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Alice Temperley is leaving Temperley London, the label she founded in 2000, a year after graduating from the Royal College of Art. The brand confirmed her departure on July 8, 2026, in a joint release that included a separate statement issued directly by Temperley. No successor has been named. A new leadership team and design director are expected to be announced in due course.
Temperley London’s statement was brief. It said the designer leaves “with the backing of the team and house she has helped build.” Temperley’s own statement said more. She called the label “the creative home of my life for over two decades” and said she wants to pursue “a new direction” involving her family, her creative network, and twenty-two muses who have shaped her collections since 2000.
No collection has been announced under this new venture. No launch date exists either. Neither statement mentions whether Temperley retains any ongoing financial stake in the company she founded.
Temperley graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1999 and launched her label the following year. Her collections became known for boho-influenced evening pieces with dramatic silhouettes, heavy on embroidery and embellishment, that helped define a distinct strand of British eveningwear. She received an MBE in 2011 for services to the fashion industry, one of several honours she has collected over the label’s history. She has also won Elle’s Best Young Designer of the Year and a Hollywood Style Award for Designer of the Year.
The label expanded into bridal wear in 2006. In 2024, it moved into lingerie and sleepwear through a partnership with an undisclosed specialist. In 2025, it launched a resale arm, Temperley Vintage. Since the 2023 acquisition, Temperley has continued presenting seasonal collections during London Fashion Week.
The flagship sits on London’s Sloane Street. Temperley moved the company’s operations to Ilminster, Somerset, during the pandemic, where the brand now maintains its headquarters and a second retail location. She held VIP and bridal appointments there while the wider retail business went through restructuring. The Sloane Street store was refurbished more recently with interior fabrics, trimmings, and cushions designed by Temperley for the British textile brand Romo, a separate collaboration she continued alongside her seasonal collections.
The company entered administration in 2021 and restructured around a direct-to-consumer model. Temperley said in a 2023 interview with WWD that the business had faced significant pressure from both Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that U.K.-based fashion brands like hers were particularly affected.
In November 2023, Dubai-based Times Square Group LLC and its investment arm, Luxutte Capital, acquired a majority stake in the company. Temperley said at the time that the investment would support the brand’s expansion into bags, shoes, ready-to-wear, accessories, and swimwear, while also strengthening its presence across the UAE and the wider GCC market. The chief executive, Luca Donnini and Temperley were both expected to stay in their roles.
Times Square Group founder and chief executive Ritesh Punjabi called the acquisition “a defining moment” for his group and said he wanted to build “a legacy that extends beyond Dubai and the U.K.”
Sarita Jha has served as interim chief executive since March 2025, a role that suggests a vacancy at chief executive level by that point, though no source confirms when or why Donnini left the position. In February 2026, Temperley said publicly that the brand was still searching for a permanent managing director, a search that appears to have been unresolved at the time of her exit.
Temperley London’s statement referenced a new design director, not simply a new creative lead. That distinction may point to a structural change, a designer role separate from Temperley herself, though the statement does not spell out how the role will function or report.
No timeline has been given for that appointment. According to her statement, any future work will be developed through a separate independent creative practice and not under the Temperley London business or its majority owner, Times Square Group. Temperley has served as creative director at her namesake label since its founding in 2000; her departure marks the first change in that role in the company’s history.
The company has been through one restructuring and one change in majority ownership since Temperley founded it: the 2021 administration, a financial restructuring rather than a change in ownership, and the November 2023 acquisition by Times Square Group and Luxutte Capital, which did transfer majority ownership. As of publication, no design director or permanent managing director has been named, and no date has been set for either appointment.
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