He launched his start-up at 18, returning from a vacation in Italy, without financiers and to the dismay of his peers. Except that at the time, it was 1986, the term start up didn’t even exist. Through ideas and intuitions, but without specific training, he built a brand (and a company) which, starting from a small shop in London, has become world famous. At the height of his success he sold the company and left the role of CEO, only to buy it back a few years later and return to the top management and creative. All before turning 50, like tells in the autobiography If in doubt, wash your hair , released a few months ago and for weeks at the top of the best seller list of Times. The story of Anya Hindmarch reminds you of anyone? Perhaps the founder (and then savior) of Apple? Right: the British designer and entrepreneur is the Steve Jobs of fashion. He never said Stay hungry, stay foolish O Think different, Jobs’s two most famous mottos. But that’s exactly what he did: think outside the box, with a British sense of humor.
As soon as the lockdown was over, he inaugurated a store with an innovative format in London. Don’t you like e-commerce?
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On the contrary: we have invested heavily in the site and since well before the pandemic, on the one hand by perfecting the part dedicated to sales, on the other by enriching the contents and services. Many people also dedicate themselves to the newsletter, which we try to customize so that it is as useful and less invasive as possible, but which at the same time allows us to always be in contact with customers, because we feel like a community. This is why The Village, as I called the shop opened on May 17th, is completely different from our other 50 single-brand stores. We sell bags, but there is also a coffee shop and … a hairdresser. I strongly believed in the project, born in the pre-Covid era, but I was the first to be amazed at its success. From day one there were queues and waiting lists for the hairdresser.
Is this the effect of the pandemic, a return to physical experiences?
Not exactly: buying online was comfortable and convenient before Covid, it has become even more so. But we human beings remain social animals and one of the things we do is leave the house to meet people, go in search of novelty, even just to look. For this reason, physical stores will remain central, as long as they have a soul or at least a personality.