Russian Teen Prodigy Kira Plastinina to close all U.S. Store

[loladonna]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...U&refer=europe

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Kira Plastinina, a 16-year-old Russian fashion designer whose father says he spent $80 million setting up stores under her name, will close almost all of her 12 U.S. outlets after less than a year as demand slumps.
“The number of shoppers in the U.S. fell significantly,” said Sergei Plastinin, Kira’s father, the food entrepreneur who co-founded OAO Wimm-Bill-Dann. “It also became much harder to find money for investment because of the financial crisis. We had enormous plans: New York, then India and China in 2009.”
Kira Plastinina told New York magazine in May that her dad offered to turn her notebook dress-sketching hobby into actual clothes sold by her own retail chain when she was 14. The high- school student appears in the brand’s advertising and has been photographed with U.S. heiress Paris Hilton. The company will focus on its 70 stores in Russia as U.S. retailers mark down inventory to cope with the recession.
“We have to live through the crisis and see what happens next before making any decisions,” Kira’s 40-year-old father said in an interview today in Moscow. A spokeswoman for the chain said the teenager’s father speaks to business reporters, while Kira only gives interviews to the fashion press.
The first U.S. Kira Plastinina outlet opened in Manhattan in May and the chain had 12 stores in the New York and Los Angeles areas, with another two ready to open. The designer will keep one or two U.S. outlets and close most of the rest by the end of 2008, Plastinin said. Besides Russia, there are 10 outlets in Ukraine and five in Kazakhstan.
Russian Success
Kira’s company says its clothes sell for an average price of $50. Its Web site shows a fall-winter 2008/09 collection including gray coats with the slogans “just take it easy” and “feels like love” printed on the back.
The teenager’s fashions are having greater success in her birthplace. Kira’s Web site says her Lublu luxury collection was presented on Dec. 5 in Tsum, a mall near the Bolshoi Theater in central Moscow that has Armani, Prada and Gucci concessions.
Sales in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan may reach $70 million this year, said Maria Lomova, a spokeswoman for the chain. Monthly same-store sales are rising more than 30 percent in the former Soviet countries, and the region may achieve “positive” earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortization for 2008, Plastinin said.
Plastinin said “it would be good” if the chain generates the same sales next year as in 2008, given Russian consumers are also starting to feel the effects of the credit crisis.
Plastinin owns about 6 percent of Wimm-Bill-Dann, which is Russia’s largest dairy company as well as a juice maker. He also has investments in real estate, agriculture and fertilizer businesses.

[loladonna]

Kira's dad is trying to blame the U.S. economy for the failure but I think it has more to do with the awful clothing and a serious miscalculation about how to break the U.S. market. I remember wondering how she was able to open so many U.S. stories so quickly without building her brand. Apparently her dad just opened his checkbook. You can't just buy your way in to the U.S. market. You have to establish a name first.

Apparently the closing of the stores were under very shady circumstances and there are a lot of disgruntled employees who were treated very poorly and lost their jobs without notice or severance pay.

http://theshophound.typepad.com/the_...ets-worse.html

I was a manager at one of the Kira Plastinina shops and am so disgusted with how the company went about with everything. There was so much discrimination, people who weren't paid, frustrations and scandals. Its crazy to think a company could away with so much. We were given less than a weeks notice about our jobs being let go..some people weren't given anything and just fired on the spot with NO reasons or explanations. We are at the point where we are getting kicked out of our locations, no rent has ever been paid, no electric bills have been paid and all our vendors will go bankrupt if the company doesn't find a way to pay them which I'm sure they won't. Our Russian head Director is in the USA and is going around to locations and taking the merchandise with her husband and computers etc. It's nuts we are so astounded. We are at the point where we are fighting for our paychecks. We all believe this was a cover up for some kind of dirty work or drug deal..something. But this company has been nothing but savage to us. They caused us soo much stress and pain it's unreal. Lawsuits are crazy and all of us were so mistreated. We worked SOO SOO hard for nothing. They just slapped us in the face

[Scott]

yeah i don't think one can just open one's checkbook,open a bunch of spaces and expect a rush in profits. not very smart especially for a businessman.

[TheKiwi]

Funny enough we have one of Kira's stores in my hometown mall at home in Stamford, Connecticut. I never understood why the store was there, and I don't think anyone really knew about it because there was always only 2-4 people shopping in there at a time while H&M and Forever 21 would have tons of people inside. I'm really not surprised that they are going to be closing most of the stores now! They spent no time advertising the label.

[kala_dev]

i guess "prodigy" would be an overstatement ...

[saucer-like]

I read about this on ontd a few days ago. Opening 12 stores? Why?

I didn't really know a lot about this girl at first, so initially I was impressed that a 16-year-old designer was getting her stuff out there -- even when I just thought that she had a rich parent who financed her start-up. Then I saw the clothes (that she apparently doesn't even design). And about her dad buying all of her publicity. Now this. Yeah, not so impressed.

[eternitygoddess]

"prodigy"? Her clothes were utter crap; basic tees emblazoned with the crappiest slogans. She was lucky she had a rich father willing to go along with her fantasies.

[aldn]

I think she opened stores in the wrong locations. Or maybe too many "flagship" locations.. Her line I think belonged in more suburban locations. And all of you are totally right she didn't do enough to build up the brand...

[loladonna]

^that and her clothes were really tacky. Is her line really popular in Europe? I couldn't figure out who she was aiming at to buy her stuff in the U.S.

[homeboy]

Good riddance.

[aldn]

I think she wanted the customers from h&m and forever 21 but I think she needed to aim younger than that. Suburban tweens should have been her target.

[loladonna]

Everything on her U.S. website is 75% off and I still wouldn't pay for that stuff.

I don't get why her dad felt so invested in this brand. He put $80 million in it? Did he think it would be that profitable? Also I feel for her if she tries to re-enter the U.S. market. Her name has been tarnished by the poor business practices and burned bridges in the U.S.

[Jacque Marcel]

Good riddance. Cheap and tacky. I wish the same fate for Forever 21.

[emily.]

Prodigy?! That's the biggest overstatement I've ever heard. I think every single girl I know has drawn a dress or two in her notebook when she was growing up, it doesn't mean they have any talent!

I would be a "prodigy" too if my daddy handed over $80 mill.

[kiddokiddo]

harsh but true...I remember how appalled I was when introduced to the clothes...time to go back to school, I suppose