Le Tote
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Le Tote was an online fashion rental subscription service founded in 2012, often described as Netflix for fashion. Members paid a monthly fee to rent and rotate designer clothing and accessories. In 2019 it acquired the department store chain Lord & Taylor, including 38 stores, from Hudson's Bay Company.
02 / Le Tote FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
The 2019 acquisition of Lord & Taylor saddled the startup with legacy brick-and-mortar retail just before the COVID-19 pandemic devastated department-store traffic and consumer spending. Less than a year after the deal, Le Tote could no longer service its obligations and filed for Chapter 11 on August 2, 2020; liquidation sales began at the Lord & Taylor stores and the last physical stores closed in early 2021.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Asset restructuring
On 2 Aug 2020 Le Tote Inc. and Lord & Taylor filed bankruptcy restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (case 20-33332), citing roughly $137.9M debt obligations amid COVID disruption after the Lord & Taylor acquisition; Retail Dive and WWD later covered store liquidations.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on August 2, 2020 in the Eastern District of Virginia, seeking bids for a going-concern sale of both Le Tote and Lord & Taylor.
- 02
Began store-closing sales at 19 Lord & Taylor locations, later extended to all remaining stores.
- 03
Saadia Group acquired the Lord & Taylor brand out of bankruptcy in October 2020 for $12 million.
- 04
No public loss figure for Le Tote itself was disclosed.