Austin Reed opened a store on London’s Fenchurch Street recently and, if men’s formalwear is your kind of thing, this is not a bad place to visit.

The store used to be a bank and the good people of that institution had decided that it would be a fine idea to cover over a herringbone-style wooden parquet floor with tiles. Mercifully, Austin Reed has taken the view that this was something of a lost opportunity and an act of architectural vandalism. It has therefore removed the tiles and reinstated the original floor.

The retailer has also cut back on the amount of casualwear in stock and is making a bid for the corporate customer; not a bad bet when you consider the store’s location in the heart of the City.

The store is relatively small. There used to be a 5,000 sq ft (465 sq m) branch just up the road and the new store is less than half that size. Given that it is predominantly concerned with men’s shirts, ties and suits, as well as a bespoke tailoring service, the decision to downsize makes sense. The competition – and there is lots of it on Fenchurch Street – operates from similarly modestly sized premises.

All in all then, a good-looking, if somewhat anonymous, interior and one that is incapable of offending even the most discerning critics. The only problem is the window display. Spend more than 30 seconds looking at the mannequins and your glance might stray down to shoe level. And when it does, you will notice something.

It seems that Austin Reed prefers its customers not to wear socks with their shoes. This could be a new fashion trend in formalwear, but it hardly seems likely, given the intrinsically conservative nature of what is on display.

It is more probable that the retailer decided shoppers won’t notice this omission, or that it was not worthwhile sacrificing a few pairs of socks for the windows. Whatever the reason, the effect is disengaging. It looks like penny-pinching and the kind of thing that might have characterised a Mr Byrite store of yore. And it does nothing to enhance what would otherwise be a perfectly respectable menswear shop.

Austin Reed claims that this is the latest evolution of its store format and that there will be more shops along these lines later this year. If this is the case, what can we expect to glean from its windows? Certainly not the dapper impression the retailer presumably hopes to imprint on passing shoppers. Just a little more attention to detail seems to be required.

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