Brian Reyes Discontinues Main Collection, Will Focus on Private Sales

We hear, from numerous sources, that Brian Reyes has stopped production on its main collection.

Update 1: We spoke with another source inside the Reyes camp, who told us that Brian did indeed design a Spring 2011 collection. However, the focus will be private sales, which Reyes has seen a major uptick in over the last 18 months.

Reyes, who got his start at Oscar de la Renta, showed his first collection in Spring 2006. He was an instant “label to watch” after Nicole Chavez put Rachel Bilson and Kristen Bell in his dresses on the red carpet. Carine Roitfeld attended his Spring 2010 show just last year.

But Reyes didn’t show this past season. His most recent collection, Resort 2011, is still up on his website, and it’s a strong collection. Nevertheless, strong collections (of which Reyes has shown fairly consistently, with a few blips here and there) does not a success make.

So what happened?

This might be a case of getting too big too fast, and not being able to sustain a certain level of production. Or, the brand’s major buyers might have pulled out. Right now, sell-through rate–or the percentage of an order the consumer actually buys compared to what the store purchased overall–is the most important thing to retailers. If the collection’s sell through wasn’t great, buyers probably dropped it fast.

Brian Reyes Resort 2011

When reached for comment, a spokesperson at Reyes’ office only offered that the brand had shifted focus and team was currently “working on different projects.” He declined to say anything further.