Dion Lee places Australian arm into administration following investor departure

New York Fashion Week regular Dion Lee has placed its Australian arm under administration, appointing insolvency firm dVT Group to oversee the procedure and explore the next steps.

The move comes after the brand, which hails from Sydney, Australia, saw Cue pull out as an investor after the local retail chain underwent a “strategic review”.

DVT’s Antony Resnick, who is to lead the administration process, told the Sydney Morning Herald that he was assessing “all options” related to Dion Lee’s US business, which is one of the brand’s biggest markets.

Resnick added: “We are in the very early stages of our administration process and our focus right now is on speaking with the Australian and US-based team and getting across all the relevant operational and financial data.”

Dion Lee’s Australian stores and online stores will continue to operate. The brand also currently operates one store in Miami, its first physical location in North America which opened last year.

Following the founding of the brand in 2009, eponymous designer Dion Lee went on to become a regular fixture on the NYFW schedule, a trend that only came to a halt last season when the brand debuted on the Shanghai Fashion Week runway in a bid to target the Chinese market.

Lee has also garnered a notable celebrity following, and most recently was at the centre of the spotlight when Taylor Swift was seen wearing a crochet corset by the brand to the Super Bowl, resulting in the product selling out entirely.

Towards the end of 2023, things had also been looking up for Lee, who had appointed his first chief executive officer, James Miller, to help position the brand for its next phase of growth.