In 2026, revelations drawn from the Epstein files placed AllSaints’ ownership and senior management in the orbit of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel. Lyndon Lea, the Lion Capital chairman whose firm acquired control of AllSaints in 2011, reportedly maintained a friendship with Epstein after Epstein’s 2009 release from prison for soliciting a child for prostitution. Emails dated January 2010 show Epstein asking Brunel to arrange a New York dinner for Lea, with Brunel replying that he would invite ten models. The documents also describe Epstein introducing Lea to a young Romanian woman who was first directed toward an internship and later referred to AllSaints, where she worked as executive assistant to CEO William Kim. Her subsequent messages to Epstein referred to Kim as her former boss and current boyfriend. The material does not establish that AllSaints itself participated in trafficking or that its executives committed sexual crimes, but it exposes the disturbing overlap between a major fashion investor, a disgraced financier, a modeling intermediary accused of rape and trafficking minors, and the recruitment of a very young woman into a luxury-fashion workplace. The revelations generated scrutiny of AllSaints’ governance, particularly because Peter Wood—later CEO—had overseen human resources during the period in which the woman was employed, while publicly praising Lea’s ownership and support of the company. The episode revived long-standing concerns about fashion’s dependence on powerful men who use models, internships, and elite social access as channels of influence, even where the available evidence stops short of proving criminal conduct by the retailer.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 2020s
The Epstein–Brunel Connection Behind AllSaints’ 2026 Leadership Scandal
AllSaints, Lyndon Lea, Jeffrey Epstein, and Jean-Luc Brunel / 2020s
In 2026, revelations drawn from the Epstein files placed AllSaints’ ownership and senior management in the orbit of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel. Lyndon Lea, the Lion Capital chairman whose firm acquired control of AllSaints in 2011, reportedly maintained a friendship with Epstein after Epstein’s 2009 release from prison for soliciting a child for prostitution. Emails dated January 2010 show Epstein asking Brunel to arrange a New York dinner for Lea, with Brunel replying that he would invite ten models. The documents also describe Epstein introducing Lea to a young Romanian woman who was first directed toward an internship and later referred to AllSaints, where she worked as executive assistant to CEO William Kim. Her subsequent messages to Epstein referred to Kim as her former boss and current boyfriend. The material does not establish that AllSaints itself participated in trafficking or that its executives committed sexual crimes, but it exposes the disturbing overlap between a major fashion investor, a disgraced financier, a modeling intermediary accused of rape and trafficking minors, and the recruitment of a very young woman into a luxury-fashion workplace. The revelations generated scrutiny of AllSaints’ governance, particularly because Peter Wood—later CEO—had overseen human resources during the period in which the woman was employed, while publicly praising Lea’s ownership and support of the company. The episode revived long-standing concerns about fashion’s dependence on powerful men who use models, internships, and elite social access as channels of influence, even where the available evidence stops short of proving criminal conduct by the retailer.
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