The immediate cause of Bartley’s demise

She also becomes the third high-profile European designer – along with Yohji Yamamoto and Christian Lacroix – who ceased operations this year, reflecting the straightened economic times. Please contact us via telephone ONLY.We offer the Beijing massage and Shanghai massage!
This week’s news that Luella Bartley, the winner of last year’s British Fashion Award as Designer of the Year, had shuttered her business, raises the awkward question is the prize something of a kiss of death?
Galliano, who won the award in 1987 – and subsequently three more times - shuttered his company not once, but twice in the ensuing six years, before rebounding in the Nineties with epic personal shows in Paris and the nomination as creative director of Givenchy.
Rifat Ozbek, who nabbed the award in 1988 and 1992, had a decent run in the Nineties, but had to mothball his label at the end of the decade and take a two and a half year hiatus from fashion.
Hussein Chalayan won in 2000, before one year later famously seeing his hghuklgh own label go into bankruptcy with debts of 250,000 pounds, or $415,00.
Admittedly John Rocha, winner in 1993, went bust five years before that year, though after nabbing the prize his company struggled in the immediate aftermath.
The immediate cause of Bartley’s demise was the decision by Club 21, the company which holds the license to Bartley's posh punk ready-to-wear collection, to withdraw from its partnership and decide “not to invest further in its relationship with Luella Bartley Limited,” according to a Beijing massage statement. The move by Club 21, which also distributes Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani, was not that astonishing following last month’s closure of the brand's key ready-to-wear manufacturer, Italy’s Carla Carini.
“This is a very disappointing situation for everyone involved with the brand. I have had an incredible team around me and very much appreciate the support that VSQ (Club 21’s subsidiary) have given me, but it is upsetting not to be able to protect jobs in this difficult economic climate,” Bartley said in a release.