Shopping

All shops are not made equal, some are essential one-stop design emporiums. This month, we visit the fantastic Aram Store in London’s Covent Garden

A digital directory of our favourite online shops and a tour of Aram Store, the first in our new series of design destinations

What’s the store’s history? The London shopping scene received two strong shocks to the system in 1964: Habitat landed on Fulham Road; and a few months earlier, Aram Store opened on the King’s Road. The two shops served different clientele, but both were radical departures for Brits who’d grown up with wartime Utility furniture and ‘ brown’ antiques. Zeev Aram’s white-box store stocked the work of Bauhaus icons and Modernists like Marcel Breuer and Le Corbusier. Detractors denounced it as ‘ hospital furniture’ and sent Aram hate mail. He was unfazed. ‘The important thing is that there was a reaction,’ he recalls. ‘I was afraid people would just walk past.’ Now, we can see how radically ahead of its time the store was. Today, Aram Store occupies an impressive four-floor space in Covent Garden. What brands will I find there? Pieces by Le Corbusier and Breuer are still present and correct, manufactured by Cassina, Vitra and Thonet; other big hitters include Carl Hansen & Søn, Fritz Hansen, Flos, MDF Italia and Knoll International. You’ll also find a brand new 180-square-metre space dedicated to Italian bed brand Flou (above right), of which the store is the exclusive London stockist. Flou’s luxurious upholstered beds in neutral hues – including the first-ever modern upholstered bed, Vico Magistretti’s ‘Nathalie’ design (1978) – are a true insider secret. What’s its USP? Founder Zeev Aram’s aim is to provide ‘excellent service’ and ‘as wide a range as possible’ of the best modern design. Not merely a store, it has also acted as a champion of both new and established talents, through exhibitions in its top-floor gallery space. Here, in 1981, Japanese icon Shiro Kuramata’s work was seen in Europe for the first time; a young Jasper Morrison got his big break in 1987 when his ‘Thinking Man’s Chair’ was spotted by manufacturer Giulio Cappellini at the shop’s 23rd anniversary show. What makes it a must visit? Aram Store is the only place where you can buy authentic reissues of the great Irish Modernist Eileen Gray’s designs (Zeev Aram championed the neglected designer’s work in the 1970s and now has the world licence to produce and distribute her furniture). And if you’re not in the market for a big investment, the store has an excellent selection of gifts and accessories for the style conscious. 110 Drury Lane, London WC2 (aram.co.uk)