LONDON – Sibling, the London label known for its colorful, artisanal knitwear collections and high-energy runway shows, has shuttered, according to its cofounder, Cozette McCreery.
The label, created by McCreery, Joe Bates and Sid Bryan, launched with men’s wear in 2008 and for spring 2012 expanded into women’s wear under the Sister by Sibling label.
In an Instagram message, McCreery said “Goodnight” to followers and added “Cozette and Sid thank everyone who has been a part of Sibling and the joyful Sibling squad over the years.”
McCreery did not return phone calls at press time.
There is no filing regarding the closure on Companies House, the official register of U.K. businesses.
Sibling is carried by retailers such as Dover Street Market, Machine A, Selfridges, Opening Ceremony and H Lorenzo, and had garnered a celebrity fan base, with customers including Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Pharrell Williams and Rita Ora.
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Over the past 18 months, the brand had navigated particularly rocky waters. Bates died of cancer in August 2015, and while McCreery and Bryan vowed to carry on with the business, the retail and economic environment has not been favorable.
Like other British brands, large and small, Sibling combined men’s and women’s on the catwalk, shifted its order periods to earlier in the season and campaigned for Britain to remain in the European Union.
“This new way of showing makes so much more sense for production, for the factories and for us. For once, we were able to take August off,” McCreery said in November, of the brand’s shift to co-ed shows during London Fashion Week Men’s.
Last fall, McCreery said in an interview with WWD that she was worried about the ramifications of Britain’s decision to quit the EU. McCreery had said the company saw some growth in the label’s online sales from overseas markets since the pound depreciated following the vote, but added that the overall unstable situation was making stockists more wary of placing orders.
“One of our main concerns is the overall negative impact Brexit has created with regards to the U.K. as a whole beyond monetary fluctuations,” she said. “Our stockists in Asia are particularly wary at the moment as all this uncertainty is hardly confidence-boosting.”
As for future currency fluctuations, McCreery said she was concerned, explaining: “We always take fluctuations into account when determining our prices, but we’ve never had the pound dip this low since we began trading. In the long term, should taxes and import duties change along with currency rates, then we will be forced to adjust our prices. This is bad news for both our stockists and customers, and being a tiny business we can’t afford to eat further into our own bottom line.
“There is a very real feeling, but this new government frankly doesn’t seem to care about small business working with or exporting to Europe and beyond,” she said.