A longtime fashion executive refused to hire a talented designer full-time because he is a cancer survivor — and “laughed” when her stunned longtime friend and “right hand” told her that her reasoning was “a bit discriminatory,” a new lawsuit alleges.
Designer John Rangel spent a year helping his friend, Lisa Kulson, a fashion executive with a long history as creative director at major fashion brand Theory, prep for the launch of her new independent fashion line — for free — while he was in between jobs.
But when she finally got financing, Kluson told him she “could not hire him as an employee because he had cancer and the investors would not agree to hire someone with cancer,” the suit claims — and then fired him days before a scheduled surgery.
“She wants a slave,” Rangel, 44, said in an exclusive interview with The Post. “She wants a person who will work with her 24/7 and yet be paid very little, and that was really shocking to me.”
“Mr. Rangel trusted his friend and gave her his best work,” said his attorney, Julie Salwen of Harrison, Harrison & Associates. “She did not live up to his trust.”
Kulson did not respond to multiple messages requesting comment on Friday.
Rangel, a Parsons grad originally from the Philippines whose work history includes design director gigs at big industry names like Lane Bryant and Full Beauty Brands, was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma in 2020.
He had been friends and collaborators with Kulson since 2019, and she asked him two years ago if he could bring his talent and experience to help launch her fledgling brand and pitch it to investors, according to the suit filed Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
In 2023, he started working for Kulson without pay, helping her with all aspects of designing her fashion line and building pitch decks — all with the promise that he would be integral to the brand.
“I believed her so much because she’s an amazing designer, and also she’s an amazing person,” Rangel said.
After a year of working 60-hour weeks, he told Kulson last summer that he needed more steady — and paying — work.
Kulson re-upped her promise, texting him that his role would be “right hand/assistant designer/pd [product designer,” according to the suit and Rangel.
But once that investor money came in, that promise suddenly disappeared, he said, and Kulson shocked him with a lowball offer of $4,000 a month — adding that her investors balked at hiring a cancer survivor full-time.
“She just casually told me that,” Rangel said of the shocking conversation.
Kulson referred to his cancer euphemistically, saying that a full-time offer was off the table because of his “health issues,” Rangel recalled.
“I said: ‘You mean my history of cancer?’ And she said yes,” he told The Post.
When he pointed out that was “a bit discriminatory,” Rangel said “she just laughed at it.”
“I felt so small and humiliated,” he said. “It wasn’t easy, because I did so much for her.”
But Rangel said he accepted the offer to work as a contractor, a classification his lawsuit contends is illegal since he was working full-time because she continued to promise more money later on.
Additionally his job description said he had to perform daily “clean-up & maintenance, including restroom,” and, given his 60 and 70 hour workweeks, his wages — which never included overtime — averaged below the $16 per hour minimum, the suit claims, in addition to other protections and benefits that come with a full-time job.
“As a result of her discrimination, Mr. Rangel was not even able to get unemployment after Ms. Kulson fired him two days before he was scheduled for surgery.” said Salwen.
“His role was not the role it would have been if he hadn’t had cancer.”
That November, Rangel reminded Kulson of an upcoming surgery after the office’s Thanksgiving week holiday. But he was told to stay home and rest by one of Kulson’s employees the week before the procedure.
At first, Rangel thought it was a “really caring” gesture — until Kulson gave him a video call two days before surgery to tell him “it’s not working” and fired him.
“I have been working tirelessly at the office almost every day of the week,” Rangel recalled saying, and he wanted to know why.
Kulson demurred, he said.
“The fact that he was going to have surgery seemed to influence the timing of their decision,” said Salwen. “I can’t know what’s in their minds, but it seems clear that had an effect on it.”
“I felt so small, that I’m insignificant, that they can’t even tell me what was wrong, or give me feedback,” he said. “As a friend, you would expect that at least. And they thought she was a really, really good person.”
The suit is also seeking back wages and unpaid overtime in addition to damages.
