Ivanka Trump's clothing line is quietly being relabeled and sold off to a discount retailer under the brand name 'Adrienne Vittadini' - months after multiple high-end stores dropped her namesake clothing line.

In an embarrassing development, dresses and other apparel from the president's daughter are being sold at Stein Mart outlets for a fraction of their original cost.

The rebranding happened after the store had received negative feedback from shoppers- with one customer who reportedly spat on a blouse in front of a cashier before storming out of the store.

The story was first reported by Business of Fashion which tracked down the Adrienne Vittadini items and found they were exactly the same as those in Ivanka's line.

They were being sold at Stein Mart, a discount department store chain based in Jacksonville, Florida, which has 290 stores in 31 states.

Rebranding: Ivanka Trump's brand has quietly been rebranded as 'Adrienne Vittadini' at Stein Mart discount stores following negative customer feedback

Adrienne Vittadini or Ivanka Trump? The first daughter's fashion line is selling items under a different designer name without informing customers. Pictured: Adrienne Vittadini at Stein Mart (left) and Ivanka Trump at Macy's (right)

Rather than displaying her namesake brand Ivanka Trump, the clothes had the name Adrienne Vittadini Studio, which is licensed by a separate company called Authentic Brands Group.

It unclear if Vittadini had a role in the matter.

Ivanka's business suffered a devastating blow following her father's controversial presidency, which resulted in Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Shoebuy.com, and other high-end retailers pulling her items in Febraury due to poor sales.

Business of Fashion said that swapping labels is commonplace in the industry however it takes place less often as major retailers have their own cut price outlets.

The website said that G-III, an apparel company which manufactures and distributes Ivanka's fashion line under license, could have been 'simply looking to protect the Ivanka Trump brand from being associated with a discount retailer'.

Stein Mart chief executive D. Hunt Hawkins said that their decision was not a political one.

In a phone call he said: 'We've had both labels for a while. We may see more Adrienne Vittadini in the short term.

'I've had an equal number of [customers] say that they don't want and do want [the Ivanka Trump merchandise] in the store. If we get it, we get it'.

Consumers, however, are likely to question why they were not informed in the label swap, especially those who did not vote for Trump.

Discount department store Stein Mart rebranded the line after receiving negative customer feedback with one shopper even 'spitting at a blouse before storming out of the store'

Susan Scafidi, professor of fashion law at Fordham Law School, said: 'Even if label swapping is technically legal, questions remain on whether or not the practice is ethical or in line with customer expectation.

'Of course, the fact that a clothing retailer can legally relabel with certain restrictions doesn't mean that it should, especially if label-conscious consumers are likely to be outraged by the switch. Fashion may be trending toward modesty, but when it comes to labels, customers are demanding more transparency than ever'.

Getting a sense of how her father's Presidency has impacted Ivanka's fashion line has been tricky due to the conflicting data.

The Wall Street Journal reported that apparel and footwear sales of her line at Nordstrom slumped by more than 70 per cent in the last three weeks of October last year compared to the same time the year before.

The decrease slowed in January and was down 26 per cent, according to internal data from Nordstrom the Journal cited.

As a result Nordstrom dropped her entire line, sparking an angry rebuke from the president who tweeted that she had been treated 'so unfairly'.

However retail analyst Slice Intelligence painted a different picture and said that US sales of Ivanka's products on Amazon were up 332 per cent in January and February.

Sales at Macy's were up 148 per cent and 29 per cent at Bloomingdale's.

Representatives for Ivanka have previously said that sales of all types of merchandise went up by 21 per cent in 2016.

G-III said in a statement: 'G-III accepts responsibility for resolving this issue, which occurred without the knowledge or consent of the Ivanka Trump organisation.

'G-III has already begun to take corrective actions, including facilitating the immediate removal of any mistakenly labeled merchandise from its customer. The Ivanka Trump brand continues to grow and remains very strong'.