Petit Dejeuner: It’s over but I’m hopeful



LF Markey X Disneyrollergirl - photo by Emma Miranda Moore, styling by Navaz Batliwalla

Summer mornings. Is there anything more pathos-inducing than the idea of our glorious summer dissipating into a distant memory? Will we look back in years to come on the Summer Of 2018 as the year of golden sunrises, a dreamlike did-it-really-happen myth, never to be experienced again in our lifetime? Hmmm, maybe that’s a tad melodramatic, but there’s something extra special about sun-soaked August mornings, especially those spent amongst lush foliage and blush-hued hydrangeas as far as the eye can see.

On the upside, this in-between gap of post-summer, not-quite-autumn has its own brand of optimism. (more…)



Champion courts hypebeast culture for its New York store



Champion New York opens in SoHo featuring archive pieces and limited editions

Continuing my discourse on how skate-y, hypebeast-y brands are winning at retail, here’s a quick look at Champion’s recently opened NYC store. The Soho store is banking on a storytelling approach, enlightening younger customers to Champion’s 100-year sports heritage with display cases of archive pieces and flagging up its signature innovations such as ‘Reverse Weave’ sweatshirts. (more…)



Gentlewoman style: École de Curiosités



Ecole de curiosites white matisse jacket

New brand alert! Weepingly expensive but how beautiful. I discovered École de Curiosités via the Tiina The Store e-newsletter. It’s a Franco-Japanese brand by designer Hans Ito, produced in France from delicious-sounding new and vintage fabrics like ‘typewriter cotton’. Very much in the Egg-meets-Sofie-D’Hoore mould, it’s all roomy dresses,  boyish shirts and relaxed linen tailoring. (more…)



London loves: Sophie Hulme



Sophie Hulme Chiltern street store

Some lovely news for London retail. Sophie Hulme has just opened her boutique on Chiltern Street, joining Marylebone neighbours, Bella Freud, Mouki Mou, Cire Trudon, Trunk and Monocle Cafe (plus, Mr DRG’s fave haunt, John Simons). If you don’t know it, Chiltern Street is such a delightful shopping street, a block or two from Marylebone High Street, with a feeling of stumbling upon a secret discovery. In fact, when one high profile magazine editor discovered Mouki Mou, she didn’t tell her team for months lest they ruin the magic. (more…)