Playing house

It’s all round to Osman’s as the designer becomes the latest to open a salon-cum-store

We’re used to hearing the last rites being read over bricks-and-mortar stores. But listen carefully and there’s a cheerful little drumbeat, faint at first, but gathering conviction.

It’s the story of imaginative retailing. At the top end, this manifests in boutiques masquerading as homes. Or is it the other way around? Designer Roland Mouret and Jeweller Jessica Mccormack began the trend back in 2011 and ’12, when they opened businesses near one another in a magnificent red-brick terrace in Mayfair, once home to wellits heeled Victorians. These houses-cumsalons fly in the face of retail orthodoxy: there are no plate-glass windows and the doors are often closed. Sometimes you even have to ring a bell.

But the cosy, luxurious and personal service is clearly effective – and the message is spreading. Moda Operandi, which began as an online-only business, now has town houses in Manhattan and Knightsbridge, where clients congregate for styling sessions and special events. Matchesfashion.com will launch its own town house-headquarters just along from Mouret in the autumn.

Meanwhile, Osman Yousefzada is opening the delightfully quaint sounding House of Osman on Percy Street, a Georgian nook in Fitzrovia with an irresistibly racy history. Home to artists, poets, writers and opium dealers, greatest claim to fame was the restaurant at no 1, which was frequented by George Bernard Shaw, Augustus John and the future Edward VIII.

Osman himself attracts his share of artists and artsy women, plus a starry red-carpet following, from Emma Watson to Lupita Nyong’o. Until now, however, he’s never had a shop of his own.

Not one to take a run at half tilt, his House spans five elegant, highceilinged storeys: workrooms in the basement, retail and kitchens on the ground floor (customers will be offered a menu), design studio on the second. ‘After 10 years in business I finally get a whole world to myself, where I can bring all the projects I love working on together,’ Osman says. That includes art and photographic exhibitions and special events such as a forthcoming ‘perfume performance’ (‘like a cooking lesson but with fragrance,’ he says). If it sounds like a 19th-century salon for 21st-century tastemakers, that’s the idea. Augustus John would be delighted.

Oh, and the clothes – from bespoke classics to the avant-garde, couture one-offs to T-shirts (albeit £80 ones) and his ever-popular Perfect Five capsule collections of trousers, jackets and knitwear, it will all finally get the space it deserves. He hopes it won’t be intimidating. ‘Yes there’s a doorbell. But we’ll try to make sure the door’s open as much as possible.’—lisa Armstrong House of Osman is at 32 Percy Street W1; osmanlondon.com

There is no shop-front window and sometimes you even have to ring a bell

From top The designer in his new showroom and salon in London’s Fitzrovia; Osman’s London Fashion Week presentation in February

Gathered-sleeve top, £475

Feather-trim kimono, £1,245

Crêpe dress, £730

Sateen dress, £2,700

Crêpe dress, £995