Orla Kiely

I have just seen in the news that Orla Kiely shops and website have closed under the headline “Retail Empire Collapses”.

I am a great fan of many of the Orla Kiely designs and bought a few of the fabrics, only to be told that items made with these are prohibited for sale on folksy and other websites.

I wonder if anyone will want these at all now - maybe buying for the love of the fabric wasn’t such a good idea after all!

Anybody else been caught out?

Its only going to affect her stand alone shops and online shop not the design licensing business so it may well be possible to continue buying her fabric designs through other outlets who have licensed in the design to use. The flip side of it is all your friends/ family who may have previously bought Orla Kiely products won’t be able to so you can use up your stash of fabric making them gifts which I’m sure they will cherish.

I feel very sorry for the people working in the shops etc - it was reported that they’ve lost 3 weeks salary, which is unacceptable if true, especially if other parts of the business are carrying on.

I must admit, I’ve never been a fan of her designs - they always looked like copies of sixties designs to me, nothing particularly original about them. And they became way over-used, a bit like Cath Kidston’s designs - is there anything that doesn’t have her designs on it?

2 Likes

How sad am I? I have never heard of Orla Kiely. Now Sirdar and King Cole that’s a different ball game. :grinning::joy::rofl:

3 Likes

I’m with you there Gill :blush:

2 Likes