What a difference a couple of months makes in fashion. The brand Cefinn only opened its flagship store, its second in London, in June this year. Now, the label that Samantha Cameron started working on when she was resident at No 10 Downing Street, is closing down, and apparently no one saw it coming.Staff, who were working towards a press day for the autumn collection this Friday, are said to have been blindsided by the news. At the stores in Belgravia and on the King's Road, it's business as usual, but not for much beyond the new year.The statement released by Cameron yesterday reads: 'After eight amazing years of entrepreneurial highs and lows, I have decided not to present a spring/summer 26 collection. 'As a result of this, I have begun the process of winding down the future operations at my fashion brand Cefinn.'They will continue to sell the autumn collection in store and online and the winter collection will launch at the end of September, in what Cefinn's PR Kate Catchpole describes as 'an orderly, gradual wind down of business'.The small size of the firm, turbulence in the fashion wholesale sector and cost pressures, plus international trading restrictions are cited as the reasons for Cefinn 'struggling to achieve the level of growth needed to reach a stable and profitable position'.British fashion is divided between those who didn't see it coming and those who thought it was only a matter of time before Cameron was forced to choose between pulling the plug on her label – named after her surname and children's initials: Elwen, Florence, Ivan and Nancy – and appealing for investment.Founder of Cefinn, Samantha Cameron pictured attending the Lady Garden's 10th anniversary in March 20204. Cefinn staff say they were blindsided by the firm's recent collapse Princess Catherine wears a Cefinn frock as she attends Riversley Park Children's Centre on June 15, 2023She had received a substantial cash injection from Tory Party donor Lord Brownlow alongside other backers Lord Feldman, former Tory party chairman, and Mark Esiri, another friend of the Camerons and a former joint owner of Smythson where Cameron had been creative director.It's always been challenging keeping a small brand afloat without the backing of a big conglomerate and in the current climate – as Cameron said yesterday – 'it's increasingly difficult'. Other independent labels will be looking at Cefinn's fate with alarm. There will be discussions at outlets like Net-a-Porter and Trilogy (which will have just taken delivery of Cefinn's autumn collection), and in the corridors of Vogue here and abroad – Anna Wintour was an early supporter and adviser.How does a fashion label started in 2017 by someone as savvy and connected as Cameron come to this in the space of a few years? Where did it go wrong?There will be many theories. It's undoubtedly the toughest of times to be running a small label. That said, fashion editors don't pull their punches about the 'relevance' of Cefinn, the fact that it has always felt a bit safe and lacked that essential hint of edge to make it desirable. It's generally agreed that there's something almost too wholesome about the clothes, which are often pretty but on the demure side.Oddly, for someone who had her finger on the fashion pulse when in No 10, the clothes felt slightly dowdy. The customer she is designing for – mid-life, well-paid women – requires just enough newness, but the Cefinn range seems to barely change from one season to the next, remaining deliberately unadventurous.And then there was the body issue. Plenty have suggested over the years that the Cefinn style was not ideal for her target audience. Susannah Constantine of What Not To Wear fame made public on her podcast an email she sent to Cameron to encourage her to 'drop the waist' on her dresses 'because your target audience isn't teenage girls'. Holly Willoughby also wore a dress from the firm which suffered a sudden collapse, which apparently no one saw coming Mrs Cameron (pictured with her husband Lord David Cameron) received a substantial cash injection from several Tory supportersTo look good in the clothes you ideally needed to be slim, tall and willowy like Cameron herself.Cefinn positioned itself as a designer brand with the cut and quality you'd expect from a high-end label, at a slightly higher than mid-market price. The obvious competitor in that market is British powerhouse Me+Em, also created by a fifty-something connected woman, Clare Hornby.Launched in 2009, Me+Em last year reported a 44 per cent increase in operating profits to £16.2million. Cefinn has yet to turn a profit. There was also something else working against Cameron's vision: the change post-pandemic when women's fashion perspective shifted permanently.In 2022, Graeme Moran of fashion magazine Drapers said Covid 'all but killed the need' for a 'conference call to cocktails' uniform.This goes to the heart of the problem. Cefinn was launched to fill what Cameron perceived to be a gap in the market: 'an urban uniform for busy women'. But in the decade of working from home, we're no longer busy in the same way. Cefinn moved towards more casual wear after Covid, but the writing was on the wall.'It's thought that the shops will be open until the spring,' Catchpole told me. 'After that I can't say.' So still time to pick up a Cefinn dress for posterity.