Lady Victoria Hervey, socialite and sometime businesswoman, has set up shop once again, despite the closing of Akademi, her now-defunct high fashion boutique. The original business - where famous clients such as Kate Moss and Martine McCutcheon could snap up £100 designer t-shirts - shut down in July after just 15 months.
The newly-formed frock shop Mogumbo, of which the ‘It’ girl is sole director, will open in the same Belgravia location that housed Akademi, which is now in liquidation. Victoria, who lost just her £20 investment when the boutique went bust, admits she “felt sorry” that a number of fashion designers and other creditors had lost upwards of £350,000 investing in her first exclusive shop. But, she added, “Unfortunately that is business. In business, you realise that is the way it goes.”
Having learned a financial lesson the hard way, the 25-year-old remains confident her entrepreneurial endeavour will run more smoothly this time round. “I think what went wrong was that I was at the shop less and less, because I was away modelling,” she says. “This time I will spend more time at the shop.”
Perhaps chastened by her previous experience, Lady Victoria has already put her nose to the grindstone, passing up a trip to the see designer Giovanni Bedin’s collection at Paris Fashion Week in order to take care of her new business. One pal says, “She didn’t go to the show because her shop is reopening, and she’s working on that.”
Photo: © Alphapress.com
