Gwyneth Paltrow closes UK Goop store after losing £1.4 million - and other failed celebrity businesses
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Celebrities are a brand, as they become more popular they are able to expand and often turn their passions into a business. Whether it’s creating a perfume, investing in a restaurant or putting their name on a clothing line, celebrities love a good side hustle.
However, these projects aren’t always lucrative and you’ll find that many celeb businesses have gone bust rather quickly. That’s right, celebs can actually fail.
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Hide AdMost recently Gwyneth Paltrow, whose career in acting skyrocketed her to fame and made her one of the biggest stars on the planet, is the latest celeb to fail in the business department.
After winning multiple awards including an Oscar, and becoming a part of one of the biggest cinematic franchises ever, Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, she began to dip her toe in the world of wellness.
Paltrow has previously been very vocal about her passion for wellness, and her celebrity is associated with putting something as mainstream as Yoga on the map. People started looking to her as a figurehead, and following her health and beauty tips which led to her much loved newsletter turned blog Goop. The brand became known for its offbeat products and interesting takes on health and wellbeing.
Goop went on to become a raging success, and even led to physical stores being opened across the world. However, it’s recently been announced that the UK flagship of the brand will be closing down after losing around £1.4 million in revenue.
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Hide AdThe store launched in 2019 in the affluent London area Notting Hill, but was forced to shut due to the pandemic and has now shut permanently due to the substantial losses. While the UK store has shut, the brand itself remains lucrative having raked in as much as £200 million globally.
So, which other celebrities have seen their fair share of failures? Here’s a breakdown of some highly publicised failed ventures by some of the biggest names in the world.
The Kardashian’s
The famous family is known for their portfolio of business ventures from books to talk shows. However, before the likes of Skims and Kylie Cosmetics, the Kardashian’s had some big failures with their biggest being the Kardashian Kard. The card was a prepaid debit card but came with a tonne of charges such as around $99 to get the card itself and monthly payments.
The news led to the attorney general for Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, looking into the venture and issued a letter to the bank backing the card, University National Bank, questioning the legality of the card because of “pernicious and predatory fees." Blumenthal wrote: “keeping up with the Kardashians is impossible using these cards." The card was removed from the market less than a month after it was issued.
Jennifer Lopez
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Hide AdWhile it’s hard to believe that Jennifer Lopez has had a career with anything other than hits, she’s endured a miss at the heights of her early noughties fame. It came in 2002, just after the release of ‘Jenny From the Block’, during her relationship with Ben Affleck for the first time and fresh off the release of her iconic rom-com “The Wedding Planner”.
Amidst all her success, Lopez opened a Cuban/Puerto-Rican restaurant named Madre’s in Pasadena, California. However, six years after it opened the restaurant closed in 2008. All the public was given was a sign in the window stating that it would be closed indefinitely.
Kanye West
Before Yeezy, Kanye West launched his first clothing line entitled Pastelle. However, it’s questionable whether this was ever a business at all as all West did was hype it up, saying it was coming "soon" for five years.
The line was first teased in 2004 during the music video for “The New Workout Plan” in which West is seen wearing a polo featuring his famous "College Dropout" bear. However, the polos were never released.
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Hide AdOver the years, West teased fans by wearing original creations out in public, at fashion shows, and during an "SNL," appearance. The rapper even featured the brand in the lyrics for his iconic song "Stronger,". He raps: "Go ahead, go nuts, go ape s--t. Especially in my Pastelle and my Bape s--t. Act like you can’t tell who made this."
High Snobiety reported in October 2009 that Pastelle would never actually be releasing anything.
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman has rarely stepped outside of her job as an actor and model, however, in January 2008 she released a vegan footwear line with Te Casan. However, that same year the entire brand folded in December after putting its entire stocklist on sale in November according to The Cut.
Portman was very much ahead of the trends with the vegan shows, however, the items were also quite unaffordable for fans of actress with a pair of flat shoes selling for $185.
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