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Los Angeles-born Vince, founded in 2002, has become known for its elevated essentials, from delicate satin slip dresses to splittable cashmere wool sweaters. Currently valued at around $20mn, the company has recently opened a number of stores across the US (42 in total) including one along New York’s Madison Avenue. Its first UK presence – a boutique on Draycott Avenue in Chelsea – opened six years ago, but it’s the new 2,300 sq ft retail space on Marylebone High Street that is to become its European flagship, and largest menswear footprint to date.
“We’ve been looking for several years to open a store here,” says Caroline Belhumeur, chief creative officer. Like many of its shops, the new space is richly inspired by architecture, interiors and sculpture. “Our traditional store spaces are rooted in vintage ’70s Italian furniture,” adds Joshua Giardina, vice-president of creative services, who joined Belhumeur (once dubbed the “queen of quiet luxury”) in 2019, having previously worked with her at Club Monaco. “But with this space we wanted to have a little more fun – a nod to English heritage and eclecticism.”
Menswear is a key focus for the brand, which joins other specialists in the area including Trunk Clothiers, Fursac and The Workers Club. The edit of suede, nylon and compact Italian linen jackets (from £305), double-pleated wool trousers (from £390), and straight-hemmed shirts (from £165) aims to “stop men from feeling like they have to wear a blazer or more traditional tailoring”, she says. (They are hoping, however, to offer a bespoke tailoring service in future.)
From the rich walnut floors (which took 10 iterations of samples) to the Phillip Jeffries suede and corduroy wallpaper, which Giardina says “eats up just the right amount of light”, an extensive list of local and international collaborators have helped to furnish the two floors. Twentieth-century furniture specialist The Peanut Vendor sourced arts and crafts dining chairs, ’70s oil paintings and Barbara Hepworth-inspired ceramics; antiques firm Studio 125 christened the entrance with a Brâncuși-style bench, and east London design store and prop-house Béton Brut has curated the lounge area. “If people are interested in purchasing [these] pieces, they can do it,” says Belhumeur. The store’s scent, meanwhile, comes courtesy of Perfumer H, based on neighbouring Chiltern Street.
Traces of California are also evident: framed photographs, shot on Belhumeur’s iPhone along the Pacific Coast, line one wall, while sculptural objects, salvaged from Vince’s Pacific Palisades store, which closed following the LA fires that devastated the area earlier this year, are dotted on shelves and tables throughout. The aim is “to create something that speaks to the brand’s Californian warmth”, says Giardina. Belhumeur agrees: “If you’ve been to LA, you know what it’s like when you get to golden hour. You just want to sit down and relax and be in it. That’s really the feeling we want our customers to get when they come through the door.”
Vince, 87 Marylebone High Street, London W1
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