Has Band of Outsiders Shut Down?

Band of Outsiders, the LA-based brand founded by Scott Sternberg in 2004, may be calling it quits. According to a report in Fashionista this morning, the brand has laid off most of its staff and cancelled fall orders. The brand has not publicly commented on the rumors as of this afternoon.

Sternberg, who didn’t have a fashion background, launched Band of Outsiders as a shirt and tie brand; he added women’s wear in 2008. He won an Emerging Menswear Designer of the Year award from the CFDA in 2008 and then its Menswear Designer of the Year award in 2009. A retail store opened in Tokyo in 2013.

Last fall, Band of Outsiders cancelled its Fashion Week presentation to focus on its first U.S. store — the 2,400 sq. ft. boutique opened in September 2014 on Wooster Street in SoHo.

Joseph Pickman, the brand’s men’s design director, left the company in February to join American Apparel as head men’s designer.