A luxury brand left a heavily pregnant artist chasing $2,182 for 3 months after an 11-hour shift. Then the internet fixed it in 24 hours

Luxury brands are all about making their customers feel special, but the behind-the-scenes is very different. Rayane Chami (@raymakesthings) is a small freshwater jewelry business owner and was heavily pregnant (37+ weeks) when she received an invitation from a Miu Miu regional retail events manager on May 29. They asked her to help make sunglass chains for their event at Harrods. Even though it was last minute, she accepted the huge opportunity. But when it was time to get paid, the luxury brand made several excuses. They owed her $2,182, and after three months of no payment, she finally asked the internet for help. The post was shared on September 6, 2026, and it has 148,000 likes and 4,109 comments since.

Overworking a pregnant woman

After Chami agreed to work with them, Miu Miu sent the material to work with on June 3, and a day before the event, they sent her a "guide." She had one evening to learn but immediately discovered a "crucial design flaw." "They wanted me to make a design that took at least 45 minutes within 15/20 minutes," she wrote. She couldn't fix it because it was too late, so she was up till 2 a.m., trying to figure out how to create the design using her own materials. The next day, when she arrived, the Miu Miu team realized they had overbooked her. 

Chami had to work a total of 11 hours, sitting on a stool while six months pregnant, with just a 10-minute lunch and a 5-minute bathroom break, all due to their poor communication. She even had to work an extra 5.5 hours at home to meet the client's expectations but was assured that she would be paid for it all. A week later, the same Miu Miu manager hired someone else for a similar event. The artist encountered the same problem and reached out to Chami for help. She ended up sending her materials and pliers to the event.

Ignored emails

Since the gig was booked last minute, the manager could not register Chami as a supplier on the Prada eProcurement System right away. Chami had to email the manager at least once a week to remind her of the payment but was often ignored. "This was interesting, given that when I was needed for the event, she was very adept at responding to me and even calling me over WhatsApp without scheduling in advance," Chami recalled.

She was afraid of being an inconvenience, but after two months of not getting paid, she sent the manager an email threatening legal action and taking it public. Coincidentally, the Prada eProcurement System was approved minutes later, and the manager replied to her email. However, a few days later, Chami emailed again for an update but received an automated response that the manager was on leave till the end of August. 

3.6 million people team up

Sick and tired of communicating with the manager, Chami reached out to the Prada eProcurement System team. They told her they could not find her invoice and "that it appeared to have been submitted outside the normal process." It felt like a dead end, so Chami asked the internet for help. 24 hours later, she shared an update that her payment had come through. She thanked the 3.6 million people who commented, shared, and demanded she get paid. She wrote, "So many of us, like me, are lured in by the flattery of being asked. My kindness and desire to be liked turned me into the perfect victim... without you, I wouldn’t have been able to get my story heard."

90-day wait

Sadly, stories like Chami's are not uncommon. A report from Payoneer shared on Flexable revealed that 58%, or at least 910 million, freelancers often faced delayed payments or did not receive any payment at all. This resulted in an annual loss of $15 billion. The Kaplan Group also revealed that 85% of freelancers said they received delayed payments at least some of the time, while 21% were paid late or did not receive any payment at least half of the time. This is especially common in the creative industries. Almost half of the invoices were paid late, and people had to wait at least 90 days, which was similar to Chami's case.

Miu Miu bag in the mail

People were happy that Miu Miu responded and paid Chami for her work. But a few others asked if the luxury brand apologized for making her wait three months. @marieemilievanity commented, "I'm really happy for you, but I hope they apologize for the way they behaved." @clairesherston added, "So glad you got paid, and I hope you can rest now. Everything you said is so true. I would still never buy @miumiu after this, but I’m so glad they’ve sorted it for you."

You can follow Rayane Chami (@raymakesthings) on Instagram for more jewelry and lifestyle content.

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