Retail concepts

Shop the post: Chalet girls



Slim Aarons après-ski style 1960

This week as I marinate in the damp, wind-battered streets of NW10, I’ve been reading all about the French mountain resort of Megève. In particular, the ‘chaletwear’ store AAllard that specialises in après-ski wear and whose founder Armand Allard actually invented the ‘fuseau’, aka the tapered, tailored stirrup pant that begat the stretchy ski pant as an early garment to tuck into ski boots. (When local ski champ Émile Allais wore them for his triple medal win in the 1937 world skiing championships, a trend was born.) (more…)

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The culture of fashion: Yayoi Kusama x Louis Vuitton goes mass for Cruise 23



Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama Vogue Netherlands by Koto Bolofo - model Rokhaya Fall

This week we’re starting to see the first coverage of the latest Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama collaboration as the Cruise 23 collection prepares to drop in early January. It’s a huge collection and its design and execution are the embodiment of joy, artistry and artisanship.

It’s also super clever.

Yayoi Kusama is one of relatively few fine artists who can be considered almost as brands in themselves. (more…)

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A coffee vs commerce conundrum



Jannel Therese Blank Street

“Six pounds for a cup of tea and you don’t even get a china cup!” This complaint was quoted to me some 30 years ago by my friend G; his mum aghast at the price of a cuppa in some National Trust cafe or other. Yet it’s a refrain that auto-plays all too frequently in my head when I pass any number of overpriced chain coffee outlets. Especially in the last two years when the premiumisation of, well, everything has played out in the world’s fashionable metros.

At WatchHouse (below), a new-ish UK coffee chain, you do get a lovely ceramic cup. The chain is notable for its upscale Aesop-esque branding (its design team is headed by a former Aesop designer), superior snacks, well-mannered baristas and several-steps-up-from-Starbucks hospitality area. (more…)

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Maureen Doherty, a good egg



Maureen Doherty Egg

“I’m not trying to make anything new. There’s so much pressure in fashion to every six months have this newness. When I opened Egg, I wanted it to be like a chair: well that’s OK for 10 years. It’s not for six months; it’s 10 years. I like the fact that it can be an heirloom.”
Egg founder, Maureen Doherty, Hole & Corner (more…)

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