Nicholas Kirkwood closes, hopes to return with new green concept

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 1, 2023

Luxury footwear designer Nicholas Kirkwood is closing his 18-year-old business, he announced on instagram on Wednesday, also hinting at a new path he'll be following.

In a statement, the designer said: “It's been an immense privilege to bring my vision for a shoe brand to life over the past 18 years. I launched Nicholas Kirkwood with a mission to deliver a dynamic new architectural, but still feminine, silhouette executed to the highest quality I could achieve.

“It's been a wild exhilarating journey. However, I think in many ways the brand has run its course for now. This coupled with my diehard passion and pursuit to find viable planet-positive solutions for the intensely un-planet-positive footwear industry has led me to make the incredibly emotional decision to close the brand”.

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He added that in the past year, he has been focusing his energies on developing next-generation green manufacturing and material technologies for footwear. If successful, he said he'll incorporate this into a totally new concert for a brand that “in turn, I hope will go some way towards a carbon-neutral future”.

And he thanked his team, his customers, stores, stylists, editors, collaborators, agencies, factories, and more for all their support.

His label was known for its feminine touches for both heels and flats with even a heavy work-style lace-up boot likely to come in a material like lace with his signature pearl trim.

The brand was backed for some time by LVMH but he took back ownership in autumn 2020 in a move that was said to be amicable and a mutual decision.

LVMH had for some time been focusing more heavily on its giant power brands rather than the smaller niche labels.

Kirkwood's latest accounts filed at Companies House only cover the 2020 business year, during which revenue halved to £4.07 million from £8.14 million.