The John Lewis revolution: discover the new Westfield White City store

From middle-England to cult millennial appeal, the 50th John Lewis store is John Lewis... but not as Londoners know it
Claire Coulson22 March 2018

John Lewis has always been all things to all people...

The go-to for practical homewares and immaculate bed linen; the place where you can ponder the perfect shade of KitchenAid mixer; the first port of call for nursery must-haves; a beauty mecca par excellence. Low on thrills but high on reliability, the store has rightfully earned national treasure status. But for most of us the fashion floor has not been the first port of call.

Right under our noses, however, a stealthy revolution has been taking place with designer collaborations, new import exclusives and buzzy new concept spaces. All of which come together this week in the brand’s 50th store opening; a 230,000 square foot retail Narnia in Westfield White City — the shopping centre’s huge new £600m extension.

For anyone who has shopped at the Oxford Street flagship, the new store will feel dramatically different: airy shop fits and beautifully lit counters, a plethora of new services and more exciting still, delicious and covetable labels at every turn. It’s out with the trad green uniforms and in with an eclectic dress code in which partners (that’s staff in JL speak) wear clothes from across the store’s own brands. This is John Lewis — but not as many Londoners will know it.

Mrs London’s favourite buys

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Behind the transformation is the team dressing the nation, a crack squad of buyers and designers who among them share many decades of experience across the high street, luxury and heritage brands, and who are radically reinventing how we shop. And they have ambitious plans.

Their biggest asset? How well they know their customer. Meet Mr and Mrs London: who are younger than you might think. In fact 39 per cent of John Lewis shoppers are under 34 years old while just 28 per cent are over 55.

And their best-selling products provide a riveting insight into the obsessions and habits of the store’s typical London shopper. For Mrs London, high flyers include its AND/OR brand Silverlake straight leg jeans in deja blue (£95), sexy black lace bra (£28) by Bluebella, while her favourite shoe is a white lace-up leather trainer by Kin (£75). If she’s not splurging on electricals (current obsession: Dyson’s Supersonic Hair Dryer, £299) then she’s searching online at 3am for Chanel’s Gabrielle Chanel perfume (from £82) or snapping up Dior’s Rouge Dior 999 Satin (£27.50). Her tights of choice are John Lewis 40 denier black and she accessorises with Modern Rarity’s Gold vermeil disc drop earrings (£100). And at night she relaxes in a turquoise cotton Tiger PJ set from Hush (£49.50). Interesting to note that Mrs London is not a speedy shopper, preferring to take her time. ‘She likes to spend all day with us,’ says fashion director, Christine Kasoulis.

As for her partner? Well, Mr London prefers a tighter boxer to a baggy short style, don’t you know — specifically a three-pack of Calvin Klein cotton stretch trunks (£38), while his bag of choice is a Fjällräven rucksack (£80), and on the foot: Novesta canvas trainers (£49). His favourite grooming item is a Remington beard trimmer (£25) and gadget wise it’s the Apple HomePod (£319). For holidays he favours a pair of John Lewis tropical leaf swim shorts (£38), and back in the city his preferred top is a Kin by John Lewis long-sleeve Breton (£35), teamed back with a John Lewis woven in England check tailored jacket (£175).

Mr London's favourite buys

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‘The big shift is to make more than half of what we sell unique to John Lewis. It’s a challenge but we are already seeing success with it,’ adds Kasoulis, who, having reinvented John Lewis’ Home collections, now heads up a buying and design team of 210, whose focus is to build a £500m own-label fashion business. Central to that push are the niche own-label brands including Kin, Modern Rarity and, the most recent launch, AND/OR, that have had phenomenal success — last year sales of own-brand womenswear grew by 14.9 per cent.

The man behind those brands is Iain Ewing, who arrived at the store as head of design womenswear seven years ago just as the drive for own-labels began. Over the past two years, he says, that push has gathered momentum. Not least with Modern Rarity, which has been the stand-out performer with its designer collaborations that debuted with shirt specialist Palmer//Harding (famously put on the world stage with front page coverage when Theresa May wore one of its pieces at Downing Street) and is currently designed by RCA-trained Korean designer Eudon Choi.

Ewing spotted how the appeal of fast fashion was fading and how many women wanted clothes with longevity, so Modern Rarity was developed around a limited colour palette (so that women could build a collection season after season) and beautiful fabrics, some of which are created using vintage prints from the store’s archive that stretches back to 1800. The buzz for its sell-out, go anywhere dresses that flatteringly skim the body with soft gathers and ruffles are a testament to just what a hit it has been.

Ewing applied the same close attention to detail with AND/OR, which launched 12 months ago working with denim specialists in LA to perfect the cut, wash and fit of jeans (made in the same factory as numerous premium denim brands that sell for three times the price). ‘It takes longer, it’s more complicated but it’s worth it. Today you can get anything, anywhere, from anyone, so we’ve got to be about more than just a good product.’

Accessories (where there are 16 new brands including Matt & Nat’s vegan bags and Hoop Station’s cool hoop-centric jewellery line) are echoing this success, too. The best-selling shoes among the accessories hall’s 1,000 shoe styles are Kin’s aforementiond white lace-up leather trainers; in bags, where own-brands sit alongside Longchamp, Coach and Aspinal with its monogramming station, the best-seller last week was an AND/OR tan leather bucket bag with whip-stitched seams (£109); while in jewellery it’s Modern Rarity’s stunning gold vermeil jewellery that is currently outstripping the competition. Camilla Rowe, who is head of buying women’s accessories, reduces these successes to a pretty simple formula. ‘Customers all want to be inspired, they want newness and beautiful quality products and we can deliver that with our own brand.’

This focus on own brands also gives Kasoulis and her team the chance to respond quickly to new trends. Last year, newly ensconced as head of fashion, she zeroed in on the athleisure boom and launched Patternity, which straddles home, fashion and leisurewear with boldly printed collections. It’s this agility and responsiveness that is helping boost profits.

Of course any brand with a strong online business and the right algorithms can pin down the minutiae of customer shopping habits, but John Lewis seems to be tapped into their psyche more closely than most. Nowhere is this more apparent that in the zone that encompasses some of the store’s most exciting big ideas. Jo Bennett is head of buying womenswear and arrived at John Lewis seven years ago to launch Somerset by Alice Temperley. Her new coup is Madewell, the New York denim specialist that makes its UK debut (including a live customisation event featuring chain-stitching collection Ft Lonesome, which was flown in from the States) this week.

Londoners will get to experience Loved & Found for the first time, too — in which Bennett and her team scour the globe (and Instagram) to discover niche labels. It’s colourful, quirky and packed with hugely desirable pieces from Uzma Bozai’s intricately embroidered sweatshirts, Selfish Mother T-shirts or beautiful printed silk dresses and kaftans from Stella Forest or Star Mela. ‘People want to create their unique stamp and it’s something you are going to see more of as we experiment more with it,’ says Bennett. ‘This really is about curation. We love it, we buy it — it’s our indulgent area.’ She’s applying the same formula to other areas, too, and editing the best bits of brands such as Hush (which is now the fifth-biggest seller), Brora and Boden.

A similar revitalisation is sweeping through menswear; a quarter of personal shopping appointments in Oxford (where new services have been trialled) have been booked by men and they are not averse to something fun and whimsical (case in point, a lime and blue camo Kin anorak) or something deeply luxurious. Suiting includes pieces made with the most exquisite cloth from Ermenegildo Zegna or the English mill Abraham Moon & Sons.

The same curated approach that is transforming womenswear is being applied to menswear where Beth Pettet, head of buying menswear, flags up an exclusive range of beautiful quilted jackets made by Barbour in collaboration with Land Rover, with plush tweed inserts and corduroy collars that will appeal to both the store’s older and younger customers. ‘Men may shop differently than women but they are no less demanding in their desire for stylish, quality product,’ adds Pettet. ‘I don’t think the high street has always given them that.’

It’s not just about great product though. Another big shift is the introduction of the sort of services we only normally enjoy in luxury stores. ‘It’s just as important as the products we sell,’ explains Kasoulis. ‘And we are trying to make it a much richer experience.’ Cue a sleek new ‘Experience Desk’ where a hub of seven staff will be on hand to organise nine different services for customers including various style studio sessions in which a team of personal stylists trained by ex-Vogue fashion director Lucinda Chambers is armed with the latest tech to ensure that they can keep in touch with clients once their appointment is over. They will advise on everything from the perfect summer wedding look to a last-minute capsule wardrobe for a beach getaway as well as longer more in-depth sessions that can be combined with drinks or afternoon tea.

In the new Denim Wardrobe by Trilogy, a team of denim experts, trained by Trilogy, promises to find you the perfect pair of jeans in just three fits. ‘If you have a busy life, these services get problems solved,’ says Kasoulis, who also points out that John Lewis customers are just as likely to spend a whole day with the store. ‘Shopping should be fun,’ she adds. ‘We are reinventing what a department store stands for — and offering unrivalled service in a way that only we can.’

Photographs by Ed Miles

Styled by Eniola Dare

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