How we choose what fills the rails

People often ask how we decide what goes into the shops. The honest answer is that we choose everything by hand, the same way we have since 1985. There is no algorithm and no head office telling us what to stock. There is just us, a good eye, and forty years of knowing what our customers love.

Twice a year we sit down with the collections from the makers we trust, the Danish labels, the British knitwear, the little Spanish dress brand, and we pick piece by piece. We are not thinking about trends so much as people. We think about the customer heading to a wedding, the one who wants one really good coat, the one who just wants to feel like herself again.

We buy in smaller numbers than a chain would, which is exactly the point. It means the rails change often, it means you are far less likely to bump into someone in the same outfit, and it means every single thing in the shop earned its place.

If something does not feel right, we simply do not buy it. That is the luxury of being independent, and it is the reason the shops feel the way they do when you walk in.