Dive Brief:
- Luxury London-based fashion label Christopher Kane is looking for refinancing assistance or a potential buyer, according to Bloomberg.
- In a statement, the company’s board told WWD it intends to appoint U.K.-based insolvency firm FTS Recovery as administrators to “wind down operations” if no buyer can be found.
- French luxury conglomerate Kering sold Christopher Kane back to its namesake founder in 2018 after buying a 51 percent stake in the brand in 2013.
Dive Insight:
“This difficult decision has been reached to give the company sufficient time to implement a rescue plan,” principals of Christopher Kane Ltd. told WWD. “Key stakeholders have been notified. A period of accelerated marketing activity will now follow, with a view to locating potential interested parties to either refinance the company’s existing debt, or alternatively locate a purchaser for the business and assets.”
A court filing reported by the Times of London shows a notice of intention to appoint an administrator, and the Times said notice gives Christopher Kane Ltd. “breathing space from creditors for ten days as it seeks to avoid liquidation.”
Scottish designer Christopher Kane founded his brand in 2006 with his sister Tammy Kane. He joined Versace to design its Versus line in 2009, but split with the Italian luxury house in 2012. The following year, he sold a 51% stake in the company to Kering, previously named PPR. In a statement to the press at the time, PPR CEO François-Henri Pinault said, “We… have great ambitions for the brand and will enable it to benefit from our expertise and know-how while providing the space for it to further develop its own creative identity.”
The partnership didn’t last, however, and Christopher Kane was one of many brands Kering offloaded in 2018, including Puma and Stella McCartney.
Christopher Kane launched a diffusion line called More Joy in 2019, which featured sunglasses, t-shirts and vibrators. However, the website for the line appeared to be abandoned at press time. WWD reported that Kane closed his London store in 2021, in the wake of COVID-19 closures. Details regarding the label’s final collection have not been released, and the company did not respond to requests for comment.
