LK Bennett

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I saw the news at lunchtime that Linda Bennett was potentially calling in administrators. I know there were rumours last year about problems and it appears they were true (big losses). Personally I've never been a fan of the clothes and find them a bit frumpy and overpriced but I'm obviously sad that more people will lose jobs and we lose yet another name from the High Street.

It is a shame and a bit depressing and another nail in the coffin for the High Street.
I used by work wear from there about 5 years ago (only in the sale) but haven’t bought anything from them since then. It’s very pricey for what it is.

Nooooo! I love LK Bennett. It's one of my staples. Am so so sad but keeping my fingers crossed that they find an investor 😢I've been dreading this news but since the troubles with the website I am not entirely surprised.

Bad timing- she is interviewed for this month's mag Psychologies as coming back into the business (not sure if she sold out or what.)

I've always found them to be stupid prices for manmade fibres and the styles are incredibly frumpy.

It's a shame in some ways but I think that the public are no longer willing to pay silly prices for average quality and dowdy clothes.
Look at why M&S is in trouble too.

She sold it, or most of it a few years ago & then bought it back at a much lower prices 2 years ago. Apparently she's invested £11 million of her own. Very over priced clothes in my opinion.

I forums the shoes really comfortable. One of the few places that did half sizes. The clothes cuts suited me but the prices seemed to shoot up a few years ago to stratospherically crazy levels and I stopped buying clothes from them. I think around the time Kate Cambridge started being photographed wearing it. They seemed to latch onto that and start making up comedy numbers for their price tags . I still buy the odd pair of shoes from them though.

I find, not I forums

Sad to see another company in such trouble.
Shoes are great, especially as they do half sizes. The clothes are beautifully made (lots of lovely silk). Prices are too high though, dresses are crazy money for high street fashion. I only ever buy in sale or at the outlets.

Gutted!! I have at least 25 pairs of shoes and I'm eyeballing some boots and trainers.

I agree the clothes are very over priced. I had a few lovely dresses from there about 10 years ago when they were slightly cheaper, but then their prices rocketed and I stopped looking.

Yy the shoes, very well made & they come in small sizes, clothing can a be a bit hit n miss though some of it lovely & well cut, other stuff in not very nice fabrics & overpriced.

It's really sad however the prices had been getting ridiculous over the last few years.

I treated myself to a pair of Suede Olivia Burgundy shoes about 5 years ago and have since got two pairs off eBay because I love them so much. Everyone comments in them and they are so comfy for heels. They do need to look at their pricing though as those shoes were £185 but I didn't see the tag before I tried them on 😀

Frankly I think the shoes are worth the money. I've never bought a duff pair.

Maybe E&Y will advise to focus on shoes and accessories, as that's where LK started and it's always been their draw - used to be the shoes were always at the front of the store.

Also by coincidence/design they always complimented whether clothes Karen Millen had in the window.

I used to wear their shoes and boots all the time. I didn't even look anywhere else but the price seemed to hike up over the last 5 or 6 years and I couldn't justify them it anymore. They were so nice.

I think a lot of lifestyle fashion and home companies got a bit carried away with pricing in recent years. Things I could quite happily afford 10 years ago are now out of my range.

Just looked and boots just like the ones I used to buy for £200 (still ALOT of money), knee high suede, are now £375!! That's one helluva hike.

I think it's sad to lose another high street brand, and more job losses. I do think there downfall is partly down to their pricing. I used to buy clothes and shoes from them regularly, but after Kate Middleton was seen wearing there clothes they doubled their prices, which I think was pretty off. So since then I refused to shop there, especially when you can get the same level of quality of clothes from Reiss, Jigsaw, whistles for a lot less.

I used to get work dresses from there but they got greedy. I’m not paying £300 for polyester. Also their customer service and reluctance to refund put me off so I stopped buying from them.

Thanks for the responses everyone. I agree the prices have got.ridiculous over the last few years, in relation to the quality of the fabrics. The store off Bond Street has had a permanent sale since New year and currently 25% off so I wasn't surprised by the news. Shame Linda Bennett couldn't turn it around.

I bought a few tops from them in the sale still pricy for what they were buy boy do they wash well

It will be a shame if LK Bennett disappear. I do like their shoes.

But I agree that their prices have got crazily expensive over the last few years, so I'm not altogether surprised.

And other retailers like Whistles seem to be heading the same way with their pricing - hopefully this might serve as a warning to them that actually we don't want to pay £££ for a polyester dress or top

I do shop at LK Bennett for the clothes (the shoes are too narrow for me). I like the showstopper items - evening wear and a few work items that are a cut above in terms of design. Some of the designs are a bit frumpy but not as bad as Hobbs is these days and the quality is much better. Hobbs is practically Next quality these days.

So I would miss it if it went. Jaeger was my other go-to for something a bit design-led but not fashiony. It's been very meh since it downsized and got private equitied.

In fact now that I think of it, they are all owned by private equity - Jaeger, Whistles, Hobbs, LK Bennett. Whistles and Hobbs quality is now dreadful. Jaeger and Hobbs now lack any design edge. I think this may be a theme

See, 200 quid for shoes is one thing but a 400 sticker and I'm off to Net A Porter. Same with their dresses.

Mother of the Bride. That's what LKB says to me, and I a) am exactly the age of their target market b) think that's the scariest phrase in the English Language c) probably because of a).

And... Office Clothes - a second phrase guaranteed to send shivers down the spine of anyone who cares what they look like. And only people who care what they look like will drop 400 on a shift dress.

You get the feeling that to be value-for-money the designers have made every piece useful and generic, which is great, but there's something dispiriting about both of these qualities in a going-out outfit that they haven't quelled enough. Reliable is not a sexy word.

Annoying, because the quality is second to none on the high street. Hobbs, Jaeger, Jigsaw, tat in comparison.

Really annoying - I had an LKB bag that I was dying to wear out because I wanted a new one and it stubbornly refused to dent, scratch, fade, or age in any way at all.

Very, very expensive for what it is. I used to like the Wimbledon Village shop back in the day but then it all went a bit MOTB and frumpy.

Jigsaw will be next, crazy high prices for much poorer quality than say 15 years ago. I was in their John Lewis concession yesterday and they were selling a simple, long sleeved jersey t-shirt shirt for £55 and you could see your hand through the fabric it was that thin.

I used to work for them. Originally we had our core customer, the clothes were classic and safe and the brand had a good identity but it wasn’t “trendy” as such. It was sold to the company that rebranded Jimmy choo (the name of the gentleman escapes me) and very quickly hemlines got shorter and the product became younger and “trendier” it alienated a lot of our core customers and we lost a lot of regulars, it was then the prices got stupidly high, a lot was spent on advertising and rebranding. I left then.

I’ll be sad to see it go, but the writing was on the wall a long time ago

The problem with investor owners is that first and foremost when they 'invest' they decide what the want the profit to be from the business and then everything from production costs to retail prices is manipulated to achieve that.