George Hammer, the UK’s most ambitious beauty entrepreneur, is bringing to the industry the concept of the diffusion line – a business structure so widely practised in fashion that we don't question its principles, but insead enjoy the blissful ambiguity of telling whoever asks, a top is by ‘Marc’.
Hammer is the man who built Harrod’s Fifth Floor into the Urban Retreat, the world’s largest, most prestigious city-based hair, beauty and well-being destination. He has made the Urban Retreat a strong independent brand name by inviting some of the most vaunted beauty lines into Harrod’s hallowed halls and pulling in, to practise and consult, some of the country’s most respected experts in the various fields of corporal care – from haircare to footcare, via eyebrows and make up.
Now for those economically and geographically beyond the reach of the Harrod’s fifth floor, he is bringing its influence to the high street in the form of a product range and treatment spaces.
Each of the establishment’s grooming experts has been charged with creating a range of products in the name of the Urban Retreat, which will become available this month in the UK’s great pharmaceutical institution, Boots, and online at www.beautique.com.
The experts were handed the reigns to develop products suitable to their area of expertise, and oversee the design of the packaging that carries it. The make up artist Daniel Sandler has developed a range of trouble-shooting multi-tasking cosmetics, perfume guru Roja Dove has developed two fragrances, Reverie and Rendez-Vous, and Anastasia Achilleos, one of London’s most famed facialists, has developed a range of skincare.
Joanne King, Urban Retreat Head of Beauty has produced the bodycare and Leighton Denny, the unlikely nail god from Leeds has created a hand and nail line. Philip Kinglsey, the celebrated trichologist has come up with a line of treatment haircare, while Ayo Laguda, a top session hair stylist offers a line of products to care with afro hair.
Others coming up in the second phase include: Shavata’s eyebrow line, and Louise Galvin’s hair colour care. Building on Harrod’s status as a very British retail institution, Hammer ties together this latest project with a Made in Britain spirit – all experts are British, all products are manufactured in British factories.
In addition to the expert-backed ranges, Hammer’s grand plan includes bringing the Urban Retreat salon and treatment concept itself to the high street. In a partnership with Boots, UR Beautiful is the diffusion day spa he will launch alongside Boot’s Kingston branch (south-west London).
It’s a bold move, since previous attempts by Boots to bring spa treatments to the masses have come and gone with limited success, but perhaps it has needed Hammer’s acumen to make it work. But it’s not all risk – his plan is to buy a beauty school in order to guarantee and sustain the quality of service as the spa concept rolls out to the UK’s high streets.
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