Say It Ain't So: Mayle to Shutter in 2009

Updated 4:21 PM EST, Mon, Oct 20, 2008

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WWD confirmed the rumors just before Fashion Week and the sands are fast falling through the hourglass: Indie-feminine cult icon Jane Mayle will be closing her line—and her charming Elizabeth Street boutique—in January. A word of advice to the young, downtown loyalists already weeping into their soy chai lattes: the mid-season shipment hitting stores next month will be her last, so pay off your Amex now. Ever the non-conformist (having never shown at fashion week or launched a full-scale advertising campaign), Mayle insists she's not bowing to financial woes—on the contrary, some reports place her word-of-mouth-based annual sales at $5 million—but rather the relentless demands of an industry more obsessed with retail than fashion. "How I came to this business was all about dreaming and building a wardrobe you would be seduced by," the designer told WWD. "That mystery and remoteness and insouciance have disappeared from fashion in order to accelerate the product. I feel I have just become another cog in that machinery." Aw. We're all for high ideals, but isn't the only way to defeat The Borg from the inside? Take one for the team, Jane! Maggie Gyllenhaal needs you!