chiltern street
London
Club Monaco’s real estate broker working in parallel with the brand’s interior team
realised that they were not interested in the typical London “high-street” areas like Regent or Oxford Street after the CEO refused to get out of the car for most of the first day as they drove up to (too) large “flagship” stores. This was not his vision. The brand wanted to enter the market gracefully and with respect, not wanting to plant a huge flag and scream “we’re here!”. This approach was the overall ethos of the brand: modern, subtle, polite.
On the second day, we drove up to Chiltern Street: a street we knew well as most of us had stayed at the famous Firehouse. The broker described the space as being “diminutive… small, but perfect for a boutique with great neighbours including Trunk, Monocle cafe, a woodwind shop that had been on the street for most of the century…and, of course, the Firehouse.
The space was narrow and long, much like the other stores on the street, with a very rickey staircase that went to a basement. While not ideal for women’s, this would be the perfect spot for a very curated men’s shop…the deal was signed.
We stripped back the interior to a practical gut & re-built. A small chef’s kitchen was added in the back with custom tiles from Holland. Commissioned artwork was created for the staircase and vintage pieces were sourced from our favourite shops in London.
The store closed about three years after we opened it; however, this space was to come back to us again, when the NYC PR agency Chandelier Creative contacted James to work on a project with Andre Balazs for a curated shop with vintage vinyls, books, and a rotating pop-up shop downstairs. James designed the store while Chandelier Creative worked on the branding and curation of the space.
