TROPICAL STORM
Swanky boutique skirts bills amid cash crunch
A chain of swanky fashion boutiques that counts Gwyneth Paltrow and Cameron Diaz as clients is having trouble keeping the lights on — literally.
Calypso St. Barth — whose tropical-themed togs include $95 T-shirts and $165 swimsuits — has been skimping on paying its clothing suppliers, employees and even its overdue electricity bills as it grapples with a cash crunch, sources told The Post.
Over the past month, boutiques in New York, Connecticut, Seattle, Dallas, Denver, and Florida have quietly shuttered, insiders said. With them, scores of salespeople have been laid off without being paid for their final weeks of service, sources said.
The money spigot is getting closed by Solera Capital, a New York-based private-equity shop whose principals include Diana Taylor, the girlfriend of billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
In August, Calypso told its sales staff that even the music that’s piped into its stores, computers and phone lines was getting shut off, according to internal e-mails obtained by The Post. Some employees said they showed up to work in recent weeks, only to head back home because the lights wouldn’t switch on.
“As our inventory dwindles, we reassure our customers that we aren’t closing because that’s what we’ve been told to say,” one fed-up employee griped in an e-mail last month to management and workers that went nationwide.
“But now that our phones don’t ring and the UPS no longer delivers packages and we’re selling a schizophrenic mash-up of spring, summer and fall to try to keep our rack full, those words feel hollow and rather delusional.”
When The Post called Solera Capital on Friday for comment, the person who answered the phone said, “I’m sorry I can’t help you,” and hung up. A subsequent message was not returned.
“Imagine that you have no phones, no new product, you’re getting eviction notices and you are trying to stay positive because you love your store,” said one former sales associate in the New York area.
“We are all trying to get answers and many of us can’t pay our rent and bills,” said the former worker, who lost her job in October and has not gotten her last paycheck.
At one time, the 40-year-old brand had as many as 35 stores. There were 22 listed on its Web site Friday, but many of them have closed in recent weeks, including those in Greenwich and Westport, Conn.; Dallas; Palm Beach and Naples, Fla.; and Tribeca in the Big Apple, sources said.
Even Calypso’s posh boutique at Madison Avenue and 72nd Street, one of its last remaining locations, has no telephone service.
When The Post visited the Madison store earlier this week, a saleswoman who refused to give her name testily insisted that it wasn’t closing and that anyone who has said otherwise “is garbage.”
Last week, Calypso’s creditors filed a Chapter 7 petition to force Calypso into liquidation. Some were startled to learn this week that the company doesn’t even own its intellectual property, according to the creditors’ lawyer, Jeffrey Cohen, of Lowenstein Sandler.