American fashion designer L’Wren Scott has tragically commit suicide. As tributes flood in, so do reports that L’Wren was struggling was a mounting debt. According to reports, the designer owed around £4,593,000 to creditors before taking her life. An insider close to her has commented that she struggled to keep her business afloat and desperately wanted to make it a financial success:
‘L’Wren was in a lot of financial trouble. She was unable to pay her staff and her suppliers and it had been going on for a very long period of time. She wanted so badly for things to be a success. Whereas she got her outfits on a number of high profile people, the clothes were not a commercial hit and didn’t fly off the shelves. It was a huge burden on her and she didn’t want to fail.”
L’Wren was dating legendary Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger but she always refused help from him and wanted to make it on her own. The designer opted to cancel her Autumn/Winter 2014 presentation earlier this year at London Fashion Week, at the time giving the reason that the fabrics were not prepared in time:
”Everyone was very much left wondering why she didn’t ask Mick for help. But she didn’t. Things were left a long time and she spent the past few months struggling to pay the vast amount of her outgoings. It was a tragic situation and she kept it from everyone. Her staff expected the company to go under and her fabric suppliers and tailors were close to ending their working relationship. The bills just weren’t getting paid.”
Vogue editor Anna Wintour has paid tribute to the designer, commenting that she was a perfectionist:
“L’Wren was a total perfectionist, someone who absolutely embodied everything her marvelous clothes stood for: strength of character combined with a confident and powerful style.”
