Blake Lively’s now-defunct lifestyle brand faced criticism from ex-staff who described it as a ‘toxic’ and ‘unprofessional’ workplace, as reported by the Daily Mail.
Launched in 2014, Preserve was envisioned as Blake’s response to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, offering high-end artisanal products online. However, the venture came to an abrupt end in just one year.
The Daily Mail conducted interviews with six former employees of the company, shedding light on the tumultuous atmosphere within the organization. Some staff members expressed disbelief at the ‘irony’ of the actress’ recent allegations of a hostile work environment directed at her co-star Justin Baldoni.
Preserve was run out of a Manhattan studio apartment owned by Blake’s brother Eric Lively, where he allegedly drank alcohol, smoked pot, frequently left staff out in the cold when he overslept and forced them to work sitting on the floor for ‘months’ before buying furniture, the ex-employees claim.
As a boss of the company, 43-year-old Eric, who got married in 2005, even had an affair with one of the employees, three former staff members told the Daily Mail.
‘The entire company was an absolute disaster,’ one staffer said. ‘The workplace allegations that Blake is making now [against Baldoni] are deeply ironic, given that it was one of the most insane, toxic, emotionally draining and disorganized environments you could imagine.’
Blake Lively’s now-defunct lifestyle brand Preserve was a ‘toxic’ and ‘unprofessional’ workplace that ended up in multiple legal claims, ex-employees told the Daily Mail
Preserve was run out of Eric Lively’s (right) Manhattan studio apartment, where he allegedly drank alcohol, smoked pot, frequently left his staff out in the cold when he overslept and forced them to work sitting on the floor for ‘months’ before buying furniture, ex-employees claimed. He is pictured above with Blake (center) and their mother Elaine Lively (left)
‘The impression [Blake] left on me after I worked at Preserve is that she doesn’t care,’ said another ex-employee. ‘It was a really toxic work environment.’
Staff spoke anonymously, fearing backlash from the Livelys for calling out the allegedly shambolic and ‘inappropriate’ work environment the actress presided over.
Many were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements about the dramatic implosion of the company, staff said.
Some were also said to have received settlements of up to $300,000 after threatening legal action over their treatment.
And yet, not even a whisper leaked to the press at the time, supposedly thanks to the work of Blake’s fastidious publicist Leslie Sloane, who is currently also embroiled in the legal battle with Baldoni.
‘Leslie Sloane shut it down,’ one staffer claimed. ‘They buried every single thing from that company.’
Preserve had a promising beginning.
Blake partnered with successful Los Angeles marketing businessman Krishnan Menon, who helped launch Preserve using staff from his company Phenomenon Marketing in 2014.
Florid blog posts on a glossy website promoted earthy recipes and artisanal apparel amid glowing polaroid promotional snaps of Blake.
‘We believe that nurturing a better tomorrow upholds the yesterday we cherish, for all of us,’ the ‘about us’ page grandly proclaimed.
But staff claim that when Blake’s brother become involved in a leadership role, things went downhill fast.
Eric was a handsome Hollywood actor with a notable role in 1999 Disney Channel show So Weird and previous small roles in The L Word, Full House and American Pie.
But his career did not soar like his sister’s. Eric filed for bankruptcy in 2009, and his last on-screen role came in 2014 according to his IMDB page.
Gwyneth Paltrow launched Goop in 2008, six years before Blake’s attempt to copy the idea with her own brand, Preserve
On the Preserve website, blog posts promoted earthy recipes and artisanal apparel, with glowing polaroid-filter photos of Lively
Eric (pictured) was ‘unqualified to run a company’, ex-staffers said, adding that he hired eight young people in their early 20s, putting immense pressure on them to execute his ideas
Despite appearances on the TV show Modern Men and others, Eric’s acting career failed to soar like his sister’s. He filed for bankruptcy in 2009, and his last on-screen role was in 2014 according to his IMDB page
Blake partnered with successful Los Angeles marketing businessman Krishnan Menon (pictured), who launched Preserve using staff at his company Phenomenon Marketing in 2014
In the fall of 2014, Preserve moved from Phenomenon’s LA offices to Eric’s studio apartment in lower Manhattan.
He hired about eight 20-somethings from the world of digital marketing and design, and for the next year had a reign of ‘chaos,’ according to some staffers.
‘[Eric] was completely unqualified to run a company,’ one employee said. ‘There were a lot of ways in which the employment was unprofessional.
‘For many weeks or months, there were no desks. We had to sit on the floor. The irony of it being a lifestyle site that was selling these really expensive wares was not lost on anyone.
‘It was a big studio. There wasn’t a delineation between living quarters and working quarters. The bed was part of the same room. There was a whiteboard. But it wasn’t really furnished.
‘I felt like he was being an actor, acting the part of creative director of this company.
‘One day suddenly, out of nowhere, he said “You need to put together a strategy and present it tomorrow.” You show up for work the next day and he’s still asleep.’
Others said they were frequently left outside in the cold on weekday mornings, waiting for Eric to let them in.
‘People would be outside in the cold and he wouldn’t let them in because he was still lying in bed smoking a bowl,’ one claimed. ‘He was taking lots of prescription pills. He would openly smoke. He drank too.’
‘We’d get to the office and it would smell like weed,’ another staffer claimed. ‘It was clear he partied the night before.’
Another staffer said Eric was ‘very charismatic and convincing. You want to be around him.’
‘But at the same time you don’t know what you’re in for when you’re around him,’ they added. ‘We were subject to his moods and whims, and those were very dysregulated. There was anger. You had to walk on eggshells.’
‘There was no one with a sane mind watching over us,’ another employee said. ‘Eric would tell us to do random things. We’d have random meetings that went nowhere.’
One insider said they were told about a particularly bungled 2015 photoshoot.
Preserve employees and a fashion model were allegedly driven to Blake’s mansion in Westchester County, north of New York, to plan for the upcoming shoot – but Blake didn’t emerge until two hours after the group arrived.
‘[Staff] said [Blake] came out of her house hours late, looking like an absolute mess,’ the insider said.
‘The whole idea was to show that she was “styling” the shoots. All she was doing was adding accessories like bracelets for the pictures. That was her only input.’
The insider added: ‘Other employees also told me about a Preserve fashion shoot run by Eric in New York, days later. Blake had no part in it.
‘He had somehow finagled students from a film school to assist with the shoot as free interns and it was a disaster.
‘[Staff] said the environment was frantic, late at night in our fifth-floor walk-up. They were hiking gear up five flights of stairs in a panicked rush.’
Late nights were not unusual, according to one employee.
‘Some people were working every single day, 20 hours a day. A crazy amount. Not because there was work to be done, but because it was so dysfunctional and Eric captured people into his sphere,’ the staffer said.
The use of Eric’s loft as an all-hours business irked neighbors, who filed several complaints with the New York City Department of Buildings in January 2015. Inspectors visited but were unable to gain entry.
Building Department complaints accused Preserve of ‘illegal commercial/manufacturing use in residential zone,’ with an anonymous filer writing: ‘I would like to report someone who is using their apartment as an online business and constantly have 10-20 [people] in the apartment at [a] time.’
Staff said one irate complainant was their downstairs neighbor, former NHL player Sean Avery.
However Avery, 45, played down the alleged nuisance when contacted by the Daily Mail, saying: ‘It was fine really, as far as New York neighbors go,’ adding that he met Blake once and found her to be ‘very nice’ and ‘beautiful.’
Three staff members also told the Daily Mail that Eric had a sexual relationship with one of his employees.
While he allegedly had a sexual relationship with one of his employees, Eric Lively was married to Angelina Davydova. (Both are pictured above)
Davydova (pictured) and Eric married in 2005. It appears the two have not divorced, though Davydova has not appeared in any posts on his Facebook or Instagram for years
When staffers were able to wrangle Blake (right) for a meeting to discuss Eric’s (left) conduct, they said the actress didn’t want to hear it. Instead, employees said some staff received a settlement of up to $300,000 in exchange for not suing
Some were uncomfortable about the relationship, knowing Eric had been married to Angelina Davydova, 47, since 2005.
It appears the two have not divorced, though Davydova has not appeared in any of Eric’s public social media posts on Facebook or Instagram for several years.
Davydova did not respond to a request for comment.
Paychecks were sometimes haphazard too, staff claimed. Two staff members were said to be unable to afford their subway fares when Preserve failed to pay them on time, amid the slow collapse of the brand in 2015.
In the preceding months, Blake had been juggling work and pregnancy with her first child, James – born in December 2014 – and had been spending some time in her husband Ryan Reynolds’s hometown of Vancouver.
But by the spring of 2015, she was traveling back to New York City, including appearing on the Times Square set of Good Morning America on April 21, 2015 to promote her movie The Age of Adaline.
At their wits’ end with the ‘chaotic’ and ‘toxic’ workplace, senior Preserve staff arranged a meeting with Blake at a hotel in New York City in the spring of 2015 to ask for help, employees told the Daily Mail.
‘[Blake] immediately shut it down and said she wouldn’t be entertaining anything about her brother,’ one staffer said. ‘The entire meeting was about Eric, and Blake just didn’t want to hear anything about it, so it went nowhere.’
‘When they went to have the meeting, Blake didn’t care about any of it and didn’t want to hear about any of it,’ said another staffer. ‘Which is why [some employees] ended up going through with legal action.’
Indeed, some staff threatened to sue, though all alleged disputes appear to have been settled before public court documents were filed. One employee is said to have received a settlement of up to $300,000 and moved out of state.
Sources close to the company said the multiple legal actions were launched after the company started firing staff.
All were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements to stay silent about the goings on at the company.
Preserve‘s shutdown was reported in 2015, with many articles mocking its ‘pretentious’ blog posts and lack of a successful business plan.
In a June 2015 interview with TIME magazine, Blake blamed the brand’s lackluster launch on sexism and the media.
‘They pit women against each other,’ she said. ‘You don’t see male entrepreneurs pitted against each other, destroyed, picked apart, and every word they say served up to judge.’
Blake also claimed the launch of her business was rushed in order to be featured in the August 2014 edition of Vogue magazine.
‘We had a Vogue cover set up, so I couldn’t call Anna Wintour and say “I need six more months,”‘ she said.
The actress added that her staff were ‘a team of amazing people coming to work and bleeding, sweating and crying every day, and loving it.’
Those staff have remained silent on their experience, until now.
Some ex-employees told the Daily Mail they decided to speak out after seeing Blake accuse Baldoni of sexual harassment and an unprofessional environment on the set of their movie It Ends With Us.
‘It’s so ironic that she filed a workplace lawsuit when her workplace had three legal claims,’ one Preserve staffer said. ‘Three out of roughly eight employees made legal claims.’
‘She didn’t care to understand how the mismanagement of her brother could be affecting us,’ said another. ‘She’s entitled and extremely out of touch, and really only cares about herself.’
‘She was always very nice to me,’ said a third. ‘But you would think that for somebody so concerned with their image and the narrative, there would have been more care taken to make sure things were more professional.’
