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Fashion Breakfast   Fashion Breakfast
Jan 28 2008 12:01PM EST

Jane Shepherdson Gets Whistles, Now What?

It's confirmed, Jane Shepherdson with a little help from the Icelandic investment group Baugur and Icelandic bank Glitnir is going to be an owner, C.E.O. and director of women's wear for Whistles, the UK chain of mid-priced women's clothing. Baugur owns Whistles's former parent company Mosaic and is to remain lead shareholder in the spin-off company. Sky News says they have a stake believed to be 49%. And that "it is thought the agreement values Whistles at between 15m and 20m pounds."

I think it is a fascinating move. Whistles and chains like it have been pinched by the arrival of lower-priced and more fashionable rivals like H&M, Zara, Uniqlo and Topshop. I Am Fashion called it the U.K. Anthropologie and as far as what I see as a over-valued price-to-quality relationship, I'd have to agree. On their website is a metallic gray jacket, marked down to 59 pounds or $120 from 220 pounds -- or $440. Who would pay even the sale price when they could go to Topshop and find a similar jacket for 40 pounds at the beginning of the season? Of course, Topshop wasn't much before Jane came on board. She left shortly Philip Green brought Kate Moss in to design a collection without consulting her. But since she has left, she's spoken out against cheaply-made clothing, saying "someone somewhere down the line is paying."

So I'm curious to know what Shepherdson will do with Whistles. No one can doubt her ability to curate a fashionable collection. But no matter how good it is, she's going to be caught in the same price v. fashion v. quality squeeze that all the middle brands are feeling. She's said she'd like to take the brand to the U.S. and with 40 stores and 40 in-store boutiques already in the U.K., that might be the first logical move. But before Jane, no one would have thought that you could get designer quality (at least in look) clothes on the U.K. high street before, so I'm not going to be the one to bet against her.

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