The Modist is latest coronavirus-linked failure, site shuts down

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 5, 2020

The Modist has closed its doors, not just for the duration of the global lockdown, but permanently. The modest fashion luxury e-tailer said that it’s ceasing operations having taken a huge financial hit on the back of the coronavirus pandemic.

Covid-19 has clearly devastated the firm with its founder saying in an Instagram post that the company's plans were quite different only a few weeks ago. Ghizlan Guenez added that “the global pandemic crisis that hit the world shifted our position entirely and rendered our young business very vulnerable, which left us with no choice but to close down.”

At its inception in 2017, The Modist was seen as one of the most promising of the new luxury online retail businesses to start up in fashion in recent years. The business seemed to have found a rich vein of custom as it tapped into the growing modest fashion market and the huge interest in luxury labels among its consumers.

Its unique selling point appealed to a range of well-known investors, including luminaries such as Nicola Bulgari and big names like the Chalhoub Group and Farfetch, as well as lifestyle-focused investment fund Vaultier7.

The potential the business had could be seen from the key labels it stocked, including Marni, Jil Sander and Burberry.

But as a relatively small company, compared to the big hitters in the global online fashion retail market, it would always have a disadvantage. And with those big hitters in the sector now also offering their own spin on modest fashion, there would have been a tough road ahead for The Modist, even without the coronavirus. Net-A-Porter, for instance, has boosted its modest fashion offer significantly, as have a number of other e-tailers.

It was all so different only a year ago when the company announced that Nicola Bulgari and Farfetch has come on board as new investors. That was a major endorsement of its concept and followed the start of a deal with Farfetch the previous autumn that saw the Modist products available on that giant luxury marketplace.