Fashion Designer Luella Bartley Forced to Shutter Ten-Year-Old Label

British fashion designer Luella Bartley, who we’ve long admired for her knack at combining girly flourishes with surfer cool and preppy polish, has closed her ten-year-old fashion label, Luella. The London-based designer was forced out of business when Club 21, the label’s key backer and distributor, pulled funding. The decision comes in the wake of last month’s collapse of Carla Carini, the Italian manufacturer of the Luella ready-to-wear line. “I love the Luella character and hope that after we have survived this challenging time the Luella girl can have an exciting future ahead of her, whichever incarnation she takes on next,” Bartley said in a statement.