MAX AZRIA AND HIS WIFE LUBOV.
“He’d opened too many stores too quickly and stocked them full of bells and whistles,” explained New York Mag Editor, Charlotte Cowles, reporting on BCBG’s overly-rapid expansion as the reason for Azria’s current financial woes.
Tunisian-born and New York-based designer, Max Azria, has reached a point where he might lose control of his own label. Almost twenty-five years after founding BCBG and opening 1,000 stores in 46 countries worldwide, the 64-year-old designer is in negotiations with Guggenheim Partners LLC, a privately held financial-services firm that owns his company’s debt and now seeks a controlling interest.
“We have our agenda, but the finance people have their agenda,” said Azria in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal. “I knew that, but I didn’t see it.” Even a collaboration with Miley Cyrus for Walmart in late 2009 did not improve sales. Nor did introducing BCBG’s high fashion at more affordable prices than what is typically expected of designer clothing—with price tags ranging from USD$100 to USD$500.
This said, the brand’s current financial situation hasn’t discouraged the designer, who will still present two new runway shows, BCBG by Max Azria and Hervé Léger by Max Azria, at New York’s Spring 2014 Fashion Week on September 5th and 7th
In other words, the show must go on.
