New Generals Board has decided to terminate the operation of the company. New Generals spring/summer 2014 collection, which has just been delivered to the company’s dealers, will be the last of the innovative children’s wear brand.
Little Scandinavian first discovered the brand in January 2012, as a brand leading the way with ethical children’s design in the Fashion Capital of Copenhagen. With a monochrome and minimalistic design, not to forget the popular bug prints would quickly lead the New Generals to the international market. They exhibited at leading international trade shows such as Playtime New York and Pitti Bimbo, the latter only a year ago showing their current AW13 collection. And they’ve had some fantastic campaigns, among them is this lovely, almost dreamy campaign shot by acclaimed Danish photographer Anders Hald. We’ve also enjoyed their fashion shows! Again, leading the way, as an incentive for press, buyers and VIPs, New Generals prepared a full-on runway fashion show during CPH kids Fashion Fair in the old Carlsberg Brewery, showing New Generals Autumn Winter 2012. This was followed by the amazing show for their SS13 collection, kicking off with their daughter singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star mixed in to cool beats. For a recap, see all the images we took here.
When CPH kids closed down, they moved to CIFF Kids both with stand and fashion shows, supporting their home marked in Denmark and Scandinavia, but with a wish to expand further afield.
Although there was a strong demand for the graphical, sustainable, ultra cool styles, the strategy of targeting new markets proved too be too much of a challenge for the New Generals.
“To build a brand like New Generals has been a fantastic experience, but it became apparent that that the capital demands of the massive growth exceeded our available resources.To meet the high demand for New Generals especially from remote markets, we have been working on raising capital for a very long time, but we had to realize that the company’s capital base is not large enough to support such rapid growth, and after a long struggle we have decided to stop the activity. It is incredibly frustrating that there is found no economically viable solution, but we do not believe that we can meet the high demand without capital, and we’ll rather stop before the company becomes insolvent . It is a dream we had, my husband and I, and it’s a shame that it did not succeed.” Majbrit Weidemann, CEO
New Generals was founded in 2011 by branding experts Majbrit and Joen Weidemann. In 2012, New Generals was the first Danish children’s clothing brand sold in Barney’s in New York. New Generals have strategies and marketing more akin to adult fashion industry, achieved a meteoric growth in brand recognition, has retailers in 20 countries and in the summer of 2013 closed a contract with a distributor in China to open a number of New Generals concept stores, starting with the first two in Beijing during 2014.
The Company has decided to file their own bankruptcy, but do not expect to leave creditors and suppliers without payment.
The talented husband wife team behind the brand is generous and hard working people that Little Scandinavian not only admire but have become fond of over the years. It’s with great sadness we share these news with you today.