Analysis: L'Wren Scott and the pressures behind the facade

The recent death of L'Wren Scott has highlighted the strains and vulnerabilities designers and brand owners face in what is often a challenging and unforgiving industry. We know only too well the stories of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, yet the pressures faced by designers is mostly an unspoken territory.

To the public, designers are only as good as their latest collections, where face-value is deemed as important as commercial value. When adversity strikes, designers, especially in their early years, must keep up the image of success and aspiration. A whiff of malady can have devastating effects on a brand, even if the truth behind the scenes is the polar opposite of glamorous.

Despite her success, the company was not without its problems

Despite the company defending it was in its infancy of growth and not experiencing major financial woes, the media was quick to report Scott's business was in debt and struggling to stay afloat. Either way, it is a significant example of how things are not always as they appear on the surface. Scott herself, a talented stylist and designer who was financially stable and in a seemingly happy relationship with Mick Jagger, was the captain of a ship that was perhaps going down, and if so she chose to go down with it.

The trouble with running a fashion company is that its processes are as fickle as each season's trends. Producing several collections a year is a costly business that many companies struggle to finance without sufficient credit or investment. Designer's rely on their suppliers for fabrics and trims, who in turn rely on yarn-spinners and fabric mills, who in turn rely on the silk and cotton growers.

The complexity of producing a collection from the design phase to when consumer's can see it on the rails in stores is can be a risky business. A supplier may not receive the yarn in time and therefore a fabric can be canceled at the last minute, leaving designers to fill the gap.

So too, the factories that produce garments have their own issues. They may have trouble meeting production deadlines or make mistakes. The simpler error of misplacing a print on a t-shirt could mean an entire style does not make it past quality control, which means it doesn't get delivered to stores, which means loss of sales.

It is not only the financial imperative that needs to be considered, but also the loss of brand equity. In the end, a brand is only as successful if its sells. Once a store drops a brand, it is very difficult to get back in. For a designer like Scott, it would be a humiliating experience.

L'Wren Scott had suffered delivery issues and had to cancel her AW14 fashion show. This is a big deal for any brand as taking a season out could have detrimental effects on both image and business. It would be fair to deduce the company was experiencing supplier issues and perhaps for Scott this strain was the last straw? If the stores dropped her collection and suppliers would no longer supply fabric, where does one go from there?

Image: L'Wren Scott