The rapid expansion of the world’s luxury brands is creating a generation of clones: from Marina Bay in Singapore to New York’s Upper East Side, we wear the same things. Under the auspices of the Duke of Grosvenor, London’s Mount Street is changing all that. Darius Sanai reports
Once upon a time, to wear luxury fashion was to be a pioneer. Just ask any of the ladies wearing Christian Dior's New Look in 1949, as they ran the gauntlet of glares of disapproval from the Parisian beau monde; or think of Coco Chanel’s revolutionary simplicity, or even Gianni Versace’s fiery originality when he first burst onto the scene. There was a time when even carrying a Hermès handbag was to make a statement (a statement other than ‘I have lots of money and did the waiting list’).
Now, though, luxury, however beautiful, is ubiquitous: ladies from Ipanema to Orchard carry the double-C clasp with them; you’ll see that Prada coat in the restaurants of New York, Milan and Shanghai this winter. What do the pioneers do when call girls in six star hotel bars have the same logoed bags, heels and scarves as them? The first answer is: don’t panic. Call girls can have good taste: just look at Christine Keeler. More seriously, pioneers have had locations like 10 Corso Como in Milan, the Palais Royal in Paris, and the altogether wackier Harajuku in Tokyo, to explore for the past few years.
The glaring omission in any such list of pioneering luxury zones is London: the world’s shopping capital in terms of cosmopolitan reach if not sheer number of brands (where Paris still leads the way) houses large fashion houses on the safe pitches of Sloane and Bond Streets, hosts a few smaller names in areas like Notting Hill and Hoxton, but, curiously for such an edgy city, never brought them together in a coherent way.
Or it never did until Grosvenor set about the task. Grosvenor, the listed company owned by the Duke of Grosvenor and tasked with looking after his property in London (he owns swathes of Mayfair and Belgravia) and investments around the world, might seem an unlikely retail pioneer. To those familiar with the safe Grosvenor retail world of western Belgravia, a world of butchers selling pheasant and members’ clubs little changed since the world of Bertie Wooster in the PG Wodehouse novels of the 1920s, the idea of being on the leading edge of fashion might have seemed ludicrous. But Grosvenor is just putting the latest touches on a transformation of its patch into a pioneering retail zone that is becoming world-envied.
The cornerstone of the transformation is Mount Street. Five years ago, a stroll end-to-end along this dignified road in the heart of Mayfair would have taken in the Connaught Hotel, some hair salons, a butchers, antique shops, carpet shops, a travel agents, and … well that was it really. Fine if you wanted to refurnish your pile in Gloucestershire. A fashion destination it was not.
That all changed when Marc Jacobs, the American fashion designer, decided to take up a lease on a new store at the western end of the street. Jacobs could have gone anywhere in Mayfair but he was not being obtuse - he has a reputation for being as pioneering with his shop locations (it was he who first moved into the Palais Royal district in Paris and laid the foundations for its transformation) as his clothing. And it gave Grosvenor an idea. Sarah-Jane Curtis is the Director of Retail Investment for Grosvenor and the brains behind the Mount Street revival. A crisp-speaking property expert who combines hardheadedness with a certain fashionista flair, she is happy to admit it was Jacobs, not her, who inspired the plan. “We were as surprised as anybody when we heard from Marc Jacobs” she says. “It made us think of a whole new direction for Mount Street and the surrounding area.”
Curtis decided that the arrival of Jacobs could be a great opportunity. “We have a lot of beautiful residential property in the area, and we saw the benefits of what a destination shopping street could bring,” she says. “Our vision was and still is to create an oasis of top-end niche luxury fashion and related products interspersed with food, leisure and community use,” she says. That meant turning away or buying out the carpet and antique dealers and bringing “discovery luxury” brands to the area. Curtis and her advisers looked to Paris and Milan to find the “right” kinds of brand to bring to the street.
Next up after Marc Jacobs was Balenciaga, quickly followed by chic Australian skincare brand Aesop and celebrity cobbler Christian Louboutin. Luxury neophytes might have better recognised Prada, La Prairie and Ferragamo, but this was the essence of the new Mount Street: to make it a global destination for those who wanted to shop at the best ‘niche luxury’ retailers.
The next store to open, and one of the anchors of the street, was Alfred Dunhill’s new ‘Home’ at Bourdon House, the grand mansion at the east end of the street that was formerly the home of the Duke of Grosvenor (the residential part of the house is now the world’s most exclusive private members’ club, run by Richemont chairman Johann Rupert).
Dunhill’s urbane chief executive Christopher Colfer explains: “Sarah-Jane had a vision for the area which she explained and which we understood perfectly. This site is quite unique in the world and so is Mount Street. We quickly got a good idea of what Grosvenor wanted to do with the street, that they didn’t want to make it too mainstream luxury, and that was perfect for our vision.”
The other anchor was not a retailer at all: it was the Connaught Hotel. The hotel itself, London’s most exclusive, underwent a multimillion-pound transformation at the same time as the street’s revival; and it was not coincidental. Stephen Alden, Chief Executive of the Maybourne Hotel Group that owns the Connaught, explains: “When we sat down at the drawing board to plan the Connaught’s restoration, we knew that it would be central to the revitalisation of Mount Street. As the landscape would change around us, the Connaught, we felt, should lead the way. There is no other street in the world that I can think of that compares to Mount Street - its transformation continues to gain momentum as each day seems to bring with it news of a new tenant or idea that further reinforces its uniqueness.”
As the Connaught underwent its own renovation, which it completed at the end of last year, with an Aman spa opened at the end of 2009, so other ‘discovery luxury’ retailers continued to arrive next door. Wunderkind, Annick Goutal, Jenny Packham, Porthault (the linen retailer that is ‘one step beyond Frette’, according to those in the know), Carolina Herrera and, most significantly, Lanvin, the Parisian couturier and Goyard, the Parisian ‘malletier’ or luggage maker all set up shop on Mount Street in the past year.
It is perhaps Goyard that best symbolises the nature of the shopping at Mount Street. A Goyard bag is in many ways more exclusive than one from Louis Vuitton or Hermès; if you create your own bespoke design with them, they undertake never to make a similar bag for anyone else. Goyard’s chairman, Jean-Michel Signoles, comments: “Mount Street’s retail atmosphere is unique. La Maison Goyard joins a neighbourhood considered to be the epicentre of exclusive luxury. It is also unique due to the fact that Grosvenor had the will to gather together luxury brands who have real know-how as a kind of private club.” Already the Connaught and Goyard have come together to create personal trunks for the hotel’s suites.
Take a stroll down Mount Street now and you’d be forgiven for thinking the transformation is complete: Marc by Marc Jacobs moved in mid-2009, balancing Dunhill’s gentlemanly ‘Home’ at the east with female appeal in the west; but the scheme is barely 50% complete. The most spectacular opening of 2010 will be Azzaro, the uber-chic Parisian fashion house, which did a ‘pop up’ on the street last year and liked it so much it decided to come back for good. Like most of the other retailers, this is Azzaro’s first London store and, again like many of the other brands, its allure to insiders is such that people will make a journey from Hong Kong or LA specifically to shop at the store. Azzaro, Goyard and Lanvin are not brands that are likely to be popping up in cloned luxury malls around the world anytime soon, which is precisely what gives Mount Street its appeal; but no shopping street would be complete without a go-to restaurant, which is why Mount Street has several.
The restored Scott’s restaurant, in the heart of the street, is undoubtedly the star, attractive a celebritymeets- venture capitalist brigade that makes it London’s power-lunch paradise; but the owner of Scott’s, Richard Caring, will also host you at the private members’ club George, opposite, and at a new deli he is opening next year, a few doors down.
Caring owns restaurants and clubs in New York, LA and Berlin, so Mount Street’s international profile is growing rapidly. For a more refined experience the Connaught has two Michelin-starred chef Helene Darroze in charge of its restaurant; and if that’s not enough, the Lebanese restaurateur Marlon Abela is reopening the legendary Morton’s club on Berkeley Square, adjacent to Dunhill. Next year, Grosvenor are expected to announce that a Parisian high fashion house that is on a par with Lanvin is joining the Mount Street party; jewellers and a chic men’s tailor will follow.
All of this has drawn the attention of developers, as well as shoppers, from around the world: there are only so many malls bursting with Gucci, Prada and Armani that any city, however fast developing, can hold. ‘Discovery luxury’ brings a whole new angle to both the retail experience and the perception of an area; Grosvenor has discovered a significant upside for its residential property business around Mount Street.
As Patricia Stevenson, Publishing Director of the British society bible Tatler puts it: “Mount Street’s wonderful new mix of top designer fashion, shoe, jewellery and perfume stores together with one of my favourite restaurants, Scott’s, and the stunningly renovated Connaught hotel has brought even more luxury to Mayfair. Its glamorous yet villagey atmosphere is proving irresistible and Mount Street is fast becoming a highly desirable shopping destination.”
There is more to come in the area, with some dramatic developments scheduled this year. And if you have visited Mount Street and are heading anywhere else in the world, you can be sure you’ll be the only one carrying a Lanvin bag, wearing an Azzaro dress and carrying a set of Porthault linen in your bespoke Goyard trunk.