Contemporary Brand Ever LLC Shuttered
Prominent contemporary fashion label Ever LLC recently shut down operations after quietly declaring bankruptcy last October.
With little fanfare, the Vernon, Calif.–headquartered brand shuttered its boutiques in high-profile shopping districts around California, including Los Angeles’ Melrose Avenue; the Fashion Island mall in Newport Beach; the Santa Monica Place mall in Santa Monica; and Montecito, the location of its first shop.
The Melrose Avenue store opened in 2008, and the current asking price is $7,500 per month for the 1,050-square-foot commercial space, according to the website for Stafford Commercial Real Estate Inc., the listing agents.
The brand’s website (www.ever-us.com) was taken down recently, and its Vernon offices were shuttered. Ever founder Jason Bleick said the company’s liquidation was so low key that many fashion-industry people are unaware that it had gone out of business.
“There’s no building. There’s not one employee. I guess you can call it done,” Bleick said of his former brand. Bleick now runs creative-services firm Bleick Studios, which is headquartered in the Los Angeles area. (See related story.)
The Chapter 7 bankruptcy documents filed for Ever LLC in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles did not disclose a reason for the bankruptcy. However, the documents estimated the label’s liabilities as ranging from $1 million to $10 million. Creditors included Hong Kong textile company Katleya Ltd., U.K.-headquartered textile company Worldtex and the Internal Revenue Service. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy requests a liquidation for a business.
Bleick was a shareholder in the company he started in 2003 with Lucky Brand founders Barry Perlman and Gene Montesano, but he left the label in August 2011, shortly after the birth of his son, Arthur, with actress Selma Blair. He left the company because of disagreement over the direction of the brand.
Bleick founded Ever as a brand inspired by the romance of travel, and it was distinguished by unique details. Earplugs were attached to Ever hangtags to help the brand’s wearers sleep on airplanes. Occasionally, photo slides of exotic locales were left in pants pockets. Fabrics were sourced in Italy and Japan. The line was manufactured in America, and retail price points ranged from $45 for a T-shirt up to $265 for denim and outerwear.
The brand was placed at exclusive retailers such as Bloomingdale’s, Barneys, American Rag and Scoop.
According to Bleick, executives running the brand intended to increase the distribution of the label and bring down the price point. The shift would mean manufacturing overseas and dumping many of the brand’s unique details.
“If you do that, you end up being like everyone else out there,” Bleick said. “Your identity is gone. You’re nothing. I could not watch the DNA of the brand being stripped away.”
Other Ever shareholders and their lawyers had not, by press time, returned phone calls or e-mails requesting comment.
