His and hers FASHION FORTUNES
As Jade Holland Cooper’s brand hits a style high-note, husband Julian Dunkerton faces takeover at Superdry
THE BBC One reality show The Traitors keeps millions of viewers spellbound. But it wasn’t just the Machiavellian betrayals that kept us hooked.
There was also the rural-luxe fashion, worn by host Claudia Winkleman, which has sparked one of the year’s key style movement, the Traitors Look.
Exemplifying the trend is the £795 Blackwatch coat from British brand Holland Cooper, glamorous yet assertive, and worn by Winkleman, 52, with wellies.
For fashion-watchers in the City, the Holland Cooper coat had an extra significance. The trajectory of the Holland Cooper brand, founded in 2008 by Jade Holland Cooper, contrasts with the woes of Superdry, the clothing line where the chief executive and major shareholder is none other than her husband, Julian Dunkerton.
This weekend Superdry is at the centre of bid talk following the disclosure of the purchase of a 5.3pc stake by Norwegian hedge fund First Seagull.
The business, once worth about £1.7billion, is valued at £41million, as the result of what the company calls ‘a period of unprecedented challenges’ like Brexit, Covid and logistics issues arising from war in Ukraine.
The shares stand at 46.1p, despite surging 118.2 per cent on Friday. At their peak in January 2018, they were 2108p. Last month the company revealed interim losses had ballooned to £25.3 million. Losses for the year to April 2022 were £148 million.
Superdry confirmed last week that it was working with advisers on further cost-saving options.
This followed reports of a possible CVA (company voluntary arrangement), a step that could involve the closure of some of its 215 stores and job cuts, but could make borrowings – net debt totals £28.9million – more manageable.
As for Holland Cooper, 37, her designs appeal to women seeking a more formal, dressed-up aesthetic, championed by the Princess of Wales and Holland Cooper herself. She has 157,000 Instagram followers, while HollandCooperClothing has 293,000. Superdry has 769,000 followers, but is no longer regarded as the achingly trendy brand it once was. The jackets that used to be sported by latter-day dandies like David Beckham and Idris Elba have, somehow, become linked with the off-duty uniform of policemen. Such associations must irk Dunkerton, 58, who started out selling clothing from a stall in Cheltenham in 2003. In 2016 he let others take over the running of the Superdry business, but he was reinstalled in the top role in 2019, following a boardroom battle. As he strives to revive Superdry, with a focus on such issues as stock control he can perhaps take comfort in the knowledge that JD Sports is also suffering in a tough environment.
He also knows that fashion is fickle. And perhaps he can save on high-paid advisers if he can glean some style counsel at home.