SoHo, an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London enjoys the presence of both local and foreign customers, especially the fashion lovers. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The gritty quarter of Soho has attracted a flood of fashion brands targeting young streetwear-savvy consumers.
Lamb’s Conduit Street the New Hub
SoHo, an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London enjoys the presence of both local and foreign customers, especially the fashion lovers. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The gritty quarter of Soho has attracted a flood of fashion brands targeting young streetwear-savvy consumers.
oho is one of the most vibrant parts of London with an incredible mix of locals and tourists that has energy, edge and diversity that aligns perfectly with the JW Anderson brand.
Over the past five years, homegrown British menswear brands have been eschewing the throngs of Soho and high rents of Regent Street to set up shop in a backwater with not very many shoppers. However, on a sleepy street in Bloomsbury a style revolution is taking place. Lamb’s Conduit Street has become a sophisticated hub for homegrown menswear designers who have forgone the crowds of Soho and Shoreditch to form a close-knit community in historic Bloomsbury. Indeed, in terms of its customers Lamb’s Conduit might be considered some kind of Shoreditch/Soho/Mayfair hybrid.
About one week back the US clothing giant J Crew opened a shop specialising in shirts and tailoring in one of the street’s Georgian townhouses. The company that nestles between high street and high end is the first foreign import among the independent contemporary casualwear brands, who feature much British-made clothing. ‘We had been visiting London regularly, scouting locations for a store, and when we got out at the top of Lamb’s Conduit Street, the first thing I thought was how it looked like a stage set,’ says Mickey Drexler, CEO of J Crew, which operates 258 retail stores across North America.
J Crew is in a different league from its new neighbours, such as the military-inspired Private White VC, accessories company Simon Carter, purveyor of laid-back menswear Oliver Spencer and directional design from Folk Clothing according to the experts. Hence, naturally there is a certain ambivalence about its arrival, echoing the protest that met Abercrombie & Fitch’s opening on Savile Row last year, and the fuss, too, when Starbucks opened on Lamb’s Conduit Street in 2006. There are hopes that forward-looking landlords and the prevalence of small units on Lamb’s Conduit will keep the multiples out. J Crew’s arrival will certainly bring new people to the street.
This menswear hub apart from the renowned retail brands also houses a couple of bespoke tailors. Soho has been inextricably linked to menswear since the early 19th century. Savile Row tailors then employed Soho “outworkers” to make their suits, and still do. Thus, in 1834, The London Operative Tailors Union boasted around 13,000 members chose the Blue Posts in Kingly Street as their “house of call” or meeting place.
According to Yusuke Nagashima, a tailor at Connock & Lockie, established in 1902 on Lamb’s Conduit Street, are gearing up to offer an updated alternative. ‘We’re on a modern menswear street now, not one that’s all hairdressers and delis, as it was before, so we have to make sure our work isn’t stuck in history’, says Nagashima.
The menswear variety in Soho now makes the area a top destination to round out whatever you might already have in your wardrobe by the likes of Burberry, Prada, Dunhill and Gucci. In just a few years, almost two dozen quality brands have opened their doors in this inimitable square mile, including Mark Powell, Our Legacy, Supreme, Folk, Paul Smith and Weekend Offender while, on Berwick Street alone, Oliver Spencer, Percival, Universal Works and Nudie Jeans have also set up shop.
Oliver Spencer, the designer at Folk, just six months after opening, became something of a focus for chatter about the street, as well as an advocate for retaining its character, firmly voicing his opinion with the street’s biggest landlord, Rugby Estate as to who should and who should not be allowed on it. ‘All the fashion lot know and support each other.
We get on. There is a real feeling of community. And some great pubs,’ says Spencer, who two years ago further backed his enthusiasm by opening a second shop on the street. ‘I live my life here. There really is no other street like it in London. The smart money might have said to open first in Soho and then move East, as many fashion companies have done. It was a punt, but we did it the other way round’, expressed the designer.
