British footwear brand Terry de Havilland is planning a US retail launch with Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom later this year, according to Darren Spurling, who owns the business.

Spurling, 60, is the nephew of the late designer Terry de Havilland and runs the Newcastle-based company with his son Josh. The business has ten employees, designs in Britain and manufactures its shoes in Spain.

The move follows a rise in US online sales after recent sightings of actresses including Millie Bobby Brown and Margot Robbie wearing the brand’s shoes.

The label was founded by Terrence Higgins, who began designing shoes in 1972 and opened his King’s Road shop, Cobblers to the World, the same year. He took his trading name from a Paris phone book. “He didn’t think Higgins was a very good name for shoes,” Spurling said, “it didn’t seem exotic.”

The brand’s platform heels were worn in the 1970s by David Bowie and by customers Spurling listed as “Lulu, Cher, The Rolling Stones, Elton John”. Its Margaux wedge, named after Margaux Hemingway, has been in the collection since 1973, and the Deco heel, a five-inch sandal with metallic snakeskin trim, has been displayed at the V&A. The museum’s collection also includes a pair of his 1972 snakeskin platform shoes, given by the milliner David Shilling.

By the late 1990s the designer had moved away from the mainstream and was making bespoke shoes for customers in Camden Market. He returned to wider attention after Miu Miu, the label owned by Prada, produced shoes Spurling described as “literally exact copies, same materials, same designs”.

De Havilland pursued Prada through the courts over trademark infringement, arguing that his products were classed as art. The case did not progress far, but the publicity helped him secure licensing deals in America and Britain. Under Intellectual Property Office rules, a UK registered design must be renewed every five years and lasts a maximum of 25 years.

Spurling, who had previously sold his family’s chain of London sports shops to Blacks Leisure Group and served as managing director of surfwear brand O’Neill’s, reconnected with his uncle at a family party and began advising him on the licensing arrangements. “I helped him to buy out the licensing so that he could get the brand back, which we did in 2010,” he said. Spurling bought the company outright in 2015, when the designer was nearly 80. De Havilland died in 2019.

The pandemic followed. “In all honesty, we thought we were buggered,” Spurling said, given that the company specialised in occasion shoes. The business moved to a direct to consumer model and, in 2022, went “from nothing to doing over a million pounds” online. Spurling said that boom has since ended as consumers have become “more considered” and “more conscious” about what they buy.

He said he keeps the team small and outsources where possible because “the cost of hiring is an issue … the best way [is] to be adaptable”. The company has reintroduced 1970s designs and added matching bags and trainers, while remaining “very much focused on quality, on craftsmanship, on being slow fashion”.

Other British brands have moved in both directions on the US market. Wine merchant Berry Bros. & Rudd is opening its first US store in Washington, while athleisure label Tala suspended a planned £5 million US investment after a change in American tariff policy.

Spurling said the brand’s history gives it “real strong credibility”, adding: “what we need to do is make it as relevant as possible … and that’s a challenge.”

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

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Hollywood actress and singer Selena Gomez is being sued by five investors who backed Wondermind Global, a mental health business she founded with her mother.

Shareholders are claiming the pop star failed to fulfil promises that she would be “actively building” the brand, saying her “abject dereliction of her duties” has left the company in a “state of financial calamity”.

The lawsuit seeks to recover around $1.2m (£890,000) it claims was invested as well as costs and damages.

The BBC has contacted Wondermind and Gomez’s representatives for comment.

Gomez, who rose to fame as a child actor before moving into pop music, set up the mental health platform five years ago with her mother Mandy Teefey and businesswoman Daniella Pierson. It came after Gomez publicly discussed her own mental health struggles, including with bipolar disorder.

The 34-year-old is one of the most-followed women in the world on social media, with over 500 million followers, and an estimated net worth of nearly $1bn. She also founded cosmetics company Rare Beauty, in 2020, which is closely associated with her name and image.

Wondermind aimed to make mental health-related content more accessible through a digital platform, recruiting investors to back the venture.

But the lawsuit claims Wondermind’s founders “falsely represented” their position by suggesting “a full slate” of ad deals, celebrity cover stories, an app and other initiatives were already underway and promising that Gomez would take an active role as its head of marketing.

“Gomez purported ‌to ⁠sign a contract obligating her to perform and then ignored it,” the lawsuit claims.

Gomez is currently listed as a co-founder on Wonderminds website, below her mother who is now in the chief executive role, following Pierson’s departure from the company.

The individuals behind the suit, based in New York and Florida, include Brent Saunders, chief executive of eye-health company Bausch + Lomb.

The claimants’ lawsuit alleges Wondermind failed to meet “even its most basic obligations, such as timely paying its employees and vendors”.

Promises including Wondermind’s partnerships and app never materialised, according to the claim.

“For three years, while the company quietly collapsed around them, not one of its founders, officers, or directors said a word to the investors whose money was funding the collapse,” the complaint states.

They said they were unaware of the company’s difficulties until an investigative news story by the online magazine, The Cut, surfaced in September 2025.

That report made allegations about Wondermind’s finances and issues with its management, according to the lawsuit.

The article showed that “Wondermind had no plan for its future – much less a plan for achieving a multi-billion dollar valuation,” the lawsuit claims.