Almost all twelve Kira Plastinina stores abruptly closed last week (blame the financial crisis), and employees say they were caught off guard. "I am very bitter about how our U.S. team was treated throughout this whole ordeal," says former employee Grace Campbell. "We all worked hard and believed in the company but knew that it would all end in tears." Campbell makes it sound like the 16-year-old designer is the meanest of all Mean Girls, yanking jobs away from her worker-servants without warning because of her father's re-evaluation of financial plans. But if employees knew "it would all end in tears," then clearly they knew it wasn't going well — the empty stores and lack of shoppers were big hints. Even so, both the abandonment and displaced workers is sad, especially since the stores opened only less than a year ago. It's a tough end to Kira's American-domination fairy tale.

Kira Plastinina Left High and Dry [The Shophound]

Earlier: Kira Plastinina Has to Close Most of Her Stores