LONDON — Wiggy Kit, the cult British label with strong ties to the U.S., is opening its first store on Elizabeth Street in Belgravia and is ready to treat its trans-Atlantic clientele to a feast of fashion, art and design inspired by the founder’s west London home.
The store, which opens Wednesday, spans 779 square feet, and while that may sound small, founder Wiggy Hindmarch has made sure the interiors pack a punch, with a mix of midcentury modern furniture, French antiques, vintage ashtrays from New York hotels and Woody Allen film posters.
There’s a red felt chair by Gerrit Rietveld, the Dutch furniture designer and architect, a Windsor bench with fabric that will change every few months and cushions that reflect each season’s collection. There are also bits of art that Hindmarch has collected over the years — souvenirs, market finds, gifts and family pieces. An antique chocolatier’s table from France serves as the counter.
“It’s a physical expression of the Wiggy Kit world, and not like a typical retail space. It’s very experiential — it’s like you’re entering my home, and curated in a very bohemian way. The feeling should be like dropping into someone’s house — and you happen to find clothes there,” said Hindmarch, who founded the label in 2015.
Hindmarch, who is the sister-in-law of accessories designer Anya Hindmarch, set out to design a “full-time wardrobe” of versatile clothing that can go from day to night, with separates that are meant to fit together season after season.
The new Wiggy Kit store at 48 Elizabeth Street in Belgravia, London.
IONA WOLFF
She wants women to build their “kit” of timeless pieces, all of which have a sense of laid-back glamour. There are prints galore — thick and thin stripes, psychedelic flowers, ikat and abstract camouflage — and a palette full of saturated color.
The collections are inspired both by Hindmarch’s British roots and her part-time American upbringing. Her parents moved there when she was a teenager, and she’s lived in Newport, R.I., and Charlotte, N.C.
The collections also reflect her travels and love of mixing up Palm Beach-bright color with paisley-inspired patterns and Laura Ashley-flecked broderie anglaise and bows.
Prices are contemporary luxury with ruffle or printed tops costing from 200 pounds to 300 pounds, depending on the fabric and detail, and most dresses hovering around 400 pounds.
Hindmarch said she designs with “global appeal and a relaxed approach to elevated dressing.” It’s been a hit with customers.
Inside the new Wiggy Kit store on Elizabeth Street in London.
IONA WOLFF
Some 30 percent of the clientele is from the U.S., with the rest from the U.K. According to the company’s CEO, Charlotte Clutterbuck, the business has been doubling year-over-year, following a series of pop-ups on both sides of the Atlantic, a robust online, direct-to-consumer business, and the personal relationship that Hindmarch has with many of her clients.
She said it was her clients who urged her to open the Elizabeth Street store, where neighbors include fellow clothing brands With Nothing Underneath and Me+Em as well as the jeweler Sophie Breitmeyer.
“I have a fantastic community of clients who are incredibly loyal, and who really engage with the brand. They were asking for a store — they wanted to see, touch and feel the clothes and try them on. I had never meant to do bricks-and-mortar, but my pop-ups worked so brilliantly that opening the store was a natural progression. No matter how well you do online, it sometimes can’t quite transmit how good the pieces are,” she said.
Inside the new Wiggy Kit store on Elizabeth Street in London.
IONA WOLFF
Asked whether the new store would be the first of many, Clutterbuck said more stores are planned, but there are no plans for a major rollout.
“The physical experience and bringing the Wiggy Kit world to life is a great opportunity, and will be fundamental for us going forward. It won’t be a large rollout, it will be really considered and strategic. The Elizabeth Street store is the first in the beginning of that strategy,” she said.
Hindmarch said she wants the new store, and any future ones, “to feel special, like a kept secret, something you’ve discovered.” She also wants to preserve the relationship she has with her clients.
Hindmarch said Wiggy Kit was born as a direct-to-consumer business, and she has never gone the wholesale route, “because it was always very important that I remain in control of the narrative. I always wanted a direct conversation and personal relationship with clients.”
