Fashion

C. Wonder is Closing For Good

by Erin Mayer

Well here's a dismal announcement for fans of affordable preppy-chic clothing, accessories, and housewares: C. Wonder is officially closing forever. I guess we'll have to start shelling out the big bucks at Tory Burch if we want to wear logo-studded ballet flats from here on out.

As I previously reported, rumors started circulating back in early December that C. Wonder would be shuttering most of its freestanding stores by the end of 2014, allegedly to focus on selling wholesale. Now, it seems, the company is throwing in the towel entirely. According to a BuzzFeed report by Sapna Maheshwari, C. Wonder broke the news to employees on Monday, January 5th, which was also the last day of work for most of them. Maheshwari writes,

C. Wonder’s 11 U.S. stores, already pared down from a massive round of closings in recent months, will shutter completely in the next two to three weeks, while its website is slated to shut down by the end of next week, the person at the meeting said. They added that Chris Burch, who recently relocated his office from the Flatiron office to Miami, was not present at the meeting. C. Wonder has also abruptly shut down its social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Looks like this is really the end for J. Christopher Burch's (yes, that's Tory's ex-husband) company, founded back in 2011. However, the venture capitalist has been distancing himself from the C. Wonder brand for awhile now and already has a major project lined up next: Ellen Degeneres's lifestyle brand E.D. Something tells me he's not exactly mourning the loss of C. Wonder with a pint of Ben & Jerry's and repeated viewings of The Notebook.

The rest of us, on the other hand, need some time to recover.