Browns Is Closing Its Iconic South Molton Street Store & Moving Further Into Mayfair

Browns is shutting the doors to its South Molton Street store and moving around the corner to Brook Street in a bid to attract Mayfair’s clientele. The shift away from Oxford Street’s bustling thoroughfare towards the luxury landscape of Bond Street comes four years after the boutique was acquired by Farfetch, and signifies the company’s mission to make Browns a leader in technology-driven experiential retail.

“It was important that we stayed in the heart of Mayfair, bringing our clients on this exciting journey, whilst honouring the path we’ve been on and looking to the future of Browns as a pioneer of luxury multi-brand retail with a technology viewpoint,” Holli Rogers, CEO of Browns and CFO of Farfetch, said of the space, which is a few doors down from Claridge’s.

The move was essential for fear of losing the pioneering spirit of the store’s roots. After founder Joan Burstein (Mrs B to industry insiders) set up shop in 1970, it became the first London outpost to stock Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. To keep the trend-conscious customers coming to Browns for its eclectic buy of emerging and established designers required a strategic move away from the area that had not experienced the gentrification the brand hoped for.

The new location – which is roughly the same size as the original flagship but with a more streamlined layout than the adjoined Georgian houses – will look at the blueprint of Browns East. The east London store opened its doors in 2017 in the hope of attracting a younger, cooler audience via augmented retail concepts, including a shopping app and an immersive room.

“The future of luxury retail is undoubtedly anchored in engaging and enabling technology as much as it is in personable service delivered as a one-to-one experience by store assistants in an environment reflecting the brand at every touchpoint,” added Susanne Tide-Frater, chief consultant of augmented retail at Farfetch, who went on to promise a “firework of ideas and ever-changing connected experiences for the customer” at Browns’s new home.

The Dimorestudio-designed shop will have separate womenswear and menswear floors; a level for exclusive capsule collections, collaborations and new brands; and another offering styling and concierge services for VIP customers. “When we acquired Browns in 2015, I made a promise that we would take care of this iconic gem of our industry,” José Neves, founder, co-chairman & CEO of Farfetch, said. Stay tuned to see pictures of what he describes as a “revolutionary approach to retail”, before it opens in the summer of 2020 for Browns’s 50th birthday.