IT once flogged must-wear clothing at knockdown prices – but this week Missguided fell apart faster than a cheap dress.
The web-based retailer was one of the UK’s biggest fashion brands thanks to a lucrative five-year sponsorship with TV’s Love Island and celebrity endorsements from singer Nicole Scherzinger, actress Pamela Anderson, and models Sofia Richie, Amber Rose and model Jourdan Dunn.
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But now Missguided has had a stunning fall from grace — announcing it has gone bust over millions in unpaid debts.
Eighty of the brand’s 330 staff were fired by pre-recorded message on Monday as administrator Teneo tries to find a buyer for the company.
The first sign that all was not well coincided with launch of Love Island — which this month announced it had ditched Missguided as its sponsor.
Instead, celebrity stylist Amy Bannerman — who has worked with singers Dua Lipa and Rita Ora — has been signed up to put together pre-owned wardrobes from eBay for contestants when the show starts on Monday.
Just seven years ago Missguided was riding the crest of the wave of fast fashion with profits peaking at £4.7million thanks to their knack for turning celebrity style into cheaply made garments in a matter of weeks.
The Manchester-based company was set up in 2009 by Nitin Passi, 39, with a £50,000 loan from his father Danny, a clothing supplier multi-millionaire.
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The young entrepreneur soon became known for his love of the high life, his pink Lamborghini and an instinct for knowing what young women wanted to wear.
By the mid 2010s, the company had become a big name in the industry amid competitors Boohoo, Nasty Gal and Pretty Little Thing.
‘Nearly lost the business’
In 2014, Nitin had a “pinch me” moment when Nicole Scherzinger designed a range for the brand.
The following year, the firm opened two stores in the Westfield Stratford City mall in East London and Manchester’s Trafford Centre.
The brand’s biggest deal — dressing the glamorous contestants of Love Island — triggered a 40 per cent spike in sales while the show was on ITV each night.
Nitin reaped the financial rewards of his success. For three years, and as recently as 2018, he was featured in the Sunday Times Rich List.
His £250million fortune made him richer than veteran musicians Keith Richards, Ringo Starr and Sting. While profits soared, the brand’s reputation began to take hits as early as 2017.
A Channel 4 Dispatches investigation found suppliers were paying UK factory workers a measly £3.25 an hour when the minimum wage was £7.25 for workers over 25 — now £9.50.
In 2018, the brand was forced to make redundancies after losing £26million. At the time, Nitin told industry mag Drapers: “We have to turn our stock in six weeks.
“We weren’t clearing stock as quickly as we should have, and as a result our customer was seeing poor stock online or we were regurgitating old stock in order to clear it.”
When I started my career here everything I touched turned to gold. So having to make people redundant was massively shocking.
Nitin Passi
To mitigate the freefall, Nitin invited cameras into the company’s plush offices for Channel 4 documentary Missguided: Made In Manchester.
He revealed on the show: “I nearly lost the business. It was a very humbling experience. I was s****ing myself at points. It was emotionally draining. When I started my career here everything I touched turned to gold.
“So having to make people redundant was massively shocking.” In a bid to get back on top, the brand tried to sign Love Island runner-up and influencer Molly-Mae Hague, offering her a £350,000 fee and an £80,000 Range Rover.
She spurned them and partnered with rival Pretty Little Thing, which twisted the knife by airing an ad during the first break in Missguided’s C4 documentary. Things went from bad to worse the following year.
Kim Kardashian lashed out at Missguided for copying her looks just three hours after posting a picture of herself in a gold Mugler lame dress. She wrote on social media: “Fast fashion brands, can you please wait until I wear this in real life before you knock it off?”
Within three hours Missguided posted a picture of their copycat dress, captioned: “The devil works hard but Missguided works harder @KimKardashian. You’ve only got a few days before this drops online.”
‘Please pay me back’
But Kim had the last laugh as the label was ordered to cough up £2.1million for using her image.
The label’s senior designer Victoria Arnison defended its methods, telling Channel 4: “We’d all love to be dripping in Gucci and Louis V but that’s not possible. So we take that and filter it down and give that to our girls, just not at that price tag.”
But in recent years, fast fashion’s young target market has become increasingly concerned about how responsibly clothes are made and their impact on the environment.
In 2018 MPs were furious when Nitin snubbed a select committee hearing on sustainability in retail, with the chair, Labour’s Mary Creagh, giving him a ticking off.
The following year Missguided launched a £1 bikini — advertised on Love Island — which caused uproar for its lack of sustainable credentials.
Nitin told The Observer: “The £1 bikini was priced to generate interest and we’re not embarrassed about it. We’ve always lived close to the edge when it comes to marketing, but we’re comfortable with that because there are never short cuts when it comes to the product.”
Please pay me back or return my stock. My life depends on it.
Supplier
Commentators say the brand just couldn’t compete with its rivals — notably Boohoo. Owned by Mahmud Kamani, the group has swallowed up rivals from Pretty Little Thing to Nasty Gal and MissPap.
Although under lockdown Missguided’s profits grew 40 per cent, supply chain issues and rising freight costs led to redundancies last year. A £53million buyout from private equity firm Alteri in 2021 bought the company a bit more time.
But last month, Nitin stood down as CEO and the company announced it was looking for a buyer. This week workers from Missguided’s Chinese suppliers told the i newspaper how they feared for their life as the company withheld £800,000 in invoices.
One unnamed owner told how they feared violent retribution from their own suppliers. When asked what they would like to say to Missguided, the supplier said: “Please pay me back or return my stock. My life depends on it.”
Now staff have taken to Instagram to complain about their shoddy treatment by the brand.
One wrote: “Just been made redundant by Missguided in a prerecorded message. Classy!”
And customers are equally furious. On Sunday, some complained that orders they had paid for had not arrived.
While Missguided’s rivals have seen their revenue increase in recent years, they will no doubt be keeping a keen eye on the label’s unravelling.
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