The past few weeks has been a sad one for brands. Last week Aquascutum announced that they are going into liquidation and today the company that owns Betsey Johnson's boutiques confirmed that they have gone bankrupt.
In a statement released today the company said that the last few months have been dedicated to 'rigorously pursuing alternative restructuring arrangements to address Betsey Johnson LLC's cash flow problems,' but the efforts failed to change anything. 'After exhausting our resources and possibilities, it became apparent that neither a restructuring arrangement with a new equity investor nor a sale of the business enterprise as a going concern outside of bankruptcy was to be forthcoming.'
Betsey Johnson LLC controls 63 of the designers boutiques internationally meaning that almost 350 people will be made redundant when the stores close. Johnson won't be out of a job though, as she will stay on board as creative director of her lower-priced label sold in department stores. The closure of her boutiques will not prevent deliveries to the boutiques stocking her mainline, not will it affect the e-commerce site.
UPDATE:
Today Betsey Johnson spoke to WWD about the news. 'I feel so sad for my store people and my pink girls,' she said. 'They live and die for me. But I need to be better. I really need to work well and be more efficient.' When asked about the problems with her lower priced line, Johnson blamed the copy-cat nature of the high street. 'The compeition - the H&Ms, Topshop, Century 21 and the knockoff ability is unbelievable,' she commented. 'Within three days of something being on the Internet, they have seen it, they copy it and they price-beat it.' Initially the company gave the impression that the mainline would run as normal but an anonymous source told Elle that we should not expect a runway show this season as the line is definitely in a dire situation.
