Ready-to-wear brand Paule Ka in receivership

A new victim in ready-to-wear. The accessible luxury brand Paule Ka, belonging to businessman Thierry Le Guénic, was placed in receivership at the end of April, according to a decision consulted this Tuesday April 30 by AFP confirming information from the specialized site Fashion Network. The Paris commercial court placed the brand, which employs 37 employees, in receivership on April 23, we read in the decision.

The annual turnover of SAS Paule Ka Paris amounts to more than 8 million euros, but the company's liabilities reach more than 4 million euros, notes the court. The company was declared insolvent, “in particular due to a sharp drop in ready-to-wear consumption internationally,” according to the decision. The company benefits from a six-month observation period, with a milestone set for June 18.

Created in 1988 in Paris by Serge Cajfinger, “a passionate aesthete of the 50s and 60s” and “icons of that era”, Paule Ka “has positioned itself as a player of choice on the premium ready-to-wear market ”, according to the brand’s website. It had already been placed in receivership in October 2020 then sold in February 2021 to businessman Thierry Le Guénic. Its current network “consists of two boutiques in the French capital, corners (dedicated spaces, editor’s note) in department stores, stores in Lyon and Luxembourg, and an outlet in Strasbourg,” according to Fashion Network.

Paule Ka is not the only company bought by Thierry Le Guénic to have suffered a disastrous fate. In 2020, he acquired the clothing brand Burton of London, placed in compulsory liquidation in February, as well as the shoemaker San Marina, liquidated in 2023 - a company from which he withdrew in July 2021, his entourage said. The lingerie brand Maison Lejaby, which Thierry Le Guénic acquired in 2020, was placed in receivership in January. In 2020, he also took over Habitat, which was placed in liquidation in December 2023.