Karen Millen is owner of major British high streetwomen's clothing retailer, specialising in tailoring, coats and eveningwear. The company has stores throughout the United Kingdom, United States, Indonesia, Austria, Denmark, Russia, the Republic of Ireland and many other European countries. Karen Millen studied Fashion at the Medway College of Design (now the University for the Creative Arts). She founded her company in 1981 with Kevin Stanford. With a loan of just £100, the pair bought one thousand metres of white cotton and began manufacturing and selling white shirts to their friends. A party plan network followed and in 1983 they opened their first store in Maidstone, Kent, which was followed a few years later by branches in Tunbridge Wells, Brighton, Guildford and London. The brand continued to expand throughout the Nineties, and was acquired in June 2004 by the Icelandic Mosaic Fashions. In 2009 Mosaic Fashions ceased trading and the brand transferred to Aurora Fashions. Karen Millen was spun-out from Aurora Fashions in 2011, remaining under the ownership of Aurora's owner, Kaupthing Bank.