CEO Talk | Sarah Curran, Founder and CEO, my-wardrobe.com

| CEO Talk

Sarah Curran, Founder and CEO, my-wardrobe.com

LONDON, United Kingdom — The Business of Fashion can exclusively reveal that my-wardrobe.com, the London-based fashion e-tailer positioned at a mid-level pricepoint between Net-a-Porter.com on the high-end and Asos.com on the low-end, has just closed its second round of investment. My-wardrobe continues to grow at a rapid pace, having achieved an extremely healthy 169 percent jump in sales in its third year, growing from £1.56m in

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Fashion Investing | Small-cap M&A Volume up in January 2009

| Market Pulse

NEW YORK, United States — Just before the madness of fashion week started, I read an interesting study by KTA Capital, an independent investment bank based in New York. The report analyses small-cap market activity for the month of January 2009 globally, as well as in selected national markets. The first section is not a surprise: “There has been a substantial reduction in the amount of corporate finance activity

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Superfine and Diesel | Jean pool?

| Intelligence

MILAN, Italy - Is Diesel's Renzo Rosso on the prowl again? Word on the street is that Rosso is in talks to acquire Superfine Jeans, the hot London-based premium denim brand, founded in 2003 by Lucy Pinter and Flora Evans. Superfine has become well known for its directional silhouettes and popularity amongst the global style A-list, including Kate Moss, Gisele Bundchen and Mary-Kate Olsen. While Mr. Rosso has been acquisitive in the past, he has tended to focus more on the fashion end of things, acquring stakes in  Maison Martin Margiela, DSquared2, and most recently, Sophia Kokosalaki, through Diesel's Staff International subsidiary. That Mr. Rosso is reportedly looking to acquire another denim brand may suggest that Diesel, which now ranks…

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NexCen | Meltdown and mystery

| New York

NEW YORK, United States - In recent days, NexCen has experienced a meltdown unlike anything the fashion world has seen, leaving Bill Blass,  its star brand, in play as vulture investors circle to assess what value remains. NexCen's failure to disclose a $30m debt that must be paid back by October has sent its stock reeling and could very likely result in the company going bankrupt. Its CEO Robert D'Loren's job is at stake and the company's investors and other stakeholders are furious. The dramatic turn of events underlines the fact that even culturally important brands like Bill Blass can suffer collateral damage in the new era that has brought fashion and finance together. In February, Lauren Goldstein Crowe investigated…

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Fashion investing | Return of the strategic investor?

| Market Pulse

Apax Partners, the London-based private equity firm, has abandoned its bid to take a stake in Escada AG, the embattled German fashion company.  Citing deteriorating market conditions, Apax stated that "the recent evolution of the stock price and the weakness of the international financial market do not give a basis for pursuing the project." This is absolutely the right decision. Not only has Escada become somewhat of an industry basket-case in recent years, on Wednesday the company also revised its earnings projections for year ending October 31 downwards yet again. EBITDA margins are  expected to fall by about 25% compared to 2007. The company cited recessionary conditions in the USA and other key markets as the reason behind the revisions.…

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