French Connection has warned on profits for the third time in 18 months after a controversial lesbian kiss advertising campaign failed to chime with shoppers.

The clothing retailer said trading over Easter was difficult and fell short of its expectations, with like-for-like sales at its stores in the UK and Europe down two per cent since the end of January.

This was despite a major advertising blitz which showed two women kung fu fighting in a basement before they kissed.

Chairman and chief executive Stephen Marks said: "There is little indication at the moment that the market conditions or our trading performance will change.

"While the board continues to focus on driving improvements in each of our businesses, and we are only a short way into the year, we are materially reducing our expectations for the full year results."

Declining sales amid criticism that its clothes were overpriced and unoriginal meant pretax profits fell 53 per cent to £15.7 million during the previous 12 months. French said that bookings for the winter collection were 12 per cent below last year. Operations director Neil Williams said it would be a long process to turn the trading figures around.

"In order to get it going again, we need to convince people that we have a great product in the stores and get people back into the stores which is not a quick process and it isn't helped by the fact that trading on the high street isn't particularly good," he said.