Additionally, many young designers and artists worked at WilliWear before launching their own successful careers and labels, including Antthony Mark Hankins, James Mischka, Jon Coffelt, John Bartlett, and Andre Walker, among many others. While WilliWear was very successful, the company had experienced creative, quality, and merchandising problems in the year before Smith's death. In an effort to remedy these problems, Smith's business partner Laurie Mallet hired a new staff and brought in additional designers in an effort to appeal to a more sophisticated demographic. After Smith's death, Mallet vowed to continue the line. In late 1987 and 1988, she opened WilliWear stores in Paris and New York City (a London location was opened before Smith's death which proved to be very successful). However, Mallet struggled to maintain the success the line had when Smith was alive. By 1989, sales had decreased. In November 1989, Mallet hired then up and coming designer Andre Young to design the line's Fall 1990 collection.