THEIR FASHION EMPIRES GO HEAD TO HEAD
STELLA has made around £50 million in fashion, while Posh has lost £42 million.
Stella started out as an intern at Christian Lacroix when she was 16, then worked for Edward Sexton, a Savile Row tailor who made clothes for her father Sir Paul McCartney. She graduated from Central Saint Martins in 1995 with Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell walking in her graduation show.
Her fashion house was launched in 2001 in collaboration with the Kering group.
It has been a huge success with revenues said to stand at around £250 million a year.
She bought back Kering’s 50 per cent stake in 2018 and last year made a deal with luxury giants LVMH — part of their new commitment to ethical fashion and sustainability. She does not use any leather or fur in her designs.
Victoria, meanwhile, started in fashion with jeans and sunglasses in 2006, before launching her own line in 2008. Figures filed last year indicate Victoria Beckham Ltd has failed to turn a profit for the seventh year running. It has lost £42 million in 11 years, the equivalent of nearly £10,500 a day.
Losses are 18 per cent worse than last year and stand at a painful £11.7 million. Meanwhile, sales have also dropped by 16 per cent to stand at £35.1 million for the year ending December 2018. Previously they stood at £41.7 million.
Company chairman Ralph Toledano said it was experiencing a ‘ growth crisis’ because demand had reached a ‘plateau’.
Fashion designer Jeff Banks told me: ‘It is not that she has lost her eye, but she is struggling against a massive overhead which does not support sales of £35 million a year.
‘The question is how much can they afford to pay so that she can keep pursuing her dreams?’