ICSM Business – fashion retailing insolvency news: high end Vampire’s Wife fashion brand closes owing £1m plus to suppliers

By Harry Mottram: Retailers are one of those businesses that when they go bust owe a huge range of firm’s cash. The cleaners, the solicitors, the printers, the shop fitters and of course the suppliers of goods that line their stores there is along list of people left with a financial hangover. Burberry for instance are owed more than half a million pounds while Anya Hindmarch have taken a  -£200,000 hit, and Paul Smith and Samantha Cameron’s Cefinn each have been shafted for more than £100,000. On top of that there are the staff, freelancers, the taxman and the landlords – plus umpteen other characters left high and dry. The photo shows the Princess of Wales wearing a Vampire's Wife gown in green.

Ian Carrotte of ICSM Business said retailers are amongst the worst when it comes to insolvency as they owe so many businesses and groups. He said: “When the likes of Debenhams went bust it was shocking the amount of money they owed – you tend to think of the big lenders like the banks or the taxman but these debts affect real people and real businesses. At ICSM we work to worn businesses and the self employed to stick to their credit terms. Just because the princess of Wales shops at a store doesn't mean the business is safe. Reputation is nothing when it comes to credit.”

Matches my not be a household name but it had at one time 14 shops selling designer fashions to the well heeled – and good luck to them – but like all fashion brands fell foul of er… fashion – as competitors offered what the fashionable wanted.

The company began back in 1987 with a shop in  Wimbledon and in 2006 went online. In 2023 Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group took it over but after the multi million pound acquisition things went wrong very quickly. The rest as they say is history – while the main victims of the demise of Matches are the staff and suppliers who are unlikely to get a penny.

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ICSM, The Exchange, Express Park, Bristol Road, Bridgwater, Somerset TA6 4RR. Tel: 0844 854 1850. www.icsmcredit.com. Ian.carrotte@icsmcredit.com