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With her dresses making star turns in films such as Sex and the
City, The Devil Wears Prada and Casino Royale, and a celebrity
fanbase that includes Eva Longoria, Nelly Furtado, Sarah Jessica
Parker and Beyonce, it’s no wonder that Vogue magazine has
described designer Jenny Packham as one of London’s most
successful exports.
Her trademark va-va-voom glamour is coming to Mayfair with the
opening of a flagship ready-to-wear boutique on fashionable Mount
Street to celebrate the brand’s 20th anniversary.
The shop, which opens in time for London Fashion Week on
September 14, is housed in a former Victorian bank vault, whose
period features will provide a suitably dramatic backdrop for
Packham’s creations.
“Because it’s an old bank it has a shop window, which we quite
liked because it makes it more of a salon kind of experience,” she
says. “And since it’s a listed building, we had to keep a lot of the
original features like wood panelling, so it’s quite an eclectic, luxurious
environment. We’re working with Swarovski on elements like a
fantastic crystal curtain and crystalised display units.”
The store will be Packham’s third stand-alone outlet in London,
following two successful bridalwear shops on Belgravia’s Elizabeth
Street, but the first to stock her evening wear collections. With brands
such as Balenciaga and Marc Jacobs flocking to Mount Street,
Packham felt the area was the natural location for her latest venture.
“I was introduced to the street about two years ago and it already
had quite a lot going for it, with Scott’s restaurant and the Connaught
nearby,” she says. “Then we found out a few months into the project
that Marc Jacobs was going to be opening up here too, and now it
just seems to be this amazing fashion destination.”
Thanks to the number of celebrities clamouring to get their
manicured mitts on Packham’s dresses, the two-storey shop will have
its own VIP area.
“It’s going to be a very intimate selling environment, which we feel
our customers will appreciate,” she says. “With London being so
international I think we’re going to see a lot of customers who know us
from overseas coming to the Jenny Packham environment to buy, as well
as a lot of our regular customers here.”
Her British fans include Keira Knightley and Liz Hurley — who wore one
of the designer’s creations for her Indian wedding celebrations. Others to
have enlisted her help for their big day include singers Anastacia and Pink
— who had a dress made for her rehearsal dinner.
“Pink was interesting because she has this slightly aggressive image,
but when you meet her she’s very different — incredibly pretty, very
feminine,” recalls Packham, who was recently named British Bridal Dress
Designer of the Year at the Bridal Buyers Awards.
“The great thing about these women is they’ve seen so many pictures
of themselves, they know exactly what they look good in. With Liz, she
didn’t even have to look at herself in the mirror, she could just look down at
a dress and know whether it was OK. It’s much harder working with
JENNY PACKHAM, RIGHT,
WITH SINGER ANASTASIA
A TOTAL MAKEOVER HAS TURNED
A STUFFY BANK INTO A GLAMOUR
HOME FOR THE STARS KEEN TO
SNAP UP JENNY PACKHAM
CREATIONS, WRITES NUALA CALVI
someone who’s never put on a full-length dress in their life before, like
some of the women who come to our bridal shop.”
However, it’s for glamorous evening wear that Packham is probably
most widely known — her high-octane designs frequently gracing the red
carpet here and across the pond, winning her the title Hollywood Style
Fashion Designer of the Year.
With their bold colours, risqué cuts and luxurious fabrics, they’re not for
shrinking violets, which perhaps explains their appearance on characters
such as Samantha in Sex and the City and James Bond’s consorts in Die
Another Day and Casino Royale.
Oscar-winning costume designer Lindy Hemming described the
tangerine satin tie-back number that Caterina Murino wore in the latter as
being “almost another character” in the film. Harrods had to reorder the
dress four times following the movie’s release, after hordes of husbands
rang up to buy it for their wives.
ABOVE AND RIGHT: GLAMOUR IS MAKING ITS
BIGGEST COMEBACK SINCE THE 30s
“I just love glamour,” admits Packham. “My favourite era is the 1930s —
that was such an amazingly glamorous time, and it was the mixture of
using satins and chiffons together that made the dresses so striking.
“Now, because there’s such an obsession with celebrity, we’re seeing
people wanting to look more and more glamorous again. It used to just be
the Oscars and a few other events each year, but the amount of red carpet
dressing is increasing and increasing. It’s just continuous — there’s always
something going on.”
The world of celebrity parties and awards ceremonies is a far cry from
Packham’s early days as a struggling Central St Martin’s College graduate,
however. “I started the business when I was in my early 20s, and the
learning curve in the first 10 years was quite immense,” she says. “As a
designer, you’re creatively trained, not business-trained, and it takes quite a
long time to get your head around things like the production process.”
Nevertheless, success came thick and fast for the young Packham; her
first collection scooped the cover of You magazine, and the second graced
a four-page spread in Vogue.
“When things like that happened, it was so thrilling. I remember I used to
drive to King’s Cross at 1am to buy the papers because I was so excited.
“Walking down Fifth Avenue for the first time in my life and seeing my
designs in the windows of Bergdorf, Saks and Henri Bendel all at the same
time was another big moment.”
It wasn’t until the label had been going 14 years, however, that it had its
first fashion show, at Claridge’s. “That’s considered quite late for a company
but I wanted to secure the business first and know that I could support the
customers we already had,” says Packham. “Once you have your first
show, you know you have to keep going at that level.”
It’s that grounded mindset that has made Packham wait until now to
launch a flagship ready-to-wear store — but she feels the time is right.
“I view the shop in the same way as I do the shows. You’re putting
yourself on the line. The minute you start showing and it’s being filmed and
the photos are going everywhere, the challenge becomes much greater
and your creativity is forced to reach new heights.
“I know the same thing will happen with the shop because the feedback
we get will spark us to create different ranges, different styles — and it will
make the brand evolve.”
nuala@pubbiz.com
ABOVE; TYRA BANKS WORKS
THE RED CARPET IN PACKHAM