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Retail comeback for fashion tycoon Achilleas Constantinou whose business partner and brother was murdered in 1985

Mr Constantinou's successful Ariella brand once had 11 shops

Joanna Bourke
Wednesday 29 April 2015 01:23 BST
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The fashion tycoon whose business partner and brother was killed in the “silver bullet murder” at his London mansion 30 years ago, has finally summoned up the appetite to launch his high street comeback.

Achilleas Constantinou’s brother Aristos was shot with six nickel-jacketed bullets as he returned home from a New Year’s Eve party in 1985. His killer was never found.

A founder member of the British Fashion Council, Mr Constantinou said the murder had left him without the “hunger” to expand their successful Ariella fashion brand, forged with his brother in the Swinging Sixties. It once had 11 shops.

But he is back, with a star-studded celebrity launch of his first, 2,400 sq ft Ariella shop in the Brent Cross shopping centre in north London.

Plans are afoot for four more shops in the capital by the end of 2016.

The wholesale business will remain separate, with exclusivity for clients retained and protected.

After decades out of the headlines, the silver bullet murder resurfaced last month after Aristos Constantinou’s financial trader son Anthony was arrested on suspicion of fraud by false representation and money laundering.

He was one of 13 arrested at the company he runs, Capital World Markets, in the Heron Tower. He denies any wrongdoing.

His uncle, Achilleas, said: “Anthony is the youngest of my brother’s three sons and we had not seen him or his brothers for the last 23 years.

“When he came to London and visited us a few years ago we welcomed him to our family with open arms and it gave me particularly a lot of closure. He is very much his own man and we have nothing whatsoever to do with each other in business. We wish him well.”

He added that following the death of his brother, he did not have the inclination to expand.

Achilleas’ four children are now working for the family business, including his daughter Lana as creative director.

“The company’s new youthful team of fashion graduates that now head all of its divisions, from design and garment technology to sales, is demanding expansion” Mr Constantinou said.

The shops will offer the designer collection Ariella Couture and a diffusion range, Ariella London. The target is women aged 20 to 60 with occasion dresses from £95 to £2,000.

Ariella’s sales in the year to 31 March jumped 43 per cent to £9.3m, with plans to reach a £20m turnover target in two years’ time.

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