Karen Millen

Last updated

Karen Millen is a brand used by online women's clothing retailer Boohoo plc. The brand specialises in tailoring, coats and evening wear. It was acquired in 2019 following the collapse of Karen Millen Fashions Ltd, a company that operated a chain of clothing stores in many countries worldwide. The company was originally founded in 1981 by British entrepreneur fashion designer Karen Millen. She sold it in 2004 and was not subsequently involved in businesses bearing her name.

Contents

Company founding and growth

Karen Millen at The 4th Asian Awards Karen Millen at The 4th Asian Awards-2.png
Karen Millen at The 4th Asian Awards
Karen Millen's former logo Karen millen fashion logo.png
Karen Millen's former logo

English fashion designer Karen Millen studied fashion at the Medway College of Design, now known as University for the Creative Arts. [1] She founded the Karen Millen company in 1981, partnered with Kevin Stanford. With a loan of £100, the pair bought one thousand metres of white cotton and began manufacturing and selling white shirts to their friends. [2] A party-plan network followed, and in 1983, they opened their first store in Maidstone, Kent, which was followed a few years later by branches in Tunbridge Wells, Brighton, Guildford and London.[ citation needed ]

The company continued to expand throughout the 1990s, opening dozens of retail stores. In June 2004 the founder sold the business to Mosaic Fashions, a company from Iceland, had no further involvement in the Karen Millen company and under the terms of the sale was not permitted to use her name for other ventures.

After departure of the founder

In 2009, Mosaic Fashions ceased trading and the brand transferred to Aurora Fashions. The Karen Millen brand was spun-out from Aurora Fashions in 2011, remaining under the ownership of Aurora's owner, Kaupthing Bank. [3] [4] [5]

In 2016 the Karen Millen company had 84 standalone stores and 46 concessions in the UK and Ireland. Internationally it had 16 company-owned stores and 57 franchise stores in 23 countries. [6]

The Karen Millen business acquired the assets of its sister company, Coast, out of administration in October 2018. [7] In August 2019, the two companies' online businesses were bought out of administration by internet retailer Boohoo for £18 million. Only the online employees were taken on by Boohoo and the standalone retail stores eventually closed. [8]

Related Research Articles

Next plc (styled as NEXT) is a British multinational clothing, footwear and home products retailer, which has its headquarters in Enderby, England. It has around 700 stores, of which circa 500 are in the United Kingdom, and circa 200 across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Next is the largest clothing retailer by sales in the United Kingdom, having overtaken Marks & Spencer in early 2012 and 2014. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

George William Davies is an English fashion designer and retailer.

Habitat is a brand of household furnishings in the United Kingdom and the main homewares brand within the Sainsbury's group.

Arcadia Group Ltd was a British multinational retailing company headquartered in London, England. It was best known for being the previous parent company of British Home Stores (BHS), Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Debenhams, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop, Wallis and Warehouse. At its peak, the group had more than 2,500 outlets in the UK and concessions in UK department stores and several hundred franchises operated internationally.

Loehmann's was an American retail company which started as a single store in Brooklyn, New York and grew to a chain of off-price department stores in the United States. The chain was best known for its "Back Room", where women interested in fashion could find designer clothes at prices lower than in department stores. While the largest portion of its client base was historically women, the chain also offered shoes, accessories, and men's clothing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JD Sports</span> British sports-fashion retail company

JD Sports Fashion plc, commonly known as JD Sports, JD or JD Group is a British sports-fashion retail company based in Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The Pentland Group owns 55% of the company.

Steve & Barry's was an American retail clothing chain, featuring casual clothing, footwear and accessories. Headquartered in Port Washington, New York, the chain operated 276 stores in 39 states before liquidating throughout 2008 and 2009.

Frasers Group plc is a British retail, sport and intellectual property group, named after its ownership of the department store chain House of Fraser.

Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) is a Carlisle-based retailer specialising in clothing, along with interests in homewares and destination shopping for tourists. It was previously owned by the Dubai-based British billionaire Philip Day.

Sears plc was a large British-based conglomerate. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was acquired by Philip Green in 1999.

Mosaic Fashions hf was a holding company listed on the Icelandic stock exchange that owned several fashion brands. At its peak it had over 2,000 stores worldwide, as concessions, franchises and joint venture stores.

Principles was a UK-based fashion retailer founded in 1984.

Rubicon Retail was a British retail group that traded between 2002 and 2006.

Aurora Fashions was a holding company of several retail fashion brands, formed in 2009 to purchase a number of businesses from the collapsed Mosaic Fashions. The company operated over 1,250 stores in 38 countries, including franchises, under the Oasis, Warehouse and Coast brands.

EziBuy is a New Zealand and Australian multi-channel retailer. It sells clothing, homeware and gifts through a multi-channel model in both countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City Chic Collective</span> Australian fashion company

City Chic Collective (CCC), founded as Miller's Retail in 1992, and rebranded in December 2006 to Specialty Fashion Group, is an Australian retail clothing company. It is headquartered in the Sydney suburb of Alexandria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warehouse (clothing)</span> Retail chain in the United Kingdom

Warehouse was a British clothing retail chain, founded in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coast (clothing)</span> British womens clothing retail chain

Coast is a British women's clothing retail chain, founded in 1996.

Boohoo Group plc is a British online fast-fashion retailer, aimed at 16 to 30 year olds. The business was founded in 2006, and had sales in 2019 of £856.9 million.

PrettyLittleThing is a UK-based fast-fashion retailer, aimed at 16- to 41-year-old women. The company is owned by Boohoo Group and operates in the UK, Ireland, Australia, US, France, Middle East and North Africa. The brand's main headquarters are in Manchester. PrettyLittleThing has offices in London, Paris and Los Angeles.

References

  1. ↑ "UCA | University for the Creative Arts". Archived from the original on December 2, 2010.
  2. ↑ About Karen Millen - Womens Designer Clothes - Karen Millen
  3. ↑ Ruddick, Graham (3 January 2015). "Aurora moves closer to break-up as Karen Millen boss departs". The Telegraph. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  4. ↑ Taylor, Charlie (15 January 2016). "Mixed trading conditions for Aurora Fashions". The Irish Times. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  5. ↑ Roberts, Lauretta (17 August 2016). "Karen Millen founder loses battle for right to use her name". The Industry. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  6. ↑ Baugur Group | Details | Karen Millen
  7. ↑ "Karen Millen Buys Coast Assets as Fashion Chain Goes out of Business". Business Of Fashion. 11 October 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  8. ↑ Naomi Rovnick; Jonathan Eley; Nic Fildes (6 August 2019). "Boohoo snaps up Karen Millen and Coast in £18.2m pre-pack deal". Financial Times. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.