From the NY TimesDesigner Has Fan at Top, but Too Few at the Stores
So when Ms. Pinto abruptly put up a “closeout sale” sign in the window of her West Loop boutique and announced that she was folding her fashion business, Chicago — and Pinto devotees all over — reacted with disbelief: What in sartorial heaven happened? “I pushed as far as I could,” Ms. Pinto, 53, said in her first lengthy interview since the demise of her store and wholesale operations in mid-February.
Just back from a month’s break in Barcelona, she pointed to the strain that a sour economy had placed on her business just as it was expanding and gaining major traction beyond a loyal Chicago following.
But Ms. Pinto acknowledged having made some typical startup mistakes in building her brand, in areas like financial management and operations.
After 16 years of designing out of a somewhat anonymous atelier, she opened the boutique, named after herself, in August 2008, capitalizing on a wave of enthusiasm for her work, as displayed mostly by Mrs. Obama on the campaign trail. She also increased her wholesale operations and had been maintaining a showroom in New York.
While Mrs. Obama diversified her style after becoming first lady (she has been drawn to high-end designers like Jason Wu and Narciso Rodriguez, as well as brands like J. Crew), she still sported Maria Pinto every now and then. But even high-profile support of the brand, priced in the hundreds and thousands of dollars, could not save it from the reality of the Great Recession.
Personally, I think that Maria Pinto designed some amazing dresses for Michelle Obama. The monochromatic jewel colored look worked brilliantly for Mrs Obama in the way that the Dior purple worked for Carla Bruni Sarkozy. I much preferred Pinto's designs to those mix and match outfits that were so un-First Lady like.
The real problems started right after the introduction of the spring 2010 line in New York last September, Ms. Pinto said. “They loved the line,” she said. “I was like, where are the orders? O.K., this is not a good sign.”
Pinto was carried at stores like Barneys, Saks Fifth Avenue and Takashimaya — a store whose New York location will soon be closing its doors, another victim of the recession.
There are many economic ironies in this tale but I will leave them to the side.
Hopefully Maria Pinto will find a partner who can handle the business side of things while she can concentrate on her designs.
