start for Sam Cam fashion firm as it loses £560,000
IT LAUNCHED in a blaze of publicity with support from celebrity pals, but Samantha Cameron’s fledgling fashion label has now revealed losses of more than half a million pounds. Latest accounts for Mrs Cameron’s Cefinn business show it lost £561,795 in its first year. The disappointing figures are a surprise given the stellar support for the venture, including from fashion luminaries such as Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. The losses will do little to calm the nerves of former Prime Minister David Cameron’s wife about her first foray into the world of fashion. In an interview last year she admitted: ‘I worry about not selling anything and going bust… it’s definitely terrifying and totally all- consuming – but it’s fun.’ The 47-year-old is regularly seen in her own creations and describes her clothes as being for ‘busy women’. Last year, President Trump’s wife Melania was pictured wearing a £295 ‘belted muslin shirt dress’ design from the Ceffin range. Selling online and at top stores including Selfridges and Fenwick, most of Sam Cam’s dresses cost between £270 and £340. The financial teething troubles are unlikely to concern Cefinn’s wealthy investors, who include former Tory Party chairman Lord Feldman of Elstree and Mark Esiri, chairman of luxury goods firm Smythson, where Mrs Cameron used to be creative director. A spokesman for Cefinn, which employed ten staff when the accounts for the period ending October 31, 2017, were filed, insisted that its performance had been ‘above expectations’.