Former Heatherette press agent Mauricio Padilha brings legal action against designers Richie Rich and Traver Rains for unpaid fees.

The fashion duo entered design world in 2001 when one of the Patricia Field's buyers noticed Rich in one of leather tops that he designed himself and ordered 20 items at once. Heatherettes  gained fast popularity designing shiny mini-dresses and ragged shirts for Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim, Gwen Stefani, Shirley Manson, David Beckham, Alicia Keys, Britney Spears and Norman Weisfeld, owner of the Coogi and Fubu labels, who bought their shares recently.

Mauricio Padilha, CEO at MAO Public Relations, has worked as publicist for Heatherette since the company's birth but has been fired last month when Richie Rich and Traver Rains sold their trademark without paying him some $250,000. He claims that it was a shock for him to find out that the company who has gained from his PR activity for the last 4 years refuses to pay. "I feel like we've been kicked in the ass for no reason" says Padilha in the interview to Page Six.

Rich disproves Padilha's claim calling the action "ridiculous" and Aimee Phillips, the designers’ best friend and also a PR lady, shed some light on the situation inside the company: "You might say the great story is that important editors were standing out in the freezing cold during Fashion Week because Mao doesn’t know how to put on a show." Yet the publicist doesn't want to disscuss those quarrels in public as  "they  just like to keep everything positive. No negative energy.”