Arielle Charnas left carnage in her wake when her fashion brand imploded. Now comes the influencer's shameless second act...

Arielle Charnas was recently pondering what she'd wear for a 'casual Sunday night birthday dinner' for her father-in-law – but there was nothing casual about her preparations as she efficiently rattled through her wardrobe options for the benefit of her 1.3 million Instagram followers.

After rejecting various contenders, she chose a striped Chanel button-down top, some white cotton pants and some expensive flip flops as well as wood earrings, a ring on her pinky finger and a raffia Chanel bag. She doesn't forget to mention who makes each of them.

There was one final dilemma: should she untuck the shirt? She seemed momentarily flummoxed. 'Hmm, I don't think it matters,' she concluded before switching off the camera and heading out of her Hamptons summer pad for another evening in her relentlessly chic existence.

F Scott Fitzgerald famously observed that 'there are no second acts in American lives.' That doesn't seem to apply to 39-year-old Charnas, once the doyenne of fashion bloggers before her attempt to parlay her wild success as an online influencer into a multi-million-dollar retail empire ended in catastrophe and humiliation as it went on sale for just $1 in 2023. Saddled with $7.5 million dollars of debt, nobody even wanted it for that price.

Investors who trusted her instincts and poured many millions into the venture – Something Navy – lost everything.

The disaster was compounded when Charnas's real estate developer husband and business partner, Brandon, was accused of insider trading which he has denied.

Charnas and her company became the ultimate cautionary tale of the terrible risks of basing a huge business around the popularity of an online influencer; of assuming, in essence, that just because lots of young women like seeing what another young woman (who frankly would look good in a potato sack) is wearing, she could anchor a huge fashion empire.

But just as it's clear you cannot be too thin in fashion influencing, it appears you also cannot be too shameless.

While others might say that whatever else she tries to do with her life, the founder of riches-to-rags Something Navy should never again try to tell people what to wear, the New Yorker is once more doing exactly that.

Indeed, her posts on Instagram have escalated to the point that some are wondering whether she might not be planning some sort of fashion world comeback.

She has been helped considerably by the fact that, no matter how ignominious her fall from grace, her Instagram followers have never deserted her and are once more leaving fawning comments about her and her clothes.

And Charnas hasn't let them down, in recent months posting endless pictures and videos of herself in the latest fashion industry creations from such glamorous locations as the Hamptons and the fashionable Greek islands of Paros and Milos. 'It feels like there's a drop every week - it's insane too much,' she complained in her birthday dinner video last month [a 'drop' is a limited edition clothing release].

But the woman, born Arielle Nachmani in Old Westbury, Long Island, has never been the type to let adversity get her down for long.

She started documenting her style in 2009 – when she was 22 and recently graduated from Syracuse University. She began the Something Navy blog to get over a romantic breakup and impress her ex-boyfriend.

At the time she was only a sales associate at the hip New York clothing retailer Theory but started posting photos of herself in the streets of Manhattan wearing clothes that, according to the Wall Street Journal, 'looked like they'd been pulled from the costume closet of Gossip Girl - slightly basic but with an edge.' She also detailed her chic personal life living on the Upper East Side.

Many of her peers clearly felt that she had something special and her popularity grew – just as the online influencer phenomenon was taking off. She was one of the first to prove adept at monetizing the rising number of visitors to her blog into lucrative marketing deals with fashion and beauty brands.

She married Brandon Charnas in 2014, and they became business partners as well as, eventually, the parents of three children.

As her audience moved away from reading blogs and over to social media, she moved too and only increased her reach. It was reported that if she mentioned a skin care product on a social media platform, sales would go up by hundreds in just a day. Hundreds of fans would flock to events she hosted for brands.

By 2017, the New York Times was describing her as 'the Lauren Conrad of the East Coast' in reference to the hugely successful California fashion designer and TV personality.

It was praise like that which attracted the attention of major retailers. In the same year, fashion giant Nordstrom commissioned her to design a capsule collection with some items reportedly selling out within hours of the launch.

In 2018, Charnas launched a clothing and accessories collection sold exclusively through Nordstrom just as other fashion blog pioneers were trying to launch their own product lines. In Charnas's case it appeared to have been an inspired idea as Nordstrom reportedly earned $4.4 million in the first day that the collection went on sale.

However, Charnas had far bigger plans. She wanted to be 'the next Tory Burch,' she told a New York newspaper in late 2018. Hailed as 'the next big thing in fashion' by Oprah Winfrey in 2005, Burch had built a fashion empire that now stretches to 400 stores around the world. She could do without partners like Nordstrom.

In July 2020, buoyed by $10 million of funding from investors such as Hong Kong billionaire Silas Chou, private equity firm BoxGroup and the clothing e-commerce site Rent the Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss, Something Navy launched as an online women's and children's clothing company with Charnas as chief creative officer and her husband Brandon and his brother Cole on the board.

The chief executive was a business entrepreneur and cashmere company boss named Matt Scanlan who had convinced them that he could turn Something Navy into a household brand.

'At the end of the day, I wanted more control,' she told business channel CNBC. 'The whole purpose of this brand is to deliver exactly what my followers are asking for.'

In a promotional video, Charnas pledged that the label was for women who wanted to look fashionable but without having to spend the earth. 'I want to create that world for them, where they feel included, they don't have to spend a million dollars to look trendy and feel sexy and feel good about themselves,' she said. Jesse Cole, one of the early investors, told the Wall Street Journal: 'We thought she had the secret sauce.'

And in the beginning, things did go well – even despite its figurehead having stirred up controversy when, just four months before the launch, she posted on social media about receiving a positive Covid-19 test result.

At the time, Covid tests were generally reserved for high-risk individuals and an online storm blew up as people – including her own fans – accused her of jumping the line. Critics were further incensed that she flouted pandemic stay-at-home orders and left New York for her home in the Hamptons after testing positive.

She had to grovel, announcing on Instagram: 'I apologize to anyone that I unintentionally harmed in the course of my decision making.' The New York Post dubbed her the 'Covidiot blogger.'

It was also revealed that she had managed to obtain a $350,000 loan via the pandemic-related Protection Program despite having a net worth of about $2.5 million at the time.

But clearly many managed to forgive her faults. After its first year, Something Navy reported $32 million in revenue ($1 million of which came in the first 30 minutes after it launched) and was valued at $100 million. It had also raised more than $17 million in funding from investors. Its success flew in the face of a general downturn in the fashion industry where US clothing sales had plunged 43 percent over the year.

The company's bosses were encouraged to think big and spend big, opening stores and indulging in considerable digital marketing. Meanwhile it was reported that Charnas was so hot in the fashion world that she could charge $20,000 per sponsored post on Instagram.

CEO Scanlan talked publicly of pushing annual sales to $40 million as they expanded to as many as 25 US stores and more abroad. In 2021, Forbes projected the company would grow by a factor of 300.

But, rather like so much online fame, the golden days were short-lived.

The Charnases relentlessly promoted an image of runaway success, posting pictures on social media of their extravagant parties at their $150,000-a-month summer rental mansion in the Hamptons.

Fans also got to see Charnas's lavish 35th birthday party, where a circus performer floated inside a translucent ball in the swimming pool as guests drank Don Julio tequila inside a huge white tent.

Behind the scenes, however, it wasn't nearly as glittering as it appeared. The company was running out of money as its ambitious sales targets failed to materialize.

It was falling behind on its payments. It owed a single supplier in India $364,000, revealed Business Insider, which reported that others - not just suppliers but freelancers and models - involved with Something Navy were having to cope with late payments from the struggling brand.

Some factories reportedly refused to ship any more supplies to the company until they got paid. The company had allegedly lost nearly half its staff in the first year.

Inevitably, the problems started with the clothes themselves. Customers blamed the quality and begged to differ with Charnas's promise of luxury at a bargain price. The opposite was true, said critics. They were rather cheap-looking outfits at expensive-looking prices.

Nor did it help matters that Charnas rarely wore them, preferring to post instead about luxury designer brands. She was photographed wearing $2,600 Hermès boots and a $3,900 leather jacket from Khaite.

The message seemed clear: her outfits were good enough for her fans but not for her. When the celebrated Betty Wang was hired as Something Navy's president, Charnas didn't even mention it on Instagram.

Plucked eyebrows were raised in late 2022 when Charnas revealed she only worked four hours a day. Cynics said it showed.

'Something Navy was a clusterf***. Like, bleeding,' one former senior member of its staff told Insider after leaving in 2021. She added: 'I'm just shocked it hasn't tanked already.'

At the same time, Charnas was drawing other unwelcome publicity over her private life. When, in late 2022, Charnas stopped posting photos of her husband and children on her feed, and was seen no longer wearing her huge wedding rings, speculation swirled that she and Brandon were heading for divorce.

In December of that same year, rumors surfaced that he had embezzled money from Something Navy. The company and the couple denied both the divorce and the embezzlement claims. Similarly, company CEO Scanlan categorically denied any suggestion of financial irregularities at the company.

Still, the situation only got worse in 2023 as more employees either left or were laid off. Suppliers sent invoices that were never paid and production of the clothes was halted.

In April, friends revealed that Charnas was looking for a buyer for the company, which had closed its stores (including those in Dallas, New York and Los Angeles), paused its online operation and put a 'Be Right Back' sign on its company website.

In June, it emerged that Scanlan was stepping down as CEO to pursue other projects. Insiders said he'd clashed with Charnas. Business Insider said he'd kept her away from the company's day-to-day operations.

The same month, Charnas went on Instagram to damp down the panic, describing only a 'mini hiatus' at her company. She added: 'A lot of changes had to be made so that it can be the best brand that it can be.'

More bad news broke in December that year: Brandon Charnas was being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over alleged involvement with 'possible insider trading violations.'

The SEC said he had traded Staples stock before the retailer announced an offer to buy its rival, Office Depot, which resulted in him earning at least $385,000 in profits. The commission noted that Charnas was not cooperating with its inquiries. His lawyer stated that: 'Brandon did not engage in insider trading. Period.' (In February 2024, Bloomberg News reported that the Department of Justice was pursuing a criminal investigation into the same allegations). The investigation is ongoing.

By the end of that month, it had been revealed that – weighed down by growing debts – the company was being sold in a fire sale. The nominal price of $1 reflected the fact that Something Navy was offloading $7.5 million in liabilities and $483,000 worth of outstanding bills, the Wall Street Journal reported.

IHL Group, a clothing conglomerate, was interested in buying the company but pulled out, accusing the Something Navy team of poor business behavior.

'In light of the backtracking and flip-flopping that we have encountered over the course of this deal, we have decided to not proceed with Something Navy,' IHL said in an email. Sources claimed that Charnas was to blame as she had been looking around for a better deal.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Charnas for comment.

From her Covid jab queue-jumping to her smug party photos, it's long been clear that some people considered her just a little too entitled and badly wanted Charnas's fashion empire ambitions to come to nothing.

Could anything rise from the ashes? Having already witnessed the folly of equating online influencer stardom with real world business genius, investors will likely not be rushing to prostrate themselves at Arielle Charnas's Louboutin-clad feet again.