

Fourth place Love IslanderTasha Ghouri, has been praised for her work with eBay since leaving the villa.

The 24-year-old, who became their “first ever pre-loved ambassador”, told her 1.4 million Instagram followers that the opportunity was a “gift” and she had shopped secondhand previously.

Tasha wrote: “I am over the moon to announce I am @ebay_uk first ever pre-loved ambassador.

“Prior to love island, I've always bought secondhand for my wardrobe, so partnering with #eBay really is a dream come true.

“I feel passionately that we can all make little swaps to our wardrobes and our lives for the better and so I’m excited to join eBay on their mission to put secondhand fashion front and centre.

“Plus I’d like to think that over the last eight weeks I have shown that pre-loved serves up amazing looks while bringing out my personality!

“Watch this space, more will be revealed! 🤍”