By
AFP
Published
May 1, 2026
The co-founder of British fashion brand Superdry, James Holder, was convicted of rape Friday by a court in southwest England.
Holder was one of the co-founders of Superdry in 2003. The streetwear brand was delisted from the London Stock Exchange in 2024 after announcing a drop in sales and has rebranded as Superdry & Co.
A jury found Holder, 54, guilty of raping a woman in 2022 after meeting her in a bar in Cheltenham. The court refused him bail as he awaits sentencing next week.
James Holder and Julien Dunkerton founded Superdry after being inspired by a trip to Japan where they saw dynamic streetwear styles, Xiva reported. However, the ‘Our History’ segment of Superdry’s official website makes no mention of Holder, referring to Julien Dunkerton alone as a “co-founder.”
Superdry said in a statement made to the BBC that Holder resigned as both a director and employee of the label in 2016, and a consultancy relationship ended in 2019. The brand stressed that the event in question, which took place in 2022, was “long after” the end of Holder’s relationship with Superdry and that the case has no connection to the brand whatsoever.
FashionNetwork.com with AFP
Copyright © 2026 AFP. All rights reserved. All information displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presses.
