Author: Paul Cody

London Retail Inspiration

We feel so lucky to live and work in such an inspiring city as London, so we thought we would share a number of our retail favourites that inspire us for different reasons.

Retail is so diverse and rich in London, where there are still pockets of independents that offer specialist treasures and the bigger boys have to work so much harder to get your attention, so they are constantly pushing themselves to gain an edge, whether it be through collaborations (such as our pop up store at West Elm http://www.westelm.co.uk/), or hosting events in store or just creating beautiful merchandising, like they do at Anthropolgie www.anthropologie.com/uk/

Club Monaco on Redchurch Street in Shoreditch, ticks a lot of boxes for us at Vintage Matters.

http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/club-monaco-mens-shop-redchurch-street-shoreditch-london

They have a perfectly formed little store on the ever gentrified Redchurch Street. The level of detail delivered in this store is exemplary, you can tell it’s all about the extra little touches with this brand and we love that. The clothes are classic, but with an understated coolness to them – nothing is over the top about them, it is almost work/utilitarian in design. The quality in finishing and material just speaks for itself. We’re big fans and just wish we had pockets deep enough to deck ourselves out! Apart from their product that they sell, they have gorgeous vintage display touches throughout, which is just right up our street. To finish off, the packaging and wrapping is simple yet beautiful.

The next spot is The French House on Lambs Conduit Street or as we are reliably informed, “LCS” for those in the know.

http://www.thefrenchhouse.net/

The French House is a little homewares store that draws inspiration from all things French. They have their own line of French House products mostly comprising of  lighting, kitchen and tabletop. We can totally understand how the French House team has taken so much from France as antique, vintage and homeware wise it’s pretty hard to beat.

The first part of the store usually has beautiful displayed and French inspired tabletop and kitchen pieces with the occasional brocante piece thrown into the mix. The back room is usually used to display their own range of lighting, where we always see another fixture that we’d love for our home. The store also always uses such great and unique vintage pieces to display their product, like a really big but beautiful timber grape or grain trough. How amazing would it be to get a piece like that for your kitchen?

Talking of display pieces, Binders on Holloway Road, in North London, is one of our favourite old stores and always has a bounty of pieces to get excited by. The store doesn’t look much from the outside but they usually have some cracking product out in the street to draw you in.

http://dandabinder.co.uk/

Inside they stock primarily ex retail units, haberdashery pieces and general vintage storage counters, mixed with an ever changing range of eclectic objects – it’s just a damn interesting place to be! There are some items that have been restored and remade, as well as original pieces lining all the walls.

Finally a bit of love for South West London and Petersham Nurseries near Richmond.

http://petershamnurseries.com/

Petersham Nurseries is a tranquil location just a stones throw from the Thames, on the outskirts of Richmond, which is totally walkable from the town center. A self titled refuge from the city, it’s perfect if you want to escape the hustle and bustle of city life.

Petersham has a series of glass houses that feature plants, homewares/antiques and an award winning restaurant too. Don’t be fooled by the glass houses ram-shackled appearance as it’s very cleverly dilapidated so you accidentally explore the wonderful little corners.

We always seem to lose hours in Petersham and that’s even before we’ve had a drink! Their product assortment is always enticing, evolving and well merchandised, encouraging you browse that little bit longer.

Please let us know what retail and product inspires you, so we can check it out next time we’re out exploring, or let us know if there is anything you want us to specifically source for you!