Alex Eagle has landed with two new retail lifestyle concepts in London and Berlin

lex Eagle, a fashion industry veteran at 31 with editorial stints at Tank and Harper’s BAZAAR as well as Joseph in PR on her CV, has joined the concept store fray on two fronts, opening up in London and Berlin. And her ambition is clear, not just in this twin-hub stretch, but in the range of what the stores offer.

Eagle’s eponymous London store recently opened on Walton Street in Knightsbridge. The three-floor townhouse stocks everything from fashion to jewellery to art to vintage and contemporary design - from Ettore Sottsass to Makers & Brothers x Max Lamb ceramics to one-off pieces from Benchmark (who worked on the store interiors) - as well as new and vintage books, children’s clothing, bed linens and photography from the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe and Cecil Beaton.

A record section has been put together by The Vinyl Factory, including its own limited edition releases. But perhaps the most interesting part of the offer is Eagle’s own range of mannish womenswear and collaborations with the finest English makers, such as tailors and shirt makers New & Lingwood, luggage and umbrella maker Swaine Adeney-Brigg and gentleman’s hosier Pantharella.
 
Even more ambitious is The Store x Soho House Berlin, which does much the same thing as the London store but on a far bigger scale, with a broader stretch of brands, from Balenciaga to Proenza Schouler and beyond, with significant extras. The Store, though that hardly covers its multi-functionality, is a collaboration with Soho House, with Eagle acting as creative director, and takes up 2,800 sq m of the former department store in Mitte that Soho House has called home since 2010. As well as the concept retail, launched earlier this month, The Store adds a dedicated exhibition space with artists invited to create site-specific installations (first up and in was the Berlin-based Claudia Weiser), an organic café and a Barber & Parlour grooming operation.

’We wanted to create a place where people could spend all day,’ says Eagle. ’A light, fresh and fun space where guests can shop, work, eat, drink and hang out. Like an open, shop-able private home for everyone to spend time and where everything is for sale; from the candle burning, record playing to the sofa you sit on.’ But there’s more to come. Much more. Later this year a screening room, broadcast studio and branch of Cecconi’s will be added to the mix. Already open are three loft apartments, one equipped with a grand piano.

The Store, though that hardly covers its multi-functionality, is a collaboration with Soho House, with Eagle acting as creative director, and takes up 2,800 sq m of the former department store in Mitte. 'We wanted to create a place where people could spend all day,' says Eagle. 'A light, fresh and fun space where guests can shop, work, eat, drink and hang out.