Design queen Orla Kiely goes bust
As the designer’s brand ceases trading, Bethan Holt asks how she won at interiors but lost at fashion
When news broke yesterday that Orla Kiely had gone into administration, the collective gasp among the middle classes was palpable. “‘Where will I get my towels now?’ was my first thought,” admits Hannah Rochell, fashion editor, founder of the website
En Brogue and Kiely aficionado who, like thousands of others, immediately shared her shock on social media. My own thoughts turned to a friend who has recently bought a Sixties home with the express intention of filling it with her beloved Orla Kiely products.
Workers were apparently told by CEO Orla Kiely, 55, that they were being made redundant on Monday before the parent company, announced that it had ceased trading: “Having carefully considered the options, the directors of Kiely Rowan Plc have concluded that the business should be placed into creditors’ voluntary liquidation following various challenges that have faced the company over the past few years, both in the UK and abroad.”
As a result, the Orla Kiely stores selling handbags and clothing in Covent Garden and Kildare, Ireland will close, as will her e-commerce site.
Crucially, however, Kiely’s homeware and design licensing business is not affected, meaning that her cult interiors range will live on. When I assure Rochell that her towels, bed sheets and cushions are safe, she breathes a heavy sigh of relief. As well as being a purveyor of Britain’s best-loved coffee tins, Kiely, who was born in Dublin and runs her eponymous business alongside her husband Dermott Rowan, is a fashion designer. It’s how she started out more than 20 years ago with a small range of hats, which she sold at Harrods before moving into oilcloth bags and later clothes, only introducing furniture and then home accessories around five years later. She’s shown at London Fashion Week, in 2011 was awarded an OBE for services to business and the fashion industry, and this summer’s exhibition of her life’s work is still on show at the Fashion and Textiles Museum.
Kiely’s clothing may be as ubiquitous as her homewares, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t had its moments in the spotlight. When Carole Middleton arrived at St Mary’s hospital to visit her firstborn grandchild, Prince George, in 2013, she wore a petrol-blue tea dress by Kiely. She’s not the only family member who’s a fan; the Duchess of Cambridge has five outfits. Alexa Chung, Sarah Jessica Parker and Keira Knightley have also worn her designs.
So how can Kiely’s home business be thriving (her army of super-fans is testament enough to that), while her fashion business has gone under? It’s all to do with subtleties of taste. Times, as we well know, are challenging in retail and if you haven’t got your customer niche sussed then you’re in trouble. A spokesman for Kiely put the closure down to “very tough trading conditions” but at its crux, that statement means the label simply wasn’t selling enough of its feminine, vintage-look designs. While Rochell waxes lyrical about her extensive collection of Kiely homeware – “it’s just so lovely, a combination of modern and classic, but a bit quirky, too” – she goes quiet when I mention the clothes.
“For me, they were just too twee and retro,” she ponders. “They’re not my personal style.” Although interiors and fashion now align more closely than ever, nuanced differences mean winning at one is no guarantee of success with the other.
Kiely has enjoyed brief spells at the height of cool. She has collaborated several times with celebrity stylist and fashion editor Leith Clark – their sweet ruffled dresses were loved by It Girls – but she hasn’t been able to hold the interest of fashion customers who crave a jolt of newness, or to stand out amid the huge competition that exists, not just from designer brands or big retailers but small labels like Rixo, Lily and Lionel or Ganni, which create pieces at similar prices but in cuts and prints that feel contemporary.
There are fans of Kiely’s clothes who have true reason to be upset by yesterday’s announcement. They love the specific silhouettes and faithfully mid-century feel of her designs.
“To the public all she’s known for is the ubiquitous stem design print, but I think she is much more than that,” says Francesca Ryan, Stella magazine’s assistant editor and a Kiely devotee with a 12-strong collection of the label’s skirts, coats and dresses.
“I loved how she did Forties/fifties style with an edge or a clever twist. She is more original than people give her credit for. I always get comments when I wear her designs. I remember wearing a print skirt of hers to a party and someone asked me if it was from Marni! She was putting interesting colours like mustard, brown and teal together long before the likes of COS.”
A highlight of Ryan’s Kiely-wearing was when she wore a new dress to dinner at Brawn restaurant in east London. “When we arrived, I saw Orla Kiely herself at the table across from us wearing the same dress – it was the ultimate compliment.”
All hope is not lost, though, as it was hinted creditors may yet find a way to save the Orla Kiely business. In the meantime, there are always cushions.