WOMANISERS
WOMENSWEAR
WOLF & BADGER
This striking boutique provides a platform for an eclectic array of up-and-coming designers such as Bora Aksu, Gyunel and Lucy Choi. A good chunk of space is devoted to its extensive menswear offering, while its basement gallery is reserved for installations and pop ups. The brand’s sister store on Ledbury Street is also home to tiny, specialist labels such as pyjama brand Desmond & Dempsey and jewellers Astrid & Miyu.
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32 Dover Street, W1S 4NE.
020 3627 3191
PAM PAM
Frustrated by the lack of stylish and practical options for women in the male-dominated trainer world, friends Bethany Heggarty and Rio Holland endeavoured to open the UK’s first female-only sneaker shop. Nestled between the kebab shops on Bethnal Green Road, Pam Pam offers a tightly edited selection of covetable kicks – from Nike to New Balance – as well as niche labels including Garment Project and Novesta for the passionate sneakerhead.
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129 Bethnal Green Road, E2 6DG.
020 3601 7860
CÉLINE
Under the direction of the industry’s favourite minimalist Phoebe Philo, Céline has become the label regularly name-checked by fashion insiders as the one they want to wear. True to its stealth luxury aesthetic, no aspect of its flagship is unconsidered, even down to the marble-and-semi-precious-stone parquet flooring. If you have impeccable taste and several thousand pounds burning a hole in your pocket, truly, there is no better place to spend it.
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103 Mount Street, W1K 2AP.
020 7491 8200
VICTORIA BECKHAM
When Victoria Beckham launched her career as a designer in 2008, there were many who scoffed at the former Spice Girl’s ambition to make it in the cut-throat world of high fashion. But Posh has succeeded in silencing her critics with her modern, understated breed of luxury womenswear. The VB retail empire on fashionable Dover Street, masterminded by conceptual architect Farshid Moussavi (who also worked on the Olympic Park), was under construction for a year before it opened in 2014 to much fuss and fanfare. The cool concrete construction spans three floors: the entrance is given over to a wall of accessories and her more affordable diffusion line, the top floor is devoted to her catwalk collection and the basement is a personal shopping suite. The proprietress regularly pops in, so shoppers can often get a glimpse of more than just her new season handbags.
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36 Dover Street, W1S 4NH.
020 7042 0700
CHRISTOPHER KANE
Scottish designer Christopher Kane is the hottest ticket at London Fashion Week and revered for his innovative and rebellious approach to femininity. His Mount Street flagship is a chic embodiment of his fashion-forward aesthetic: clean and minimal with stack shelving displaying structured handbags and glass cabinets to display his museum-worthy creations.
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6 Mount Street, W1K 3EH.
020 7493 3111
MATCHESFASHION.COM
Husband and wife team Tom and Ruth Chapman opened their first independent multi-brand boutique – known then as Matches – in 1987 in Wimbledon Village with the aim of being the first to introduce international labels such as Prada and Bottega Veneta to the UK. Now the couple run five boutiques across London and recently rebranded with the ‘.com’ to reflect a global online presence.
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36 High Street, SW19 5BY.
020 8947 9777
DIVERSE
Following three decades on Islington’s Upper Street, Saskia Lamche decided to up sticks and relocate her mother’s iconic clothing shop to Tufnell Park’s increasingly influential Fortess Road. Now, the family-owned boutique continues to give tastemakers their fix of next season APC and Studio Nicholson in friendly, unintimidating surroundings.
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148 Fortess Road, NW5 2HP.
020 7813 7425
AIDA
This Shoreditch boutique is brilliant for discovering chic and affordable indie labels, from the local (Pyrus, Elia B.) to the far-flung (Minimum, Des Petit Hauts). Get your hair done at its vintage beauty parlour, join them for a film screening or grab a coffee in the cute café. Chaps are treated to a wealth of city-friendly separates and made-to-measure suit services by resident tailors J&J Minnis.
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133 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JE.
020 7739 2811
& OTHER STORIES
A Swedish high street shopping revolution from the brains behind H&M and COS, & Other Stories offers fashion for those with champagne tastes and beer budgets. Inspired by personal style rather than trends or fast fashion fixes, the chain has more high-fashion credentials than most with design ateliers in Stockholm and Paris. Head there for party dresses, lovely lingerie and statement accessories.
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256-258 Regent Street, W1B 3AF.
020 3402 9190
EGG SHOP
This tiny yet enormously influential boutique, run by its famously fastidious founder Maureen Doherty, is one of the capital’s most highly rated cult shops among those in the know. Housed in a former dairy, Egg still retains its original blue and white tiles, wooden barn doors and sense of honest authenticity. Its USP is simple and sophisticated clothing with an arty schew, which is designed to be worn and loved forever – a sentiment that is reflected in the steep price tags. Comfort, quality and timelessness are key, with brands such as Sophie D’Hoore, Scha and Casey Casey represented. While nowadays Egg also has an ecommerce site, this is a shop you have to visit in person to appreciate fully. Frequent trips are recommended as Doherty routinely curates her wares as if it were a gallery.
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36 Kinnerton Street, SW1X 8ES.
020 7235 9315
