Harness closure mini-dress from Phi’s 2010 Spring collection
Another casualty of the recession: It’s sad to see this young and creative label, Phi, disappear! I was looking forward to their LA store opening next year. I have several pairs of their harem pants and they are to die for! The straps and buckles in the 2010 collection would have gone over well with the bondage set! Sigh! Perhaps the designers will be able to produce the designs for other houses in a few years.
The New York Times
December 24, 2009
Front Row
So Young, So Smart, So Gone
By ERIC WILSON
THE news this week of the demise of Phi, a tough-edged collection designed by Andreas Melbostad, a protégé of Calvin Klein and Donna Karan, surprised many fashion insiders. After six years in the market, the collection was just starting to gain traction beyond the close-knit crowd of editors and retailers who packed its Chelsea showroom each season.
“We are all stunned,” said Natalie Massenet, the founder of Net-a-porter.com, which sells Phi’s skintight biker pants ($595) and leather ankle boots ($825). “It was one of our favorite collections of the season.”
The poor outlook for luxury goods was cited as the reason for closing the company, and some of the label’s fans suggested it was too “niche” to survive through the recession. The spring collection, which will not be produced, included bandage jeans and dresses with scads of harness closures, so perhaps they had a point. The clothes always looked sort of as if Victoria’s Secret had been hijacked by the Hells Angels.
But its failure was still sobering because the label was a pet project of Susan Dell, a decent designer in her own right and the wife of Michael Dell, the computer tycoon. And according to Phi’s executives, the company was still growing. In addition to selling to Neiman Marcus and Holt Renfrew, it has a large store in SoHo and planned to open a second in Los Angeles next year.
“The brand seemed to us as a textbook case of how to build a modern fashion house,” Ms. Massenet said. “The collections were always strong and directional, yet commercial and impeccably made. If a business like that can’t succeed, then I worry for so many other young brands.”
But the management team of Phi, while discussing its future, saw a shrinking opportunity for small luxury labels to succeed. Julia Hansen, the chief executive of the company, which had about 35 employees, said the decision to close was influenced by the many requests from retailers to change designs to make them less expensive. (By designer standards, Phi’s prices were not overly obscene — a pair of harem shorts may have cost $1,495, but they were suede.)
“There was a lot of pressure to go down a path that we felt would compromise the integrity and value of the brand,” Ms. Hansen said. “But this was about being realistic.”
Another casualty of the recession: It’s sad to see this young and creative label, Phi, disappear! I was looking forward to their LA store opening next year. I have several pairs of their harem pants and they are to die for! The straps and buckles in the 2010 collection would have gone over well with the bondage set! Sigh! Perhaps the designers will be able to produce the designs for other houses in a few years.
The New York Times
December 24, 2009
Front Row
So Young, So Smart, So Gone
By ERIC WILSON
THE news this week of the demise of Phi, a tough-edged collection designed by Andreas Melbostad, a protégé of Calvin Klein and Donna Karan, surprised many fashion insiders. After six years in the market, the collection was just starting to gain traction beyond the close-knit crowd of editors and retailers who packed its Chelsea showroom each season.
“We are all stunned,” said Natalie Massenet, the founder of Net-a-porter.com, which sells Phi’s skintight biker pants ($595) and leather ankle boots ($825). “It was one of our favorite collections of the season.”
The poor outlook for luxury goods was cited as the reason for closing the company, and some of the label’s fans suggested it was too “niche” to survive through the recession. The spring collection, which will not be produced, included bandage jeans and dresses with scads of harness closures, so perhaps they had a point. The clothes always looked sort of as if Victoria’s Secret had been hijacked by the Hells Angels.
But its failure was still sobering because the label was a pet project of Susan Dell, a decent designer in her own right and the wife of Michael Dell, the computer tycoon. And according to Phi’s executives, the company was still growing. In addition to selling to Neiman Marcus and Holt Renfrew, it has a large store in SoHo and planned to open a second in Los Angeles next year.
“The brand seemed to us as a textbook case of how to build a modern fashion house,” Ms. Massenet said. “The collections were always strong and directional, yet commercial and impeccably made. If a business like that can’t succeed, then I worry for so many other young brands.”
But the management team of Phi, while discussing its future, saw a shrinking opportunity for small luxury labels to succeed. Julia Hansen, the chief executive of the company, which had about 35 employees, said the decision to close was influenced by the many requests from retailers to change designs to make them less expensive. (By designer standards, Phi’s prices were not overly obscene — a pair of harem shorts may have cost $1,495, but they were suede.)
“There was a lot of pressure to go down a path that we felt would compromise the integrity and value of the brand,” Ms. Hansen said. “But this was about being realistic.”
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