Designer Andy Thê-Anh liquidating, closing stores

Designer Andy Thê-Anh liquidating, closing stores

A gown from Thê-Anh's fall collection at Toronto fashion week (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)

Sad news. Canadian fashion designer Andy Thê-Anh is liquidating his merchandise after financial backers pulled their support from his line. A sale of $2.8 million worth of clothing (to be sold at 70 to 80 per cent off) begins today by Maynards liquidators at his Montreal Cours Mont Royal shop. It will run for several months. “It was not the most elegant way to close,’’ Thê-Anh told the Montreal Gazette. “People are interested only in glamour. I create the glamorous image, but they don’t understand the hard work involved.” From the Gazette:

Another downtown shop, on Mountain St., closed this autumn. In all, about 20 employees are out of work, Thê-Anh said, including head office and boutique staff. A Yorkville shop in Toronto has also closed.

When the recession hit, sales in the U.S. dropped drastically, Thê-Anh said.

Étienne Lecompte, president of the company, said sales for spring 2011 were down 46 per cent compared with last spring. “It didn’t make sense to continue with the numbers as they were,’’ he said, adding the Canadian sales were doing well compared with the U.S.

While samples for the spring collection have already been made, Thê-Anh is not sure that he wants to continue on under the same name.