Orley has changed direction.
The five-year-old men’s and women’s knitwear brand founded by brothers Matthew and Alex Orley and Alex’s wife Samantha, has decided to shutter its wholesale business and concentrate all its efforts on its own e-commerce site.
According to retail sources, the brand was forced to pull back after two major retailers canceled orders and it was too much for the independently owned company to withstand.
However, Matthew Orley “unequivocally” denied that, saying the brand never had any orders canceled. “It was our decision to cancel all orders that were placed,” he said.
The trio also released a statement, saying: “Since launching Orley in 2012, we have been constantly looking at ways to more efficiently reach our customer. With this in mind, we have decided to pause our wholesale deliveries while we focus on our e-commerce channel, all while giving more thought to the calendar on which we develop and deliver new products. Our current collection is available online at Orley.us and we will continue to make further announcements about upcoming releases through that channel as well as on our social media accounts.”
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Matthew Orley said the company will produce “select pieces” from its fall collection that will be released exclusively on its web site.
The brand, which became known for its youthful, yet elegant designs, with proprietary stitch techniques and a distinct color palette, has been a favorite of the fashion industry. In 2014, Orley was a finalist for the 2014 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award and was nominated for the Fashion Group International Rising Star Award in Menswear. The next year, it was nominated for the CFDA Swarovski Award for Menswear, a prize it took home in 2016.
The Orley brothers were raised in Detroit while Samantha grew up in Canada. They met as children at a summer camp in Ontario and Matthew and Samantha married in 2014. They started the brand with a capsule of men’s sweaters made in Italy. Since then, Orley has expanded into a full men’s ready-to-wear collection and introduced women’s wear in fall 2015. But the backbone of the collection continued to be knitwear. The label had been carried by Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman, Opening Ceremony, Matchesfashion.com and other specialty stores.