Rock & Republic announced yesterday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The privately held company expects to continue day-to-day operations, and plans to refocus on its shoe and core apparel businesses. The label hasn’t been the picture of financial health for months. It canceled its fall 2010 Fashion Week show and slashed distribution of its makeup line.
The show was always a spendy spectacle, with a plethora of potentially costly celebrity attendees, elaborate sets (which once included an orchestra pit), and sometimes props (which once included guns for the models). And all this for a label whose main thing is jeans — but perhaps the founders believed they owed customers this tomfoolery in exchange for the $200-and-up price tags on those pants.
