Bankrupt fashion designer may lose her £3m mansion
Fortune lost in the collapse of Icelandic bank
Designer Karen Millen, whose Maidstone shop became the epicentre of a multimillion-pound fashion empire, has been declared bankrupt.
The 55-year-old’s case for insolvency went before the High Court last week, after she was reportedly unable to pay an outstanding £6m in tax.
It is understood the bill came after HM Revenue and Customs successfully challenged a tax avoidance scheme which Miss Millen had invested in.
The mother-of-three, who lives in Wateringbury near Maidstone, now faces the possibility of losing her £3m mansion and other property.
The former Medway College of Art student, now UCA University for the Creative Arts, launched the popular fashion label with former husband and business partner Kevin Stanford and opened her first self-titled store in Maidstone’s Royal Star Arcade in 1983.
That shop closed in 2009, five years after the pair sold the company to Icelandic corporation Baugur in a £120 million deal.
Initially she said she had no regrets and wanted a clean start, but plans of a comeback were revealed in 2011 after she lost a large amount of her fortune following the collapse of the Icelandic bank Kaupthing following the 2008 financial crisis.
Miss Millen has remained in a legal battle with it ever since after it blocked her bids to use her own name for any future fashion-related business.
Maidstone was previously the base for the company’s head office, which was within the Power Hub building off St Peter’s Street, and an outlet for old collections and faulty items occu- pied a unit in the Broadway Shopping Centre for many years.
The firm’s retail ties with the County Town were finally cut when Karen Millen concession was closed in 2014.
The brand, seen on celebrities including Nicole Scherzinger and Spice Girl Emma Bunton, has retained Kent outlets in Canterbury, Bluewater and Bromley.