Principles was a UK-based fashion clothing retailer founded in 1984 that went into administration in 2009. Following this the brand continued to be used by British retailer

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain that operated in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, as well as franchised locations across Europe and the Asia Pacific. The company was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and gr ...

History

Foundation and early years

The firm was launched by the

Burton Group Arcadia Group Ltd (formerly Arcadia Group plc and, until 1998, Burton Group plc) was a British multinational retailing company headquartered in London, England. It was best known for being the previous parent company of British Home Stores (B ...

(later the Arcadia Group) as an attempt to capitalise on the new modern trends in fashion; the mid-1980s was the boom era for the

yuppie Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neu ...

, a new upmarket cultural movement, and

power dressing Power dressing is a fashion style born in the second half of the 1970s and developed in the 1980s that enables women to establish their authority in a professional and political environment traditionally dominated by men. History The term ''power ...

was a key trend: at the time, the Group's ladies' fashion operations (chiefly

Dorothy Perkins Dorothy Perkins is a British online women's fashion retailer operated by Debenhams Group in the United Kingdom. Formerly a store chain, it sold both its own range of clothes and branded fashion goods until February 2021, when it became part o ...

) were more mainstream and traditional. Principles was the first newly launched chain from the firm since

Topman Topman is a British online-only men's fashion retail brand operated by ASOS. Along with its women's clothing counterpart Topshop and the rest of Arcadia Group, Topman went into administration in late 2020. All high street stores subsequently c ...

in 1978, with the majority of the company's growth over the years having come from

acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

. In 1985 a sister brand aimed at upmarket male shoppers, Principles For Men, was launched; this chain was phased out in the late 1990s/early 2000s as part of a scaling-back of the group's less successful operations. The stores either became main Principles stores, converted to other Arcadia brands, or closed.

Administration and closure

Mosaic Fashions collapsed in 2009, and a new venture - Aurora Fashions - was created to take on the bulk of Mosaic's brands. However, Principles was not included in the deal and remained in administration. The administrators closed 66 stores due to the initial lack of a suitable buyer before

, which already hosted a number of Principles concessions in its department stores, subsequently announced that it would acquire Principles brand and most of the stock. At the time of the Debenhams deal, it was widely speculated that Principles' remaining standalone stores would close as a result of the sale; however, some did remain open, including stores in locations where there is not a main Debenhams store (such as Bluewater). In all, 66 of the chain's stores were initially closed, with others remaining; however, some of the surviving stores were subsequently closed down. Debenhams and Principles had previously been part of same company from 1985, a year after Principles launched, when Burton Group owned the Debenhams chain, and it was during this period of common ownership that many of the Principles concessions within Debenhams were established. In 1998, Debenhams was demerged from the rest of the group and began trading independently, although the Principles concessions remained in place.

Relaunch

In February 2010, Debenhams relaunched the Principles brand as 'Principles by Ben de Lisi',Principles by Ben de Lisi
/ref> with fashion designer

Ben de Lisi Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett, Benson or Ebenezer, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben meaning "son of" is also found in Arabic as ''Ben'' (dialectal Arabic) or ''bin ...

giving his name to the brand, joining numerous other designers as part of the company's key 'Designers at Debenhams' range.

References

{{Arcadia Group Clothing retailers of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1984 Retail companies established in 1984 Retail companies disestablished in 2009