Fashion cafe

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Christy Turlington in 2008. Turlington was an investor in the restaurant chain

Fashion Café was a restaurant chain headquartered in New York City , whose investors and advertising media included models Naomi Campbell , Elle Macpherson , Claudia Schiffer and Christy Turlington . The chain's first branch was opened in 1995 in Rockefeller Center , New York City, with additional branches planned for London, South Africa, Barcelona and Mexico City. The corporate concept was based on that of the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain founded in 1991, whose co-owners included the actors Sylvester Stallone , Bruce Willis , Demi Moore , Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger .

The restaurant chain failed within a short time. As early as 1998, due to the unpaid taxes and duties in New York City, it was obvious that the chain was in financial difficulties. The New York City office closed in 1998; the London office ultimately never opened. In 2000, restaurant founders Francesco and Tommaso Buti were charged with false information about their personal investments in the restaurant chain, and Francesco Buti was arrested in December that same year. This was preceded by public complaints from Elle MacPherson and Naomi Campbell that Buti had encouraged them to invest in the chain and shortly afterwards 25 million "disappeared" from the chain's books. Claudia Schiffer left the company shortly afterwards and complained in an interview with an Italian magazine that Naomi Campbell had failed to meet her advertising obligations.

Marketing expert Matt Haig cites a wrong concept as the reasons for the company's failure: Models would not be an obvious advertising medium for a restaurant chain with a very ordinary menu and fashion would not make people hungry. The restaurant chain Planet Hollywood, whose concept they tried to imitate, was already in financial difficulties itself in 1995, because although this concept attracted the curious, it could not find a long-term customer base. The disputes, which were publicly carried out by the advertisers, were extensively commented on in the press. However, it wasn't the positive press that could have contributed to a company's success.

literature

Single receipts

  1. ^ A b 1 Susan Saulny: "Businessmen Who Created Fashion Cafe Are Hit With Fraud Charges." New York Times December 12, 2000 . Accessed April 14, 2014.
  2. ^ A b c Matt Haig: Brand Failures . Kogan Page Limited, London 2011, E- ISBN 9780749463007 . P. 141.
  3. ↑ Matt Haig: Brand Failures . Kogan Page Limited, London 2011, E- ISBN 9780749463007 . P. 140.