To find the South Korean designer Rejina Pyo, 41, grinning on the fourth floor of the Soho Revue gallery is a remarkable thing. She is dressed in her own beige, pleated skirt, pinstriped white shirt, burnt orange sweater vest and cobalt blue adidas Sambas, busily curating an exhibition which will mark her brand’s decade anniversary. I challenge you to find anyone working in the British fashion industry who will not tell you that is a momentous feat.
Why? Because keeping a fashion brand afloat in London today is — to put it bluntly — an expensive, bloody and often damn-near impossible task. Retail infrastructure is crumbling, aspirational shoppers creep ever closer to going the way of the dodo, and casualties are stacking up. Leading luxury retailer Matches Fashion, one-time high-street overlord Ted Baker, and outfitter of the richest and most famous, The Vampire’s Wife — all have fallen into administration in the last year. Remaining brands are crowding A&E.
