LONDON – The Vampire’s Wife, a fashion brand known for its flowing sharp-shouldered dresses and gothic charm, is ready to be placed into receivership by the British courts next month.

An organization statement confirmed that U.K. Revenue and Customs officials have issued a winding-up order for the corporate, with a court date set for July 12. A winding up order is issued when a British court decides that an organization cannot pay its debts.

An officer of the court, or receiver, is then put accountable for winding up the corporate. The officer freezes an organization’s bank accounts and sells its assets.

The statement said the wind-up order was on account of “debt built up as a consequence of lockdown strategies to tackle the pandemic.” It also noted that the court petition was issued without prior warning, and followed a delayed payment earlier this yr and the “rejection of subsequent requests” to secure what is understood within the U.K. as a “time to pay arrangement.”

The statement added that The Vampire’s Wife is working with its secured lender to “find an answer agreeable to all parties.” The corporate said it can proceed to trade within the meantime.

Following the lifting of lockdown, sales at The Vampire’s Wife rebounded, and the corporate turned a profit in 2022 after posting a lack of 2.1 million kilos in 2021.

Revenue is forecast to hit 6.6 million kilos in fiscal 2023 on the back of wholesale and direct-to-consumer sales. The most recent accounts are on account of be filed at Firms House, the official register of U.K. businesses, in September.

The Vampire’s Wife launched in 2015 and was an instantaneous hit, wooing customers with its lavish fabrics, romantic prints and signature ruffles.

It began as an insiders’ secret and was favored by British fashion editors, models and friends of the brand’s founder Susie Cave, a former model and the wife of musician Nick Cave. It later became global retail hit, with stockists including Matchesfashion, Browns and Dover Street Market.

Cave has said her aim is to supply product that matches well and makes women feel good.

“There may be definitely a community of girls who’re loyal to The Vampire’s Wife, but that is just because the dresses just look beautiful when on — women reply to this,” Cave told WWD in 2019.

“The pieces are easy-to-wear, but have a maximum impact and there’s a disruptive quality to them, a kind of seditiousness. They’re concurrently demure and outrageous, turning the wearer right into a walking event,” she added.

In 2018 The Vampire’s Wife won Walpole’s Brands of Tomorrow award for emerging talent.