If only Orla Keily and co had stopped treating shoppers like mugs: JAN MOIR on designer’s downfall 

Designer and homewares whizz Orla Kiely has shut her fashion empire. How sad. Almost tragic, really, for devotees of her quirky and quaint dresses, such as the Duchess of Cambridge, sister Pippa and their mother, the sainted Carole.

Where will the Middleton women now shop for their favourite demure, Mary Poppins looks?

The careful pleats, neat waistlines and velvet trims that whisper quietly of Sunday school-teacher chic, of Fifties typing pools, of the kind of inoffensive, fusty mum-frocks that stood them in such good stead in their private and public roles?

Orla Kiely’s official company Instagram account boasts of exciting new products, including an elephant-shaped wooden board with matching cheese knives

The fashion world has been wailing about the end of the celebrated clothes line, although the homewares range will continue to be sold in department store outlets such as John Lewis and Debenhams.

Perhaps that was the problem all along. The kitchenalia, bed linens, wallpapers and prints were often mass-produced in the same prints as the (rather expensive) clothes.

Did Orla Kiely become just too ubiquitous?

One handbag, created by Orla Keily, showing the leaf print in orange

One handbag, created by Orla Keily, showing the leaf print in orange

For example, the current range at John Lewis boasts over 170 items, from alarm clocks to oven gloves — and, to be honest, I’d be rather disappointed if I were given any of them.

In fact, I’m so fed up with her celebrated ‘Stem print’, I might scream if I ever see it again. Every fashion range needs a frisson of mystique and exclusivity because women who have paid £300 for a dress don’t want to come upon a matching tea towel in the same print, thank you very much.

And there is such a thing as overkill, when multi-platform promotion in popular culture can demean, rather than promote, a brand.

The designer creates clothing and home wares such as this storage jar, which features a pear pattern

The designer creates clothing and home wares such as this storage jar, which features a pear pattern

In the film Bridget Jones’s Baby, Bridget has Orla Kiely nappy bags stashed in her flat. On TV, EastEnders character Stacey Slater has her Albert Square flat decorated with Orla Kiely’s Multi Acorn Spot wallpaper. It might be aspirational for her, but now it isn’t for everyone else.

Meanwhile, a million British kitchens boast a million Orla Kiely toasters. And who wants to go to a party wearing the same print as the toaster in the kitchen? Especially if the toaster looks rather shapelier in it than you.

The crash couldn’t have come at a more embarrassing time for the Dublin-born designer and her husband-cum-business partner, Dermott Rowan. For a grand Orla Kiely exhibition is running at the Fashion And Textiles Museum in London. Called A Life In Pattern, it celebrates her life’s work. During the dozens of interviews to promote the show, Miss Kiely urged people to consider that her body of work ‘is so much more than they ever imagined’. She must have known that her brand was in big trouble, but decided to keep that to herself.

The designer's company is being put into liquidation

The designer’s company is being put into liquidation

Now the company is being put into liquidation with its two London stores to close, along with retail outlets in Kildare and New York.

Orla and her husband looked very sad leaving their £2.5 million home in a fashionable area of South-West London yesterday. Yet my sympathies lie with their workforce, who haven’t been paid for three weeks.

They were told on Wednesday lunchtime they were out of a job, before being escorted from the building by security, with many in tears.

Customers who have bought goods online don’t know if their orders will be honoured. Of course, the crash is blamed on everything and everyone except Orla Kiely herself and her crazy over-expansion.

There is no doubt the High Street is struggling, with mid-market brands such as hers particularly vulnerable to a downturn. House of Fraser collapsed in the summer before a hasty rescue, and John Lewis’s profits have slumped dramatically.

In much the same way, chain restaurants such as Jamie’s Italian, Prezzo, Strada and Byron are also having a torrid time.

Orla and the gang will all tell you that difficult trading conditions, the long, hot summer, the rise in the minimum wage, crippling business rates, a lack of consumer confidence and that old chestnut of Brexit fears have led to their demise. And, yes, they might all be contributing factors.

But there is another reason. Which is that consumers are fed up with being taken for mugs.

Why would anyone pay a tenner for a pizza in Jamie’s when they can get a superior one for half that money in Franco Manca? Why shop in dreary House of Fraser when there is no point in walking across their threshold?

Why put up with bad service and lack of stock in any High Street store when you can buy it cheaper and easier online?

Brands like Orla Kiely must have felt the cold winds of change blowing around their ankles for years, but they have done little to improve their range and position. And they take customer loyalty for granted, which is the biggest mistake of all.

So farewell, Orla. No longer will we see her twee cardigans, sludgy palette of accessories and day dresses that were fit for a duchess on High Street racks.

The Middletons might be in mourning, but they can always console themselves with those other family favourites — LK Bennett and Reiss.

Meanwhile, Orla Kiely’s official company Instagram account boasts of exciting new products, including an elephant-shaped wooden board with matching cheese knives. Which says it all, really.

Holly Nichols? Oh give me strength   

Speaking of shops, Harvey Nichols has changed its name to Holly Nichols for a month to celebrate — take a deep breath — female empowerment.

Harvey Nichols re-brands as Holly Nichols to celebrate female empowerment for the month of September

Harvey Nichols re-brands as Holly Nichols to celebrate female empowerment for the month of September

The department store chain has launched a campaign called Let’s Hear It For The Girls. Honestly, as a woman, I am so sick of being patronised like this!

Do they think we are all stupid? Easily humoured? Thrilled to be noticed at all? If Harvey Nichols really wants to empower women, why doesn’t it give us 20 per cent off Clarins and a free cashmere scarf with every purchase?

Then we might start listening, Holly — or whatever you call yourself.

Meghan’s having a moment  

The Duchess of Sussex has been making secret visits to a Grenfell community group who have been cooking together following the fatal fire last June.

The trips were so secret she took only a small camera crew with her, all the better to make a tiny film to promote the cookbook the women have produced.

The Duchess of Sussex, accompanied by the Duke of Sussex and her mother Doria Ragland, pose for a group photo with the women behind the cookbook she has championed at Kensington Palace

The Duchess of Sussex, accompanied by the Duke of Sussex and her mother Doria Ragland, pose for a group photo with the women behind the cookbook she has championed at Kensington Palace

Meghan appears in the glossy film, which has the production values of a pop video, looking pretty in an apron as she stirs pots and chats.

She is supporting the book in the hope it will raise funds to keep the kitchen open seven days a week. Not only does it produce fresh food for Grenfell survivors, it acts as a community hub, too.

In the book’s foreword, Meghan writes of her delight at hearing ‘the flutter of different languages’ in the kitchen. At her book launch yesterday, she praised London for being a city ‘that can have so much diversity’.

There ain’t much diversity on the royal compound where she lives.

And while it would be wrong to think the caring Duchess is using the people of Grenfell to burnish her own caring credentials, isn’t there something a tiny bit self-serving at the heart of this endeavour?

A Grand Design for super telly   

Oh, joy. A new series of Grand Designs (Channel 4) has begun.

This means host Kevin McCloud must once more climb into one of his tweed jackets, don a weather-appropriate hat, and travel around the country to sneer lightly at the building projects of wealthy amateurs.

Kevin McCloud, presenter of Channel 4's Grand Designs, in Aylesbury

Kevin McCloud, presenter of Channel 4’s Grand Designs, in Aylesbury

First into the stocks were Jaime and Mimi Fernandez, an attractive couple with a child who moved from Madrid to a rented bungalow in Buckinghamshire and thence onto the sheer craziness of restoring a 19th-century folly nearby.

A restoration project in miniature? Utterly mad.

‘Why would anyone want to do that?’ asked a scornful Kevin.

Yet reason has no place in the hearts of a couple who dream of rustic charm, polished stone, a range in the kitchen and being the envy of the neighbourhood.

The lunatics bought the folly for £200,000, then spent more than that doing it up. Such people always find the money from somewhere, don’t they?

In this case, they encountered the usual hurdles of escalating costs, chippy builders and an unexpected pregnancy. By the time Jaime and Mimi moved into the two-bedroom folly, they already had two children and a terrifying outdoor staircase that no tot could ever negotiate.

‘Sometimes I hate this building,’ said Mum.

Kevin smirked. The credits rolled. I love this show.

Strictly’s pay gap shows the Beeb’s out of step   

The professional dancers on Strictly Come Dancing have formed a union to demand more money from the BBC.

Graeme Swann with his dance partner Oti Mabuse who are appearing in this year's BBC1 dance contest

Graeme Swann with his dance partner Oti Mabuse who are appearing in this year’s BBC1 dance contest

I can’t say I blame them, for it is the pro dancers who are the hard-working heart and soul of this show, yet they get paid a fraction of the six-figure sum host Claudia Winkleman — the highest-paid woman on the BBC — is handed for larking about behind her fringe and acting wacky.

Look at someone such as fabulous Oti Mabuse (pictured). Not only is she a dream to watch, every year Oti is an inspiring mentor to her celebrity clodhopping partners. A former civil engineering student from Pretoria, she began entering dancing competitions when she was four and has been crowned South African Latin champion eight times.

Other pros danced their way out of poverty in Eastern European countries to get where they are today.

So come on, Beeb. Give them a rise. You will save millions when Chris Evans leaves, after all.

It seems strictly unfair that on this hugely successful television show, those who contribute the most are paid the least.

Why, it just seems like yesterday that Justin Bieber was a little boy with a complicated comb-over, singing through his braces about first love and lonely girls.

Justin Bieber (left) and Hailey Baldwin (right) out at the London Eye

Justin Bieber (left) and Hailey Baldwin (right) out at the London Eye

Now the Canadian superstar, 24, is engaged to 21-year-old model Hailey Baldwin (pictured right), whom he serenaded outside Buckingham Palace this week. While his troth appears to be well and truly plighted, Justin — worth over £207 million — says he doesn’t want a pre-nup because he believes marriage is for ever.

Justin, a word. I adore your big heart and utter belief in everlasting love. Yet your lawyers must be tearing their hair out — and I don’t imagine your parents are best pleased either.

But you go ahead with your dream, young man. Let’s talk again in five years’ time. And see how you feel about it then.

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