New John Smedley standalone focuses on womenswear

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 5, 2018

John Smedley has opened what’s only its third standalone store with a debut on New Cavendish Street in the Marylebone area of London. The new store offers a renewed focus on the brand’s womenswear lines, which it said “have been steadily growing in prominence and sales since their creative direction change” in 2016.

That change had seen the arrival of current marketing and design director Jess Mcguire-Dudley and designer Chloe Cooper, and since then, the company said that its womenswear fashion sales have increased by 35% via its retail and webstores.

Not that the new store is womenswear-only. At 1,400 sq ft, it’s the brand’s biggest location to date and its two floors allow the label to showcase the full breadth of its range with fashion and colour being represented on the ground floor and a “modern-icons, classic shopping suite” on the lower ground. Both menswear and womenswear feature across both floors.

But with a push for womenswear to the fore, the store look and feel, while being “aligned with the brand’s Jermyn Street flagship, has a softer, lighter design.” It also has “considered details that represent John Smedley’s dedication to British craftsmanship, alongside new features that have been designed with the female consumer in mind, creating an enhanced boutique environment.”

With that female focus as the guiding principle, there’s bespoke wooden lighting by Tom Raffield, “with each piece being steam bent by hand at the brand’s workshop in Cornwall,” and vintage Ercol furniture. This has been refurbished by John Smedley’s own craftsmen in Derbyshire to feature new extra fine merino wool seating covers “as a nod to both John Smedley’s fibres and dedication to sustainability.”

The company said that additional touches such as Derbyshire marble with a “unique” rose polish “represent the brand’s home territory in a modern way, while steel racking systems nod to the industrial nature of John Smedley’s manufacturing processes.”

MD Ian Maclean said the local area’s “dedication to maintaining a mix of artisan brands, that represent the breadth of long-standing retailers, unique designers and desire to maintain a family-friendly village mentality, is one that we feel completely aligns with our own desires for our brand.”

And the company’s certainly in good company with names such as David Mellor and Margaret Howell nearby.