Top 10 Fashion Brands That Don't Exist Anymore
These fashion brands sadly went out of style. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’ll be counting down our picks of the bygone fashion brands that once ruled the roost but have now gone the way of the dodo.
Transcript
00:00 I'm really tired of not having money.
00:02 Money creates more problems.
00:05 Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we'll be counting down our picks of the bygone fashion brands that once ruled the roost, but have now gone the way of the dodo.
00:14 Her very earliest customers were men, so she was dressing the Beatles. She did clothes for Pink Floyd for the cover of their first album.
00:22 Number 10. Cheap Monday.
00:25 A jeans fit which was very tight and lots of stretch in the fabric.
00:29 Cheap Monday was very early with skinny jeans this time, and I'm very proud of that.
00:33 It would be easy to mistake the original logo for Cheap Monday as that of an extreme heavy metal band, and given the former clothing brand's origins were in Sweden, a hotbed for that genre, we wouldn't fault you.
00:44 However, what Cheap Monday actually did was design very cool looking jeans, shirts and hats from their Stockholm headquarters, getting them into stores all around the world.
00:55 I like this one. We just saw on scrapings and it's stitched and I've never seen anyone else do it, so I'm quite proud of this one.
01:06 Cheap Monday gear was at one point distributed within Urban Outfitters, Barneys and more, before eventually being sold to H&M.
01:14 That parent company then folded the Cheap Monday brand due to poor sales in 2019.
01:19 It's just another man with money. I wish it was Sunday.
01:27 Number 9. Martin and Osa.
01:30 I can start over. I can change perspectives. I can create my future.
01:34 It isn't uncommon for your favorite clothing retailer to try and launch their own brand in-house.
01:39 Martin and Osa was one such attempt from American Eagle Outfitters, a fashion brand that marketed its style towards American Eagle's older clientele.
01:48 A lot of jeans were offered by Martin and Osa, as well as clothing aesthetics that attempted to bridge newer trends with classic styles.
01:55 This is Paul Dillinger. Say hi, Paul. Hi there.
01:58 Paul is the denim guru. He works for Martin and Osa and he basically is going to teach us how to distress jeans.
02:05 Unfortunately, the brand failed to catch on in a major way and only lasted from September of 2006 to July of 2010, not even making it to a five-year anniversary.
02:16 Get over your summer heartbreak with one last summer trip.
02:19 Number 8. Anchor Blue Clothing Company.
02:22 I can give you advice all day long, but only you can make fashion happen.
02:26 Whereas American Eagle's Martin and Osa brand turned its attention to that company's older customers,
02:31 the Anchor Blue Clothing Company always focused their sales on attracting the youth market.
02:35 Their branded clothing aesthetic was comfy and casual, an attempt to be as on-trend and viable an option as possible for school-age kids shopping at the mall.
02:44 It's all about color, color, and more color, especially in tees and tanks.
02:48 Anchor Blue's history actually dates back all the way to the 1940s when it was founded under the name Miller's Surplus.
02:55 However, the company's focus on jeans and military gear eventually saw it pivot to the Anchor Blue brand, whereby the new focus was on original apparel.
03:04 They freshened up their wardrobe a little bit, definitely digging the new threads.
03:08 Got a whole new line of shades, some tanks, jeans, threw in some sandals, and yeah, feeling good.
03:15 The tactic flourished for a while, but Anchor Blue officially shuttered its doors in 2011.
03:20 Number 7. Arpeggia.
03:22 It was a renegade decade. I think there was explosive color. There were many changes in silhouette.
03:30 There were changes in the way that clothing was constructed.
03:34 The fashion boom of the swinging 60s was what inspired Arpeggia to tread similar ground after first being incorporated back in 1961.
03:42 The latter part of the decade, and particularly the 1970s, saw Arpeggia develop multiple fashion lines under their brand, including Young Edwardian, Young Victorian, and Organically Grown.
03:53 Television's Linda Carter, Wonder Woman herself, was a famous Arpeggia spokesperson and enabled the brand to flourish into the late 70s.
04:01 The skirt can be discarded if it should prove cumbersome. The material is indestructible.
04:06 Oh, it's beautiful, mother.
04:08 All good things came to an end, however, and Arpeggia was eventually closed in 1979, with those aforementioned lines being sold to companies like Marshalls and TJ Maxx.
04:18 It's not shopping, it's maximizing.
04:21 Number 6. Arden B.
04:29 Hey, do you remember Wet Seal? The Los Angeles-based retailer was once a force to be reckoned with in many local malls.
04:37 Arden B. was a sub-fashion brand launched by Wet Seal in 1998, offering different styles of clothes than its parent brand, as well as feminine-focused accessories.
04:47 It's kind of futuristic, kind of modern. After this, it's going to get a little softer and a little bit more girly.
04:52 The Arden B. brand did fairly well for Wet Seal, with over 50 stores dedicated solely to this business venture being scattered across the United States.
05:00 However, Wet Seal eventually closed down the Arden B. brand in the spring of 2014.
05:06 The store closed more than 60% of its then-511 stores two years ago, shortly before the outfitter filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
05:16 Number 5. Bill Gibb
05:18 Bill Gibb was one of the most influential and famous designers in 1970s Britain. His clothes were much sought after by the rich and famous.
05:26 The miniskirt was a huge deal for women in the 1960s and 70s, and it was fashion designers like Mary Quant and Bill Gibb that helped make them that way.
05:36 Gibb's fashion brand wasn't a one-trick pony in this regard, however, and his aesthetic would incorporate everything from knits and nature designs to fur, leather, even shoe design.
05:46 Famous actors and models, such as Twiggy, would wear Bill Gibb during the height of their fame, and the Scottish artist's personal stamp was all over his myriad and imaginative designs.
06:04 Unfortunately, Gibb's creative soul didn't make him good with finance, and his operations had fizzled out by the late 1980s.
06:11 Number 4. Thea Porter
06:22 Thea Porter was a cultured, educated, and insanely talented artist who thrived within multiple mediums.
06:39 She was a linguist, an artist, and a notable fashion designer, graduating into the medium after experimenting with interior design.
06:47 She began to mix hand-printed Indian textiles with swatches of Islamic embroidery and brocades from Damascus.
06:54 Her sexy, hippie, chic style reached prominent success in London, New York, and in Beverly Hills.
07:01 Porter had a number of high-profile clients over the course of her career, from rock stars like Mick Jagger to movie icons such as Sharon Tate.
07:09 Her attempts at opening boutiques rarely lasted a couple of years, but her specialty sales flourished into the '70s and '80s.
07:16 Sadly, Porter, like Bill Gibb, wasn't cut out for the financial end of things, and her business ventures could never truly thrive.
07:24 Thea Porter's eye for fashion may have fizzled out, but it will never fade away.
07:28 Her designs are very influential on fashion designers now.
07:32 I think it might be hard for them to set off a new movement the way that she did.
07:38 We mentioned the iconic New York City fashion retailer, Barneys, earlier in our list.
07:53 The news of designer Zac Posen shutting down his fashion brand in 2019 occurred right around the same time as Barneys announced its bankruptcy filing.
08:02 He was trying to save it, and at the very last minute, couldn't, and had lost his investors, was trying to secure a new one, and unfortunately, that was the end of the brand.
08:11 It was a major blow for those who carried the torch for Posen's majorly successful brand, which had expanded nationwide into retail stores like Target.
08:19 Posen designed for Delta Airlines, and had stars like Sofia Vergara, Uma Thurman, and Naomi Campbell wear his clothes.
08:26 It seemed strange that a powerful force in fashion would go out with a whimper, rather than a bang, and it was truly a sad day for everyone involved at the House of Z.
08:47 If you watched any television during the 1970s, then it's highly likely that you caught multiple different ad campaigns for Sass and Jeans.
08:55 This American denim company was extremely popular during their day, and marketed their clothing in a universally approachable way.
09:06 This made Sass and Jeans feel like the fancy duds you could afford, yet which also made just about anyone look good.
09:14 Their appeal felt universal, but trends change, and not every fashion brand can thrive forever.
09:20 The Jordache company eventually lured Sass and co-founder, Morris Sasson, away from his company to work for the competition, and Sass and Jeans were no longer a thing by the time 1987 rolled around.
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09:45 Now, if you're a fan of the late '80s, you know that there's a lot of fashion that's been going on in the '90s.
09:53 But if you're not, you can't afford to miss out on all of them.
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10:03 Bugle Boy's founder, William Mo, actually got his start in the tech field as an electrical engineer.
10:19 What does this have to do with menswear, you ask? Absolutely nothing.
10:23 Which is why it's so remarkable that Mo was able to pivot in such a huge way.
10:27 The Bugle Boy brand was everywhere during the 1980s and into the '90s, but failed financially around the dawn of the new millennium.
10:44 The brand did both traditional fare, like jeans and jorts, as well as trendy experiments of the day, such as parachute pants.
10:51 Ultimately, however, this Bugle Boy ended up playing taps by the time 2001 came to a close.
10:57 Do you wish any of these iconic fashion brands would make a stylistic comeback? Let us know in the comments.
11:11 Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
11:14 And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
11:18 Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
11:20 And be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
11:24 [music]