By lunchtime last Friday, a huge queue had formed in London’s Mayfair; shoppers were lining up for one last chance to own one of the highly coveted Falconetti dresses by The Vampire’s Wife, once dubbed “the dress of the decade.” vogue.
At the beginning of the week, the London-based brand, which was founded by former model Susie Cave in 2014 and whose designs are worn by everyone from Kate, Princess of Wales, to Kate Moss, announced that it will close down and end its tenure with three points. -daily “bye sale”.
“Despite a positive period of growth and sales, wholesale market turmoil has had dramatic effects on the brand,” the statement said. Its closure was preceded by the collapse in March of online luxury fashion retailer Matchesfashion, one of Vampire’s Wife’s biggest stockists.
Founded in 1987 by Ruth and Tom Chapman, Matches initially operated as a single brick-and-mortar store in the London suburb of Wimbledon. It later expanded to 14 stores and introduced luxury international brands, including Prada, to the UK capital, as well as supporting emerging homegrown designers. The e-commerce site launched in 2006 and in 2017 the Chapmans, who own a majority stake, received around £400 million after selling Matchesfashion to private equity investors in a deal worth £800 million.
Now his death has sent seismic waves through the fashion industry. “Fashion is an ecosystem; there is always a chain reaction,” said Olya Kuryshchuk, founder and editor-in-chief of 1 Granary, a fashion education platform and creative network. Another fashion expert claimed that half of the independent brands previously backed by the online giant will not cover this month’s payroll.
When Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group announced it was buying Matches for £52m late last year, the company’s chief executive (and Ashley’s son-in-law) Michael Murray said he was confident the group would “unlock synergies and deliver profitable growth for Matches”. Less than three months later, the group summoned executives from Teneo, a move that caught both staff and suppliers by surprise. In April, Frasers Group bought back the intellectual property but not the shares. Very few people survived the explosion at the facility, which affected everyone from CEOs to cleaners.
This month, Roksanda Ilinčić, another London-based designer who stocks Matches, announced that she was selling her eponymous brand, Roksanda, to The Brand Group (TBG) due to “recent unstable market conditions.”
Roksanda was one of more than 500 unsecured creditors, according to a report from Teneo. Teneo said it was unlikely the money Matches owed the brands would be repaid and that if it were paid the amounts would be “very low… less than a penny per pound”. Most brands cannot access unsold stocks that continue to be sold on the site at heavily discounted prices.
Matches’ collapse affected established and emerging luxury British brands. Burberry is owed more than £500,000, Anya Hindmarch more than £200,000 and Paul Smith and Samantha Cameron’s Cefinn more than £100,000 each. London-based independent jewelery brands Alighieri and Completedworks are owed more than £70,000 and £110,000 respectively, on top of losses from new season orders.
“The UK is currently the worst market in the world for fashion,” said Stefano Martinetto, CEO of fashion brand development platform Tomorrow. “Independent brands are appalled. We are at a turning point. I receive hundreds of requests for financial support and new agreements. We have transferred more than £25 million and awarded almost £1 million in grants to independent designers in the last five years. “Our goal is now to protect these businesses.”
Matches’ collapse has been exacerbated by Brexit and the removal of tax-free shopping for tourists, as well as the economic effects of the pandemic. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and industry leaders including executives from Harrods and Selfridges have renewed a call for the UK government to reintroduce VAT-free shopping for international tourists, which was canceled in 2020.
“We have a lot of tourists in London. They eat ice cream and go to museums, but they jump on the train to Paris for a day to shop for luxury fashion,” Martinetto said.
Some insiders describe the state of the industry as “deeply worrying”. In December, Farfetch, another online luxury powerhouse, narrowly avoided bankruptcy in a fire sale to South Korea’s Coupang that wiped out a majority of shareholders.
Some British clothing manufacturers are currently in financial freefall. Mustafa Fuat, founder of Gosia London, which specializes in producing luxury womenswear pieces and until recently supplied brands stocked by Matches, including Roksanda, described it as a “double whammy”. He said that the same brands, which owed him thousands of lira, were unable to place future orders. “We have a huge gap between now and August and there is no work to fill it,” he said.
Fuat had to reduce the working hours of his staff. “This is really difficult; They’ve been with me a long time, they have families and mortgages. “If I go out of business, that means 12 more people will die along with me.”
Faut described the British fashion industry as booming. The collapse of London-based brands Ralph & Russo in 2021 and Christopher Kane in 2023 has left it with a combined deficit of £85,000. Faut, who has 30 years of experience in the textile industry, said the current conditions are untenable.
This sentiment is echoed by Roy Powley, who, with his partner Helen, runs Riverside Design & Textiles in Leicestershire, specializing in jersey fabrics. Made by Powley himself for Matches’ in-house brand Raey, the oversized rugby jerseys were once one of the brand’s best-selling products. He currently has more than £13,000 in unpaid bills. The 70-year-old, who has been in the textile business for more than 50 years, said he had to swap his pension to keep the business afloat due to “non-existent cash flow”.
Many express disappointment at the lack of government support for an industry that contributes more than £60bn to the UK GDP, and claim government support is better in Italy and France.
Libby Hart, an adviser to the UK trade board, said British brands and factory owners were having to try to “solve the problem themselves”. Powley contacted his local MP, while others, such as Completedworks founder and artistic director Anna Jewishbury, also went to the Matches warehouse to speak to managers. While Jewishbury could not buy back any shares personally, representatives sent by Victoria Beckham were reportedly able to do so.
International brands are developing a trend of hosting major shows in the UK, with Chanel heading to Manchester’s Northern Quarter last year, Gucci hosting a show at London’s Tate Modern this month and Dior holding a show in Perthshire in early June. will be holding an event in Scotland – reports of a mass British fashion exodus are rife. London fashion week’s 40th anniversary program in September will mark the survival of homegrown talent. The June edition of men’s fashion week in Milan invited many London-based brands to Italy, with Martine Rose, David Koma and Dunhill also participating in the program. Paul Smith moved to the Pitti Uomo platform in Florence as a guest designer.
“Design jobs are scarce. Art schools receive very few student applications, and many creative people have already moved to Paris,” Kuryshchuk said. “These are complex issues, and there is no use in everyone trying to tackle them on their own.”
Teneo was reached but declined to comment. Frasers Group has previously said Matches has “consistently missed its business plan targets and… continues to incur material losses”. As Matches’ management team tried to find a way to stabilize the business, it became clear that many changes would be required to restructure the business and that ongoing funding requirements would far exceed amounts the group thought were feasible. .”