Princess Diana and Meghan Markle designer Amanda Wakeley set for liquidation

AW Retail, the business of British fashion designer Amanda Wakeley, best known for dressing Princess Diana and Meghan Markle, is being liquidated following falling into administration in May 2021.

The Amanda Wakeley brand was best known for its occasion wear, dresses and and skirt suits, as worn by Princess Diana. It also saw a spike in global interest when then Prime Minister Theresa May wore a pair of Wakeley’s leather trousers in a photoshoot accompanying an interview in the Sunday Times in November 2016, which became known as “Trousergate”.

Amanda Wakeley’s flagship store at 18 Albemarle Street in London’s Mayfair was forced to close during the pandemic, and the brand never recovered after administrators Smith & Williamson LLP could not find a buyer.

Amanda Wakeley

It has been reported that the company “needed additional working capital investment to proceed in its intended strategic direction”, however the end of the road for a brand which opened its first store in Chelsea, west London, in 1990, and which once had around 50 stores internationally, has now been reached.

Companies House now has a notice moving AW Retail from administration to voluntary liquidation.