NEW YORK —?Pamela Dennis plans to reopen her signature eveningwear collection in September, three years after its demise under the umbrella of the Pegasus Apparel Group.
The designer said on Friday she had negotiated a truce with Pegasus Capital Advisors, the Connecticut-based private equity firm that had funded the formation of an apparel conglomerate in 2000 — one that quickly acquired several companies in a spectacular failure to replicate the business models of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton or Gucci Group. The new deal would allow her to reopen her signature business with terms that call for short-term profit sharing with the investment company, she said.
Pegasus officials could not be reached on Friday for comment.
“The big news is that I have my name back,” Dennis said. “I basically called Pegasus and said, ‘Let’s make amends.’”
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Dennis was among a group of fledgling designers who linked up with Pegasus in 2001 and 2002 to finance their expansions, but she, Daryl Kerrigan, Miguel Adrover and Angela Amiri all ran into difficulties almost immediately, leading Dennis, Kerrigan and Adrover to at least temporarily shutter their businesses. Kerrigan revived her signature Daryl K collection last year, while Adrover is once again operating his signature line on a shoe-string budget in a small studio on the Lower East Side.
Dennis, however, had one of the most vocal disputes with Pegasus officials, alleging her new bosses were pushing her down-market and spying on her with security cameras. Pegasus retaliated by firing her.
Bad press from its other failures with Kerrigan and Adrover inspired the company to rename itself Leiber Group, after its most successful acquisition, Judith Leiber, in 2001.
During her absence from ready-to-wear, Dennis has remained somewhat in the spotlight by filling personal orders for private clients, many of whom are red-carpet fixtures that helped keep the designer’s name in the news. She is now planning to open a 25- to 30-piece collection for spring 2005 retailing, and is currently looking for a new studio and showroom space in Manhattan.
— Eric Wilson