Victoria Feldman and Tomas Berzins’ rise in the fashion world is not unlike that of other emerging talents. The designers met in 2009 at the French fashion school Esmod. While studying, Berzins worked for Alexander Wang, while Feldman gained experience at LVMH-owned department store Le Bon March. When they graduated in 2011, they invested €10,000 of their savings to launch their eponymous label Victoria/Tomas.
“We had no business experience or connections,” Feldman recalls. “We were just two young designers with a passion for creating our own vision.” A turning point came in 2013 when Victoria/Tomas was selected as a finalist, the youngest finalist in the history of the Hyres International Fashion and Photography Festival. Luxury retailers like Neiman Marcus, Harvey Nichols and Colette came knocking, and sales skyrocketed.
In 2017, the brand held its first fashion show in Paris. A year later, it had sold around 1 million, a rather unusual figure for a small brand. The business was growing steadily, which gave the duo the confidence to manage their own distribution (until then, the brand had worked with the commercial showroom Riccardo Grassi, which also manages sales for Erdem, Holzweiler and Farm Rio, among others). We thought we were on the right track, Feldman explains.
Yet in June, Feldman and Berzins announced the brand would cease operations after years of struggling to navigate challenges including the Covid-driven contraction of its primary wholesale channel. At the start of the pandemic, the brand lost 70% of its revenue, Feldman says. Every day, we were getting cancellations of existing orders. And while some customers were still ordering, factories were closing and we couldn’t keep up with production.
Even after lockdowns were lifted, business never really picked up, Feldman says. Looking to excite shoppers, designers experimented with new concepts like reversible clothing. But selling virtually was a tough idea, she recalls. Even when shoppers were able to travel again, many preferred online appointments to in-person meetings because of busy schedules. It was also difficult to win over new customers, because they wouldn’t order designs they’d never seen. [in person] and touched.
The limitation of distribution channels has spelled doom for Victoria/Tomas, which joins a growing list of independent fashion brands that have closed their doors this year. American designer Mara Hoffman ended her eponymous label in May after 24 years. That same month, British womenswear brand The Vampires Wife announced it would cease trading; Australian brand Dion Lee went into voluntary administration; and Chinese designer Calvin Luo announced he was ending his eponymous label.
Others have had to make a necessary pivot: In February, ahead of New York Fashion Week, Puppets and Puppets founder Carly Mark announced she would shut down the fashion brand in its current incarnation and relocate it from New York to London, where it would find a new lease on life as an accessories brand. London-based womenswear designer Roksanda narrowly avoided bankruptcy by selling her company to The Brand Group in May.
Business is tough for founders of independent brands, who often have to maintain healthy cash flow while relying on wholesale partners for distribution and additional marketing support. That’s not new, per se. But the fashion landscape has become more tense and volatile amid a slowdown in the luxury sector, with wealthier buyers favoring investment purchases from high-end companies.
The economy is under stress, and one consequence of that is that the fashion industry is suffering, says Mark A Cohen, a consultant who retired this month after an 18-year tenure as director of retail studies at Columbia Business School.
“It’s a very tough environment for emerging brands that are $200 million to $450 million or less in revenue,” says Gary Wassner, CEO of Hilldun Corp, a New York-based group that finances and factors more than 400 brands, including Isabel Marant, Golden Goose and Christopher Esber, winner of the 2024 Andam Grand Prix. Amid volatile markets, funding is drying up. For private equity firms, fashion has become a category not to invest in, he says. They generally don’t want brands that people have never heard of.
Brands big and small have also been hit by the closure of luxury multi-brand store Matchesfashion (millions of pounds are still owed to creditors, from Prada to Toteme) and the fire sale of luxury marketplace Farfetch to Korean Coupang (more than $400 million is owed to Farfetch’s long-term bondholders). Smaller independent boutiques have also reached the end of their trading. In June, Alyssa Lau announced she would shut down New Classics, the multi-brand e-commerce site she founded in 2014. In November 2023, specialty retailer LCD announced it would close after 11 years in business.
“We started with $15,000 and slowly grew, reinvesting all the profits back into the business,” Lau says. “At its peak, New Classics was generating $400,000 in sales a year. But it became difficult to keep up with fast fashion and the increasing discounting that luxury retailers were doing,” she explains. “Growth really started to take over. You have to have more budget to offer more collections. We had to make money on margins and we couldn’t keep up with the deep discounting. Given the amount [the business] generated, but it really wasn't worth it.
The consequences of the luxury retail crisis are manifold. One London-based designer who failed to receive timely payments from his wholesale partners had to ask his parents for extra funds and take out a loan to pay his suppliers, he told the Financial Times on condition of anonymity. With many independent brands hanging by a thread, the landscape of Fashion Week could look very different in September.
Meanwhile, the stores that are surviving are more risk-averse than ever. They're not being bold because they don't have that wiggle room in their bottom line, Hilldun Corps Wassner says. They're buying items that sell well and have a loyal, repeat customer base. Many emerging brands don't have a significant audience yet. In the past, [stores] They may have fed them, but for now they're not taking any risks.
The industry has evolved, and so have the requirements for a successful operation. Spending big on flagship stores, fashion shows and marketing campaigns is an indulgence. It’s not wise unless you’re so cash-rich that it no longer matters, Cohen says.
Young brands need to take all of these things into account and create efficiencies in their operations that allow them to retain enough cash to continue, Wassner agrees.
Feldman and Berzins now see fashion as a way to express their creativity. Since closing their studio, they have turned to collaborations and other creative endeavors. “The business has given us the opportunity to get more exposure because people who are interested in fashion are also interested in other areas, like music, art and other creative fields,” Berzins says.
Since we made this decision, we have received requests [from other brands and collaborators] “And we haven’t stopped working,” Feldman says. “We have a lot of projects coming up. So for now, the Victoria/Tomas brand has ceased to exist, but Victoria and Tomas as individuals? We’re still going.”
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