Brand Failures

194 Brand failures
70 Fashion Café
From catwalk to catfights
Although it eventually proved to be a flop, Planet Hollywood spawned a
number of imitators. David Hasselhoff tried to launch a Baywatch Café chain
complete with waitresses in red swimsuits. Magician David Copperfield
reportedly ploughed millions into a magic-themed restaurant chain which
later vanished in a puff of smoke. Steven Spielberg invested in Dive, a
submarine-shaped restaurant in Los Angeles with a giant cinema screen,
taking diners on undersea voyages. It sank without trace.
One of the most spectacular of these Planet Hollywood-inspired failures
was the Fashion Café, launched in 1995 by supermodels Naomi Campbell,
Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer and Elle MacPherson. However, the
chain, with its main branches in London and New York, struggled from the
start. The connection between models and food was not an obvious one, and
‘fashion’ was not a theme that made people feel hungry.
As soon as the disappointing figures were in, the drama really started. Elle
MacPherson and Naomi Campbell publicly accused founder Tomasso Buti
of encouraging them to invest in the chain only to see US $25 million ‘vanish’
from the account books. Then Claudia Schiffer walked out of the venture,
blaming ‘old problems’ with Naomi. ‘Instead of promoting our cafés Naomi
only thinks about collecting lovers,’ Claudia told Italian newspaper Il
Messaggero. ‘We agreed to make more presentations for our group, but Naomi
is always on a yacht with some boyfriend.’ Naomi wasn’t slow to respond in
an interview with The Sun. ‘Greed is a bad adviser,’ she remarked. ‘Claudia