Courtney Love, Infamous Former Addict, Will Not Sell Out to the Sackler Family, Manufacturers of the Opioid Crisis

On Monday afternoon, Purdue Pharma heiress Joss Sackler’s fashion brand, LBV Care of Joss Sackler, will send a collection of tote bags and statement bracelets down the runway for New York Fashion Week, marking her first public outing in the city after fleeing to Palm Beach earlier this summer. Representatives for the venue, the Bowery Terrace, report that 100 people are expected to attend the event, with minor celebrities like Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and Suki Waterhouse on the guest list.

One notable absentee will be Courtney Love, who disinvited herself after Sackler’s team offered the singer $100,000 and a dress trimmed in 24-carat gold to attend. As Page Six reports:

According to emails from Sackler’s team to Love, exclusively seen by Page Six, “Elizabeth Kennedy (LBV creative director) and Joss are huge fans of Courtney … She best embodies the women they are dressing … strong and undeterred.” The emails add, “The brand has no relation to Purdue … other than Joss is married to the family.”

“Strong” and “undeterred” are certainly words to describe Courtney Love, as well as “opinionated former addict.” Which makes the decision to invite her to a show built by the progeny of a family brand responsible for OxyContin that much more confusing! In a statement to Page Six, Love accused the family of having “no shame.”

“I am one of the most famous reformed junkies on the planet — my husband died on heroin — What is it about me that says to Joss Sackler, ’I will sell out to you?’ Well I won’t. […] I never would take their money — Joss is delusional, talking about her fashion line and private members club, their ‘philanthropical arm.’ What about instead giving money to rehab facilities, paying for Narcan (a medication that counters opioid overdoses) or creating a non-addictive painkiller?”

She also criticized Joss’s attempts to woo her with a “phoenix dress” (which is the theme of the collection) trimmed in literal gold, saying “a fashion line with 24-carat gold thread won’t ever cover up or wash away the stains on Joss Sackler and her family.” To be precise: The Sackler family-owned Purdue Pharma stands accused of kickstarting the opioid crisis through its manufacturing of OxyContin, though Sackler’s spokesperson Elizabeth Tuke would likely take issue with this framing. As she told Page Six: “This is not accurate.”