MORE THAN A STORE
Interior designer David Thomas takes us through the thinking behind his latest triumph, the all-new, multi-faceted Richard James House.
Award-winning interior designer Thomas – a native of Tennessee, and a resident of Paris for some twenty years – led on the project, but the end result was very much a collaborative effort. “I knew Richard James was known for colour, and is different from the rest of the Row,” he says. “But I always do my research first. Sean (Dixon, our Co-Founder and MD) gave me a copy of the Richard James book, and one of the first things I did was to go through the fabric archive with Toby (Lamb, our Design & Brand Director). The idea for the astrologer wallpaper (below, in the first-floor fitting room) came from watching Irene embellish an evening jacket with Swarovski crystals. I worked with Kevin (Medley, our Bespoke manager), to make sure the clothes rails were the right height.”
Colour is key throughout. “It reflects the past of the brand, but also pushes it forward,” explains Thomas. Rich, cosseting hues of blue, orange, burgundy, yellow and pink cover the walls, and diverting bursts of pattern push through on the curtains and carpets, directly referencing our in-house print design. The design of the bespoke blue polka dot carpet (below) that snakes up the stairs to the first-floor lounge comes from our tie archive. “I really liked that tie silk,” says Thomas. “I didn’t want a lot of pattern, but I wanted the stairs to pop.”
Further finely finessing focal points are supplied by the myriad limited-edition prints on display – with works by Marc Quinn, Howard Hodgkin and Albert Irwin, amongst then - which also serve to accentuate the close relationship we have enjoyed with the art world since the ‘90s heyday of the Young British Artists, when we first dressed the likes of Damian Hirst, the Chapman Brothers and gallerist Jay Jopling. Homage is paid to Britpop, that other home-grown happening of the age, and the part we played in it in the interconnecting lift, which features that famous GQ cover of Jarvis Cocker wearing Richard James. Other landmark moments are commemorated by the George magazine cover of Robert de Niro and Dustin Hoffman in bespoke camouflage Richard James suits and long-time friend and customer Hugh Grant wearing Richard James for Vanity Fair.
The building itself, a grand Grade II listed Georgian town house (below), is the only all-white edifice on the street and exudes a particularly British boldness and confidence. “I wanted to respect the history of the building and bring the interior back to its original glory, but also give it a contemporary feel and add some modern touches,” explains Thomas, rather mirroring our approach to tailoring. “One important thing was for as much as possible to be made in the UK. The carpet, the curtains, the furniture, the paint, the wallpaper… The furniture is bespoke, and I was thinking of fabrics that are used for suits – wool and tweed, for example.”
Of course, Savile Row has changed somewhat since we opened our first, somewhat smaller store at No. 37a in 1992. As has the whole way people shop for clothes. When Elton John and Gianni Versace bought our entire first collection, they had to visit the store to do so. Now, in the age of ecommerce, anyone who is anyone could do the same thing online, at the quickest click of a finger. “It’s important for lifelong customers to feel at home,” concludes Thomas. “But it is important to remember that we are also welcoming a new generation, the twenty and thirty-somethings who are visiting Richard James and Savile Row for the first time. What we are giving this generation is a brand-new experience."
