Luella to open Mayfair boutique

Luella Bartley is set to open her first stand-alone store in Mayfair this June, not far from the newly opened Marc Jacobs boutique, and close to Claridge's and Sonia Rykiel. The 1,400-square-foot store will carry Bartley's entire ready-to-wear and accessories collection alongside one-off pieces unique to the store, while the basement will be a client area. The two-story space previously housed an L.K. Bennett footwear store.

The decor will contrast dark wood finishes and antiqued leather fixtures with touches of graffiti and flea-market furniture, to create an atmosphere that the company has dubbed "stately home meets independent record store." And London is just the first step in Bartley's expansion — a store in Hong Kong is set to open in October, while a shop-in-shop unit opened in Takashiyma in Shinjuku in Tokyo in March. Luella, a Central Saint Martins graduate, began her label in Spring Summer 2000, after stints at Evening Standard and British Vogue as a fashion journalist.

www.luella.com
11 April 2007

British designer Luella Bartley (expecting a baby in July) was present for the fourth time at the New York Fashion Week. Her collection seemed to have the theme 'schoolgirls'. The ex-Voguette paraded a legion of models with attitude down the catwalk, in the shape of school girls who had either gone raunchy in tight silk pencil skirts under crisp white shirts or rebel in their boyfriends' sloppy parkas, over-sized pinstripe trousers and ripped Levi's. Platform sneakers and woolly ribbed socks completed the look.

Luella also showed her new line of bags: big, multi-strapped leather satchels worn over the shoulder or hand-held to swing down by the knees in bright pink, red or black. The new line will be launched with a glamorous party in London next week.

Luella Bartley's breakthrough in the fashion world came in 2002. Before her career as a fashiondesigner, Bartley worked as a fashion editor for the Evening standard and Vogue. She made her London Fashion Week debut in February 2000.

February 12, 2003
www.mercedesbenzfashionweek.com