Ex-O.C. Clothier Amen Wardy Seeks Chapter 7 Status : Bankruptcy: Inability to strike deal on unexpired Fashion Island lease forces him to liquidate assets. He shifted his entire operation from Newport Beach to Beverly Hills in 1991.
Amen Wardy, the fashion designer who left Orange County last year for Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive, filed Wednesday to liquidate his personal and business assets.
Wardy’s daughter, Soffia Wardy, said he was forced into bankruptcy because he could not reach an agreement with the Irvine Co. on the unexpired 10-year lease for the shop he vacated in 1991 at Newport Beach’s Fashion Island.
Amen Wardy and Amen Wardy Inc. filed in Los Angeles under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The business listed assets of $822,346 and liabilities of $10.2 million. The two largest unsecured debts are $4.2 million owed on a lease at a Rodeo Drive boutique and $3.5 million owed to the Irvine Co. Two secured creditors, developer Alexander Haagen Co. and International Business Machines Corp., are owed about $200,000.
Wardy dressed Orange County society for 18 years, making clothes worn to the Academy Awards and other glitzy events. He never identified his clients, who reportedly included comedian Joan Rivers at the height of her talk-show fame.
He abruptly closed his Orange County store in March, 1991, and shifted his entire operation to the Beverly Hills store he had opened the year before.
“It’s a one-man operation, and it’s too hard for me to go back and forth,” the designer said at the time. “The drive was killing me.” He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The building in Fashion Island, on the outskirts of the center, is being refitted as the new home of a Hard Rock Cafe.
His daughter said Wednesday that he had not intended to close his business and had been negotiating to settle his multi-year lease with the Irvine Co., which had sued to collect what it was owed. When that deal fell apart, she said, Wardy was forced to liquidate.
An Irvine Co. spokeswoman said Wednesday that the company would not comment because the matter is in litigation.
