Handbag designer and homewares retailer Lulu Guinness is 20, or at least the brand that bears her name is, and this store, which has just opened on Ellis Street in the heart of London’s ritzy Knightsbridge, stands as evidence that the creative streak has not deserted her.
The 500 sq ft ground floor has been designed by London consultancy HMKM and takes its inspiration from the 1920s with what the designers claim is a “salon” aesthetic. This translates as a bright white room in which chrome, white marble and heavy-duty glass are used to form
the mid-shop equipment, while geometric faded brass is deployed to create the perimeter display modules.
There is also something of the feel of a museum about the shop, with a display case used to house antique handbags. This sense is reinforced by a hand-held device, with headphones, that shoppers can don to listen to a history of the vintage handbags.
The detailing really sets this store apart, with Deco-style scalloped hand-mirrors used for the handles on the main doors and to frame the central lighting area overhead.
And in case there is any doubt about which store you are in, the back wall is covered in replicated handwriting, featuring bon mots from Lulu about life, glamour and fashion.
This was inevitably going to be an upscale interior, but the store does not intimidate, a feat that many of its rivals fail to achieve. Downstairs, a smaller floor houses bed-linens and associated merchandise.
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