It feels like an eternity since our doors were last open and we were welcoming our customers into our four London stores. While online shopping has been our collective saviour over the last year or so, there's nothing quite like shopping for clothes in the flesh. We feel that especially strongly at Oliver Spencer because Oli's design process starts with fabric consideration. The fabric always comes first, and it's a painstaking but rewarding process to source and select fabrics with good provenance that we think are unique and special. The only way to truly understand an appreciate the fabrics we use is of course to handle them, so we're really excited to be able to open up once again and give customers the opportunity to feel and try on these great fabrics.
Naturally, we've been really busy over the last couple of weeks prepping the stores with new licks of paint and merchandising the new collection. We can't thank everyone enough for all the support they have shown us online, so of course we want to repay the favour by providing the best possible shopping experience we can. So with that said, let us pass you over to the store managers who will get you right up to speed with each of their stores and what they're looking forward to over the coming weeks and months
Lambs Conduit Street, Bloomsbury - Jon Beaumont
"It's great to see Lambs Conduit Street start to come alive again. There's a lovely locals scene here. Everybody knows everybody but for so long a lot of those faces have been absent so it has been fun catching up. At Oliver Spencer, where we've been merchandising the new collection. It's just great to see it in a new spring light after all this time. The Pavis and Darly fabrics which we used to create a number of different polos have flown out online, so we'll be restocking those in the next few days. I forgot how great these fabrics are and how well they layer with the chore jackets in the collection."
TABLEY POLO SHIRT |
HAWTHORN POLO |
HOCKNEY SHIRT JACKET |
Berwick Street, Soho - Koji Samuels
"There's a nice vibe in Soho right now as all the familiar faces have come back to prep their shops. That's definitely what I've missed most - the inter-shop banter! I'm really looking forward to finally wearing the Spring collection out to the pubs and restaurants too - an al fresco Soho is such a cool place, I just hope all of my favourite haunts were able to survive during lockdown. Soho is definitely going to be a different place, but things evolve and this area is so creative that I don't doubt that the area will thrive. It has been a while since I had my hands on the spring collection so I'm looking forward to advising our customers on it. I've been wearing a lot of the jerseys and crewnecks with the judo pants recently and until I see evidence of this 'English summer' people keep talking about, that's not going to change!"
ROBIN SWEATSHIRT |
RUNDELL JERSEY |
JUDO TROUSERS |
Calvert Avenue, Shoreditch - Steven Quinn
"It has been nice to get back into the Calvert Avenue store. Shoreditch has felt quite busy for a little while now as businesses have been gearing up for April 12. I've been getting around on my motorbike a lot during lockdown and the streets are definitely much busier now which bodes well for "normalisation", for whatever that means! It has been great seeing some regular customers picking up their click and collect orders, albeit through the other side of the windows, but it will be cool to finally catch up with the locals and find out what they've been up to. I'm looking forward to taking receipt of the next summer drop of Oliver Spencer, which should be early May. There are some lovely bits of casual tailoring in it that I can't wait to try on. Give me any excuse to get dressed up again!
SOLMS JACKET |
DOCK POPOVER SHIRT |
DRAWSTRING TROUSERS |
Oliver Spencer Studio, Bloomsbury - Ed Nelson
Oliver Spencer Studio is the store of a thousand parts, quite literally! I forgot just how many really cool and interesting brands we've taken on in the last 12 months, from outdoor specialists Snow Peak to Yogi Footwear and Groundtruth. Laying out the store once again has reminded me about the importance of great design. All of the brands we work with come at their respective fields with a forward-thinking and sustainable approach. The new Groundtruth bags for example have really blown me away in terms of their fabrication innovation and design quality. They really have a vision and are pursuing it relentlessly. Now that the weather is improving, I'm keen to give the Niwaki collection a run out in the Oliver Spencer garden - like most people, it's in need of a haircut!
SNOW PEAK |
NIWAKI SENTEI |
GROUNDTRUTH BLACK |
