Simon Spurr Leaves His Label

By Emily Gyben 03/19/12 at 01:30 PM

Photo: Patrick McMullan

Simon Spurr.

There’s something fishy going on at Simon Spurr.

Just days after the designer was nominated for a CFDA Fashion Award for Menswear Designer of the Year, Women’s Wear Daily reports that Spurr has left his eponymous company.

The designer and his business partner, Judd Nyes, have kept mum on the matter, but it appears that the split between the two was less than amicable. “At this moment, I’m not at liberty to say anything about what’s gone on,” Spurr said in an email to WWD.

Ironically, Spurr gave an interview to Esquire in October of last year where he said he was very wary of losing his own name—an issue that has plagued more than a few designers in recent months.

"Having a brand with your name comes with a lot attached to it,” he said. “You can't switch it off, you can't mess up... You're always being watched. I am a brand.

"I was very careful. I read all the horror stories. I own my own name." The profile hints that things might have been changing on that front, though.

“And yet one can't help but wonder if [his name is] already slipping away,” Esquire writer Paul Underwood wrote. “This summer, a sailing team competed in the forty-fourth Antigua Sailing Week, sponsored by Simon Spurr, with his brand's label—a giant 'SIMON SPURR'—on the humongous sail. Apparently, it wasn't his idea. ‘I should be careful with what I say ...’ he says when discussing it.”

Some are speculating that Spurr might be leaving the company he founded to go to another design house, but he’s hardly out of a job at the moment: Spurr heads up the menswear collections at Tommy Hilfiger.

Watch this space…