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敬请期待中文版  Suzywith Dover Street Market President Adrian Joffe at the doors of hisnew Haymarket premises waiting inanticipation for the unveiling In stately St James's, south of London's Piccadilly, youcan find indulgent arrays of bespoke suits, silk ties and elegantmen's socks laid out on polished wooden tables. But not, until now,has there been gender-uncertain menswear in wooden booths, ornestling in a barely lit basement area of a building originallycreated in 1911 for Burberry.  DSM's newhome on Haymarket was originally built for Burberry in 1911 "Beautiful chaos" is how Adrian Joffe, President of Dover StreetMarket, described the edgy, multi-brand store he moved from Mayfairto the Haymarket this week, just southof Piccadilly Circus, a street better known for touristcafés and ice-cream parlours than any other kind of cool.  TheHaymarket is usually associated with the neon and nightlife ofPiccadilly Circus "It's basically a mix - I wanted to give small spaces to youngdesigners, a bigger Rose Bakery, a much bigger basement," saidJoffe, known for his exceptional retail eye as well as for beingthe partner of Rei Kawakubo, whose various Comme desGarçons lines are placed on display in the newly refurbishedbuilding. In fact, she has come over from Tokyo to supervise thiswith him.  Rei Kawakuboof Comme des Garçons and her partner Adrian Joffe, the President ofDover Street Market and Comme des Garçons Picture credit: Getty But anyone who thinks this new market will be in the vein ofother stores in the posh, polite and slightly stuffy St James'senclave has missed the point. Stealthily, over the past decade, acareful reassessment of the area has been carried out by the CrownEstate, the corporate body that governs the lands and holdingsbelonging to, but not run by, the British monarchy.  Aerialview of London with the St James's district nearest tocamera Picture credit: Hayes Davidson Opposite Dover Street Market is the soon-to-be opened St James'sMarket, which will offer retail variety, and opportunities to sitand eat in a traffic-free zone. And all around are plans to brushup the historical areas, like London's very first arcade, a narrowcovered alley which could one day become as glamorous as thebustling Burlington Arcade in Piccadilly.  An artist'simpression of the new St James's Market in Picadilly Picture credit: HayesDavidson While DSM, held in awe across the fashion world, will open onFriday, with eclectic new mini-shops for names such as JW Anderson,Azzedine Alaïa, Thom Browne, Molly Goddard, Rick Owensand Raf Simons, the Crown Estate is following its own carefullydeveloped plans. Anthea Harries, the St James's Portfolio Manager for theCrown Estate, with its new designer stores on Bond Street, fromBurberry to the Polo Ralph Lauren set to open this year,explained to me that the plans to regenerate St James's werefinalised three years ago and are deliberately different from otherregenerated areas.  AntheaHarries, St James's Portfolio Manager for The CrownEstate Picture credit: dnco.com "It's more subtle - because of both the architecture andthe strategy we have towards the retail people we want to attractto St James's," she explained. "Who was here historically? Well,you've got John Lobb, Lock & Co. and Turnbull & Asser- they have been here for a very, very long time, sometimes afive-generational family retail business. How do we move thatforward for future generations, and to a younger audience that isworking and living in St James's? The average age now is about 36,with 70 per cent male and 30 per cent female."  JermynStreet can seem charmingly lost in time Picture credit: dnco.com Milliner Stephen Jones, putting the finishing touches to his DSMdisplay, was dismissive of the area as it now stands. "This is the nowhere land of central London," he said."But then so was Dover Street originally and now it has Acne andVictoria Beckham." Almost everything Anthea Harries said about the areasurprised me. I had always thought of St James's as a remnant of anolder London, predicated on privilege and class. But she explainedthat the area was not just ancient buildings like the royalresidence, Clarence House, but also the post-war New Zealand Houseand The Economist Tower, which Anthea dubbed "marmite" buildings.You could probably say the same about the monumental White Cubemodern art gallery in Mason's Yard off Duke Street. Anthea also said that three quarters of a million square feet inthe area is retail - although I could think only of the poshmen's stores in Jermyn Street and the antique book shopsnear Christie's auction house.  Some grandold names have been in St James's forgenerations Picture credit: dnco.com Whatever way you look at St James's - from the venerablegentlemen's clubs in Pall Mall to the Ritz hotel on Picadilly orthe DSM Burberry building - the Crown Estate's new focus is lookingbeyond the current St James's world where Harries says, "ourpriority with our assets was about income and wealth-generation,but now looks towards something on a much larger scale". What she meant by that was that for years, as long as theoccupiers did not ruin the buildings, they could do what theyliked, such as renting out the top floors as offices while puttinga Pizza Hut or a high-street chain store down below. Theeight-strong team, headed by James Cooksey, is now trying to"curate" a new St James's, where retail remains essentiallyBritish, but less establishment, more gender-equal and withdestination art galleries as another point of reference. "Our priorities are rent and covenant," said Harries. "But thenew policy is to make suitable marriages of style and class,especially in the restaurant arena, where, ideally, a new occupierwould smarten up a historic building and serve up food for aninternational set and sophisticated millennials.  The newDover Street Market sits on Haymarket, a busy thoroughfare forcommuters, shoppers and tourists By contrast, the Rose Bakery at DSM - a much larger version thanthe shabby-chic cafe originally in Dover Street - is Joffe'skind of simple eatery. Harries admitted that the arrival of this DSM store had been acomplete surprise, although a happy coincidence for the CrownEstate. Joffe said that he was obliged to move DSM (which also hasa large store in an untapped part of New York's Manhattan) becausethe rent in its original 10-year home in Dover Street hadtripled. "What made me confident about taking this building downto Piccadilly, which was never known to be a retail area, wasthat I'd heard about the Crown Estate's development of St James'sMarket," said Joffe. "It helped me have a little more confidence -although it didn't make me decide." Creating new areas for fashionable retailing is a globallytried-and-tested method. But the Crown Estate does not have such aclear-cut route as, for example, its own remake of the traditionalRegent's Street or the Grosvenor Estate, when it refurbished MountStreet in Mayfair. "From a retail perspective, we've got a really interestingchallenge here, because unlike Regent's Street, which is onethoroughfare with flagship global stores, we have a number ofdifferent streets with different characteristics," said Harries."Jermyn Street is probably the best example of a street which hashistory and heritage and is renowned for being focussed on menswear- but its customers are 70 per cent tourists and it has perhapslost its way trying to move forward for future generations." "What we're doing through our regeneration pipeline is therefurbishment of buildings, the redevelopment of buildings whereappropriate - and creating new retail spaces that vary from500ft2 to 10,000ft2. We're working reallyhard to make sure we get the right quality of brands. Anyone cominginto the area has to be personal, distinctive, stimulating andeclectic. We call it redefining the refined." Original fashion retailers are hard to find. But this unlikelymarriage of refurbished class and DSM's imaginative retailing maybe just what St James's needs to bring this slumbering area of theBritish city to vibrant life. (责任编辑：admin) |