Bebe May Soon Bid Adieu To The Kardashians

by Justin Fenner | 3:44 pm, December 9th, 2010

If there’s one thing no one can deny about the Kardashian sisters, it’s this: We, the the people, made those girls into the walking endorsement and entertainment empires they are. And according to both the style desk at The New York Times and WWD, we’re starting to get a little tired of them.

The New York Times reviewed the New York location of the Kardashian’s family store Dash today, and the paper did not like the operation one little bit. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Dash SoHo is meant more as a stage for (and a justification of) E!‘s new series “Kourtney and Kim Take New York.” The Times‘ Jon Caramanica took a few friends (ostensibly, real people like you and us, who were just along to give honest opinions) with him to check out the store, which he derided as a space filled with little more than “high-end knockoffs” of already overpriced designer clothes, and called the sister’s signature look for store design “temporary.”

Dash is a fashion desert, just oodles of drapey cowl necks and embellished cap sleeves and synthetic fibers. Clothes are essentially split into two categories of fit: vacuum-sealed and hot-air balloon … The most perplexing item in the store was a gorgeous black moto-esque leather jacket by Veda ($738), whose closet-size Ludlow Street storefront is consistently stunning. Had something this fantastic been misrouted by U.P.S.?

Ouch. If that weren’t bad enough, on the same day, WWD’s Fashion Scoops included a short story saying that the sister’s collection with Bebe is probably not long for this world. The company’s president Emilia Fabricant insinuated (at the launch of the latest Kardashians for Bebe collection, no less) that in order to move ahead with other brands, Bebe might have to leave the sisters behind.

“The sisters do still have relevance,” said Fabricant, “but at Bebe we need to move with fashion and we want to be first in the fashion world with everybody else and not fall behind. We are definitely assessing the situation.”

Of course, we here at Styleite have been assessing the situation with the Kardashians for, well, as long as we’ve been around. While the sisters clearly have mass appeal, we’ve never really understood where it comes from. And as it turns out, an empire of promoting products left and right doesn’t rest easily upon a shoddy foundation.

Any Kardashians in Your Closet? [The New York Times]
TIME’S ALMOST UP? [WWD (Subscription Required)]

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