Where the big spenders shop
WITH more luxury brands than any other half-mile on Earth, London’s Bond Street is the most expensive retail street in Europe.
The glamorous (and just a tad pretentious) road between Oxford Street and Piccadilly has been the capital’s most exclusive shopping street for 300 years and has almost as many royal warrants spilling out of its doors as it does diamonds.
It’s the place to go if you want a £20,000 designer handbag or multi-million pound jewel or simply to gawp as expensive sports cars parade up and down.
But even the super-rich stores have been battling to survive three lockdowns, with all the poor millionaires stuck at home.
In this insightful documentary, director Michael Waldman takes his cameras to Bond Street to film behind the scenes at places including Dior, jewellers Boodles, auction house Bonhams and royal chocolate maker Charbonnel et Walker.
“The Queen does have a list of favourite chocolates with us but I’m not allowed to divulge that… I can just say
that she has very floral tastes,” says chief chocolatier Adam Lee, at the store where the largest box of chocs costs £280.
Meanwhile at Dior, one staff member explains that price tags are always hidden, while at Boodles, one customer says: “Monday morning looking at diamond rings and drinking champagne, what more could a girl want?”
Narrated by actress Jenna Coleman, this is a staggering insight into the sheer opulence of one street and a glimpse into what the super-rich have been spending their money on in a pandemic which is said to have actually made them even richer.