Wildfox
Kimberley Gordon and Emily Faulstich designed the look that defined Tumblr-era fashion in the late 2000s. Their CEO held the majority stake. By 2020, both founders were gone, and the brand they built sold out of a near-bankruptcy auction for an estimated $1 to $5 million, a fraction of what Wildfox had been generating at peak.
In 2013, Beyoncé wore a Wildfox sweatshirt on Instagram. Taylor Swift wore the brand’s cat-eye sunglasses to a Yankees game. Miley Cyrus filmed parts of her “We Can’t Stop” era in Wildfox jerseys. The label was on every fashion blog, every Tumblr dashboard, and inside every Urban Outfitters in America.
The two women whose drawings, illustrations, and styling had built that aesthetic owned a minority of the company that was profiting from it. Kimberley Gordon and Emily Faulstich co-founded Wildfox in 2007, two best friends from Los Angeles who turned vintage T-shirts and dreamy illustrations into a label picked up by Urban Outfitters and Kitson within months. By the time the brand was generating around $120 million in annual sales, its third co-founder, Jimmy Sommers, sat as CEO and majority owner.
Faulstich left in 2012. Gordon left in 2015, describing the environment she walked away from as “extremely toxic and frightening.” The brand kept running for five more years on the aesthetic the founders had built, then started losing it. By late 2019, Wildfox had stopped paying its manufacturing bills. In February 2020, FAM Brands acquired the assets out of a near-bankruptcy auction for an estimated $1 to $5 million, less than 5% of what Wildfox had been generating annually at peak.
At a glance:
| Founded | 2007, Los Angeles |
| Co-founders | Kimberley Gordon, Emily Faulstich (creative); Jimmy Sommers (CEO, majority owner) |
| Peak revenue (2015) | ~$120M annually |
| Faulstich exit | 2012 |
| Gordon exit | 2015 |
| Restructuring announced | October 2019 |
| Acquired by FAM Brands | February 2020 |
| Reported acquisition price | $1M–$5M (industry estimate) |
| Decline from peak | ~96-99% by sale price |
| Gordon’s next brand | Selkie, launched 2018 |
The Story
Two best friends and the look that built an era
Kimberley Gordon and Emily Faulstich grew up as childhood friends in Southern California, bonding over sleepovers, vintage clothes, beautiful books, and what Gordon would later describe as a shared world of fairies and dreams. Gordon had no fashion training. She had a sketchbook, a working knowledge of Photoshop, and a part-time job with a T-shirt designer who taught her the trade.
In 2007, Gordon and Faulstich launched Wildfox out of Los Angeles, designing soft, vintage-inspired tees and sweatshirts printed with cats, glasses, slogans, and illustrations that looked hand-drawn because they were. The clothes felt like they had been pulled out of a 1970s closet and styled for a sleepover, and that was the point.
Within months, Urban Outfitters picked up the line. Kitson followed. The two founders ran creative; a third partner, Jimmy Sommers, ran the business and held the operational equity. The cap table was settled before the first celebrity ever wore the brand.
The decade Wildfox owned the Tumblr feed
By 2010, Wildfox was inside every fashion blog covering the late-aughts vintage revival. Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Paris Hilton, Kourtney Kardashian, Mila Kunis, Gigi Hadid, Jamie Chung, Jessica Alba, and Alessandra Ambrosio were photographed in the brand. None of them were paid endorsements. The clothes simply fit the moment.
The Spring 2013 collection, “We’re the Kids of America,” riffed openly on the 1995 film Clueless and turned into one of the brand’s biggest cultural moments. That same year, Wildfox extended into denim, intimates, beach bags, and an essentials line. The brand started running runway shows during Miami Swim Week.
By 2015, CEO Jimmy Sommers told WWD that Wildfox had grown to roughly $120 million in annual sales since launch. The brand had become a category benchmark for what a millennial-era lifestyle label could be.
Forced out, one by one
Faulstich left first, in 2012. Public coverage at the time described it as a quiet departure, and Faulstich went on to work as a fashion consultant and an illustrator at Vogue. The aesthetic stayed; one of the two creative voices was already gone.
Gordon left three years later, in 2015. She has spoken openly since about how the exit happened. She had a majority owner who was an older man, she said, and they did not share the same views on the company or its direction. She described the work environment as “extremely toxic and frightening” and said she was forced out of the company through what she called an unsuccessful partnership with an investor.
After Gordon left, Sommers became the sole owner of the brand the three of them had built. The creative founders were gone. The operator stayed.
The Strategy
Aesthetic as the whole product
Wildfox sold T-shirts in a category where margins are thin and competition is infinite. The product was not the moat. The look was. Every campaign, every lookbook, every Tumblr post built out a coherent dream world: pastel beach houses, slumber parties, vintage convertibles, and a softness that felt closer to a 1970s scrapbook than a 2010s fashion shoot.
That world was the brand. Customers bought a sweatshirt to enter it. Reformation, Selkie, Sézane, and most of the current generation of women’s lifestyle DTC brands now run versions of the same playbook, but Wildfox was running it before “lifestyle brand” was a stock category in venture decks.
Earned celebrity at the cost of zero contracts
The list of celebrities photographed in Wildfox in the 2010s reads like an A-list roster, and the brand paid almost none of them. The wear was earned, because the aesthetic fit the cultural moment those celebrities were trying to project. Beyoncé in a Wildfox sweatshirt on Instagram in 2013 cost the brand nothing, and the placement converted to wholesale orders within weeks.
Most fashion brands at the same revenue scale spend millions a year on celebrity dressing, gifting, and ambassador contracts. Wildfox got the same outcome by building a look that celebrities wanted to be seen in. The cost was structural, not financial: the brand could not control which moment came next, and when the cultural moment shifted in the late 2010s, the celebrities shifted with it.
Distribution before the brand could carry it
Wildfox spent the back half of the 2010s expanding into more categories than its small creative team could carry. Jeans, intimates, swim, beach bags, holiday capsules, and standalone retail stores all rolled out alongside the core T-shirt and sweatshirt line. Each extension diluted the photography-driven world that had made the brand work, and most of the new categories were the kind of basics any contemporary label could produce.
By the time Gordon left in 2015, the brand was inside thousands of retail doors and producing dozens of SKUs that no longer felt unmistakably Wildfox. The wholesale machine kept turning while the creative direction softened, and the gap between the product on shelves and the imagery on Tumblr widened every season.
The Marketing
Photography did all of the brand’s talking
Wildfox campaigns rarely included copy. The lookbooks were the marketing, and the marketing was the product. Soft light, hand-tinted color palettes, vintage props, and a roster of in-house models built a visual signature that worked across every Tumblr feed in the category.
The brand reposted user content constantly, and the customers reposted the brand. There was no influencer program in the modern sense; there was a feed, and the feed kept reblogging itself. By 2014, Wildfox’s social presence was a primary acquisition channel, in a fashion category where most peers were still treating Instagram as an afterthought.
Selling a world, not a sweatshirt
Wildfox imagery placed customers inside specific scenes. A sleepover in a pink bedroom. A pool day with vintage sunglasses and a Polaroid. A road trip in a wood-panel station wagon. The brand was selling permission to occupy a world it had built, and the sweatshirt was the entry ticket.
That model only works as long as the world stays internally coherent. When the creative direction shifted in the late 2010s, the imagery loosened, the photography started to look like every other contemporary label, and the dream lost specificity. By the time the brand was acquired in 2020, the world it had built was being recreated by other labels, including the one its co-founder had launched on her own.
The Numbers
| Year | Milestone | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Founded | Gordon, Faulstich, Sommers |
| 2008 | Wholesale launch | Urban Outfitters, Kitson |
| 2012 | Faulstich exits | One creative founder gone |
| 2013 | Spring “Kids of America” collection | Clueless-inspired peak moment |
| 2015 | Gordon exits, ~$120M annual sales | Per Sommers, WWD |
| Oct 2019 | Restructuring announced | Sommers seeking “strategic partner” |
| Feb 2020 | Acquired by FAM Brands | Estimated $1M–$5M |
The peak revenue figure of approximately $120 million was self-reported by CEO Jimmy Sommers to WWD in 2015 and has not been independently audited. The acquisition price has not been formally disclosed. Industry sources cited by WWD and California Apparel News estimated the FAM Brands purchase at $1 million to $5 million, a decline of more than 95% from the peak revenue figure five years earlier.
FAM Brands assumed design, production, and manufacturing in February 2020 and continues to operate Wildfox as part of a portfolio that includes Eddie Bauer, Woolrich, Three Dots, and Isaac Mizrahi Sport.
Controversies
Allegations against the CEO
In 2013, an aspiring model named Meghan Chereek filed a federal lawsuit against Jimmy Sommers in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Chereek v. Sommers et al, case 2:13-cv-06322), alleging that Sommers had promised her a modeling contract and then pressured her into having sex with him in exchange for the gig. Sommers denied the allegations and said the relationship had been brief and consensual.
Coverage of the suit ran in Jezebel and other outlets at the time. The case became part of the public record around the brand’s leadership during the years immediately preceding Gordon’s departure.
Gordon’s account of being pushed out
After leaving the company in 2015, Gordon began speaking publicly about her experience at Wildfox. She described the work environment as “extremely toxic and frightening,” said she had felt “like a mermaid without a voice after Wildfox, like my identity had been pulled out of me,” and said she had been forced out through an investor partnership that did not align with her values.
She has since used her experience as the founding context for Selkie, the label she launched in 2018, telling press she chose her partners more carefully the second time and built the new company so that the creative voice and the equity sat with the same person.
Decline and near-bankruptcy
By October 2019, Wildfox had closed retail stores, halted production, and announced a restructuring effort. Sommers told industry press he was looking for a strategic partner. Manufacturing stopped because the company could no longer pay its bills, and the brand was set to be auctioned off.
FAM Brands acquired the assets days before the scheduled auction in February 2020. The deal closed quickly compared to comparable bankruptcies of that era. The press release framed the purchase as an opportunity to extend the brand into new categories under new ownership, with no involvement from the original founders.
What You Can Learn
Creative direction without equity is rented influence. Gordon and Faulstich built the look that defined Wildfox, but they did not own the company. When the partnership soured, the equity decided who left and who stayed. The two women who created the brand walked away from the brand they had created, and the company kept their name on the door without keeping their voices.
The structure of a company is set on day one, and creative founders often sign the partnership agreement before they understand what an operating agreement means. The protection comes from getting the equity, the board seats, and the buyout terms in writing before the brand is worth anything; once the brand is worth something, the leverage is gone.
The right partner matters more than the right product. Wildfox had a viral aesthetic from year one. The product was not the problem. The problem was a partnership that gave one person operational control and the other two creative responsibility, and when the relationship deteriorated, the person with the equity won.
Founders often pick partners for what they bring on day one, not for who those people are at year ten. Operators, investors, and CEOs all bring different things, and any of them can be the wrong person under stress. A great product with the wrong partner is a worse position than no product with no partner, because the wrong partner can take the product with them.
A creative-led brand follows its founder on a delay. Wildfox kept running for five years after Gordon left, then started slipping, then collapsed. The aesthetic that built the brand had a shelf life inside a company that no longer had the people who created it. By 2019 the brand was producing variants of variants of work the founders had originally drawn, and the cultural moment had moved on.
A creative-led brand without its creative lead is on a clock. The decline is rarely instant, because the existing catalog, the wholesale relationships, and the audience carry the brand for a while. The trajectory is set the moment the founder walks out, and the acquisition usually arrives a few years later, valuing the brand at a fraction of where it was when the founder was still inside.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded Wildfox?
Wildfox was co-founded in 2007 by Kimberley Gordon and Emily Faulstich, two childhood friends from Los Angeles, alongside Jimmy Sommers, who served as CEO and held the majority equity stake. Gordon and Faulstich led the creative side of the brand, designing the vintage-inspired T-shirts, sweatshirts, and illustrations that defined the Wildfox aesthetic.
What happened to Wildfox?
Wildfox grew to roughly $120 million in annual sales by 2015, driven by a celebrity-heavy social presence and a Tumblr-era aesthetic. Both creative co-founders left the company, Faulstich in 2012 and Gordon in 2015. The brand declined through the late 2010s, halted production by late 2019, and was acquired by FAM Brands in February 2020 for an estimated $1 million to $5 million, days before a scheduled bankruptcy auction.
Who is Kimberley Gordon?
Kimberley Gordon is one of Wildfox’s two creative co-founders. She left the company in 2015 after describing the work environment as “extremely toxic and frightening” and said she had been forced out through an investor partnership that did not align with her values. In 2018 she launched Selkie, an independent fairytale-inspired women’s label that went viral on TikTok in 2021 and has since become a Gen Z favorite.
Who owns Wildfox now?
FAM Brands, a Los Angeles-based apparel manufacturer founded in 1985, acquired Wildfox in February 2020. FAM also owns Three Dots, Eddie Bauer, Woolrich, Orvis, and Isaac Mizrahi Sport, among other labels. None of the original co-founders are involved in the brand’s current operation.
Why did Wildfox decline?
Several factors stacked on top of each other. Both creative co-founders had left the company by 2015, taking the original aesthetic instinct with them. The brand expanded into more categories than its remaining team could execute on a high level, diluting the photography-driven world that had built its audience. The cultural moment moved on from the Tumblr-era softness Wildfox had defined. Public allegations and lawsuits added reputational drag. By the time the brand needed to reinvent itself, the people who could have done that work had been gone for years.
When was Wildfox founded?
Wildfox launched in 2007 in Los Angeles, co-founded by childhood friends Kimberley Gordon and Emily Faulstich on the creative side and Jimmy Sommers as CEO and majority owner. Urban Outfitters and Kitson picked up the line within months of launch.
What was Wildfox’s valuation?
Wildfox never disclosed a formal valuation figure, but CEO Jimmy Sommers reported approximately $120 million in annual sales at peak in 2015. FAM Brands acquired the brand’s assets in February 2020 for an estimated $1 million to $5 million, a decline of more than 95% from peak revenue five years earlier.
Sources
- California Apparel News, “Wildfox Acquired By Fam Brands,” Feb 6, 2020. Acquisition details, FAM Brands portfolio.
- California Apparel News, “Wildfox Assets to Be Auctioned,” Jan 23, 2020. Pre-auction context, restructuring timeline.
- WWD, “Wildfox Couture Brand Bought by FAM Brands”. Estimated purchase price, deal background.
- WWD, “Wildfox Couture Suddenly Goes Up for Sale”. Sommers comments on restructuring.
- Your Next Shoes, “Wildfox Couture: From Celebrity Favorite to Comeback Queen”. Founder biographies, celebrity wear, departure timeline.
- Shopify, “How Second-Time Founders Can Come Back Stronger”. Gordon’s account of leaving Wildfox, founding Selkie.
- Selkie, “About Kimberley Gordon”. Gordon’s account of departure, Selkie founding.
- Uncover LA, “Meet Selkie, The New Unapologetically Feminist Label From Wildfox’s Former Founder,” Oct 2018. Selkie launch context.
- Jezebel, “Teen Claims Wildfox CEO Wanted Sex in Exchange for Modeling Gig”. Chereek lawsuit allegations.
- Jezebel, “Wildfox CEO Denies Pressuring Teen Into Sex, Claims It Was Consensual”. Sommers’ response.
- Justia, Meghan Chereek v. James Sommers et al, 2:13-cv-06322. Federal court docket.
- Fashionista, “The Highs and Lows of Having a Viral Fashion Moment”. Selkie viral moment, Gordon’s reflections.
- Livingly, “From Wildfox To Selkie: How Kimberley Gordon Found Her Freedom”. Post-Wildfox interview.