Bad News for Piperlime Fans

Say goodbye to another popular retail brand. Piperlime is closing, following in the footsteps of other popular retailers, such as Delia*s and C. Wonder, who closed their doors for good. R.I.P.

Gap Inc. announced plans to close Piperlime, the company's multibrand e-boutique, on Friday, right on the heels of a brand relaunch in August, intended to makeover the website into a more polished online shopping avenue. In the statement, Gap Inc. CEO Art Peck said the brand will close by the end of April, and that "we plan to keep on pushing new ideas and look forward to seeing how we can apply what we've learned to the rest of the company."

Though no reason was given for the shut down, the brand hasn't had much buzz in recent years (despite celebrity collaborations, including Olivia Palermo), and the annual sales were under $100 million, which equals out to less than one percent of the company's revenues. It's certainly the smallest brand in Gap's holdings, falling short of the bigger names like Old Navy and Athleta, and when you can buy the contemporary merchandisers (BCBG and Michael Kors, for example) at bigger-name stores such as Bloomingdale's or Macy's, Piperlime really didn't offer much in the way of incentives to buy from them instead. Guess we'll have to wait and see what new ideas Gap Inc. has in store for us.

Images: jacquelyn_grace_/Instagram; Piperlime; Giphy