limited company industry retail founded 1981 founder karen millen kevin stanford headquarters witney oxfordshire england key people neil mccausland executive chairman 1 gemma metheringham chief creative officer beth butterwick chief executive officer 2 products women s clothing accessories women s bags women s fashion women s dresses owner kaupthing bank website www.karenmillen.com karen millen is a british women s clothing retailer specialising in tailoring coats and eveningwear . the company has stores throughout the united kingdom united states indonesia austria denmark norway russia the republic of ireland and many other european countries . contents 1 history 2 operations 3 references 4 external links history edit karen millen studied fashion at the medway college of design now the university for the creative arts . 3 the company was founded in 1981 when karen millen partnered with kevin stanford . 4 with a loan of just 100 the pair bought one thousand metres of white cotton and began manufacturing and selling white shirts to their friends . a party plan network followed and in 1983 they opened their first store in maidstone kent which was followed a few years later by branches in tunbridge wells brighton guildford and london . 5 the brand continued to expand throughout the nineties and was acquired in june 2004 by the icelandic mosaic fashions . in 2009 mosaic fashions ceased trading and the brand transferred to aurora fashions . karen millen was spun out from aurora fashions in 2011 remaining under the ownership of aurora s owner kaupthing bank . 6 7 operations edit creative director gemma metheringham oversees twelve designers producing two main collections and two transitional collections each season . karen millen trades from 84 standalone stores and 46 concessions in the uk and ireland . internationally karen millen trades from 16 company owned stores and 57 franchise stores in 23 countries . 8 in the united states karen millen has boutiques in atlanta boston bellevue washington dallas los angeles new york city san francisco short hills tysons corner natick washington d.c. and san diego . in march 2008 the company launched a new flagship store in new york at 114 prince street . in october 2013 the first boutique in the caribbean opened in puerto rico . 9 references edit armstrong ashley 4 september 2015 . karen millen boss quits after failed takeover attempt . the telegraph . retrieved 5 september 2015 . armstrong ashley 16 december 2015 . bonmarch s beth butterwick to join karen millen as ceo . drapers . retrieved 8 march 2016 . http www.ucreative.ac.uk alumni karen millen i want my name back says clothing entrepreneur karen millen as she prepares for high court battle . mail on sunday . 23 january 2016 . retrieved 8 march 2016 . about karen millen womens designer clothes karen millen ruddick graham 3 january 2015 . aurora moves closer to break up as karen millen boss departs . the telegraph . retrieved 5 september 2015 . taylor charlie 15 january 2016 . mixed trading conditions for aurora fashions . the irish times . retrieved 8 march 2016 . baugur group details karen millen karen millen opens new york flagship store fashion news marie claire external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title karen millen & oldid 709044953 categories clothing retailersretail companies established in 1981 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 8 march 2016 at 21 54 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view