Kira Plastinina to Shut Down U.S. Stores

Kira Plastinina, the 16-year-old Russian fashion designer whose rapid rise to fame included a burgeoning empire of stores in the U.S., will close almost all of her 12 U.S. outlets after less than a year as demand slumps.

“The number of shoppers in the U.S. fell significantly,” said Sergei Plastinin, Kira’s father, the food entrepreneur who co-founded Wimm-Bill-Dann Produkty Pitaniya Oao (Moscow), Russia’s largest dairy company. “It also became much harder to find money for investment because of the financial crisis. We had enormous plans: New York, then India and China in 2009.” Plastinin reportedly spent $80 million to set up stores in his daughter’s name.

The company instead will focus on its 70 stores in Russia. “We have to live through the crisis and see what happens next before making any decisions,” Plastinin said.

The first U.S. Kira Plastinina outlet opened in Manhattan in May and the chain had 12 stores in the New York and Los Angeles areas, with another two ready to open. The designer will keep one or two U.S. outlets and close most of the rest by the end of 2008. Besides Russia, there are 10 outlets in Ukraine and five in Kazakhstan. Sales in Russia are approaching $70 million this year and same-store sales are rising more than 30 percent in the former Soviet countries.