Issuu

20.10.17 skilled labour ‘get me an alligator!’

24 hours in the Claridge’s kitchen

future perfect

The woman changing the face of fashion

Inside the Corbyn machine

anthony joshua private islands and negroni wars

Solange

Family, body politics and her move into art

Plus:

CONTENTS 7 Philip Pullman? That’s pretty cool man in CAPITAL GAINS 8 Progressive pop and puppies in UPFRONT 11 Our MOST WANTED is Burberry’s tartan tote

16 A non-stop 24 hours in CLARIDGE’S 22 Fash-tech revolutionary HOLLI ROGERS is flying 26 Hashtag goals, it’s SOLANGE KNOWLES 32 Extreme makeover, the JEREMY CORBYN edition

JUNE SARPONG on how to diversify and conquer 39 Kiss and gel in BEAUTY 41 GRACE & FLAVOUR eats at Core 43 An autumnal plum cake in TART 45 Negroni ninjas and booze for grouse in DRINKS 47 Join the Arts Club in HOMEWORK 49 ESCAPE to the Isle of Eriska 50 Anthony Joshua’s MY LONDON

EDITOR Laura Weir

Here are the ES team’s top five places for Sunday roast

Cover: Solange photographed by Daria Kobayashi Ritch. Styled by Mindy Le Brock. SHEATH CLOTHING dress, £1,934, made to order (sheathclothing.com). Y/PROJECT earrings, £301, at tessabit.com

LANDSEER ARMS, N19 ‘This pub in Holloway has just reopened under new owners and the roasts are to die for: whole stuffed spring chicken anyone?’ Helen Gibson, picture editor

THE DUKE OF SUSSEX, W4 ‘There is a beautiful garden at this Chiswick pub. It also serves the best roast in town.’ Anna van Praagh, deputy editor

THE MALL TAVERN, W8 ‘Customers return here for the best pork belly roast — and delicious Oreo cheesecake is a perfect bonus to the meal.’ Eniola Dare, fashion assistant

3 2

ROAST, SE1 ‘This place does exactly what is says on the tin — a fantastic roast — but I go there for its “Roast” burgers. A whole roast dinner in a burger, this meal is decadent, delicious and the perfect Sunday hangover cure. Time to throw away your skinny jeans.’ Natalie Salmon, social media editor

MINNOW, SW4 ‘Sundays don’t get much better than Bloody Marys and roast rib-eye from Minnow. If you feel inclined, Clapham Common is perfectly located right outside to walk off some of the damage.’ Clara Dorrington, picture desk assistant

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Editor Laura Weir Deputy editor Anna van Praagh Features director Alice-Azania Jarvis Acting art director Emma Woodroofe Fashion features director Katrina Israel Commissioning editor Dipal Acharya Associate features editor Hamish MacBain Features writer Frankie McCoy

Acting art editor Andy Taylor Art editor Jessica Landon Picture editor Helen Gibson Picture desk assistant Clara Dorrington

Beauty editor Katie Service Deputy beauty and lifestyle editor Lily Worcester

Social media editor Natalie Salmon Office administrator/editor’s PA Niamh O’Keeffe

Merchandise editor Sophie Paxton Fashion editor Jenny Kennedy Fashion assistant Eniola Dare Chief sub editor Matt Hryciw Deputy chief sub editor Nick Howells

Contributing editors Lucy Carr-Ellison, Tony Chambers, James Corden, Hermione Eyre, Richard Godwin, Daisy Hoppen, Jemima Jones, Anthony Kendal, David Lane, Mandi Lennard, Annabel Rivkin, Teo van den Broeke, Nicky Yates (style editor at large), Hikari Yokoyama Group client strategy director Deborah Rosenegk Head of magazines Christina Irvine

ES Magazine is published weekly and is available only with the London Evening Standard. ES Magazine is published by Evening Standard Ltd, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, Kensington, London W8 5TT. ES is printed web offset by Wyndeham Bicester. Paper supplied by Perlen Paper AG. Colour transparencies or any other material submitted to ES Magazine are sent at owner’s risk. Neither Evening Standard Ltd nor their agents accept any liability for loss or damage. © Evening Standard Ltd 2016. Reproduction in whole or part of any contents of ES Magazine without prior permission of the editor is strictly prohibited

20.10.17 ES MAGAZINE 3

She’s the woman responsible for injecting Browns with a heavy dose of cool and one of fashion’s original disruptors. So what’s next for Holli Rogers? Katrina Israel meets the CEO who’s starting her own fashion-tech revolution

radical chic 22 es magazine 20.10.17

PhotographS BY holly whittaker

here aren’t too many CEOs who can rock a Gucci hoodie and sequined Halpern flares in the workplace. But then Holli Rogers of famed fashion boutique, Browns, isn’t your average exec. And neither is Browns East — the 48-year-old’s new two-storey, 4,000 sq ft boutique that’s heating up Shoreditch — your average store. What may look like a highly curated destination store, complete with café and concept spaces, is, in fact, the first phase of an augmented retail ‘Store of the Future’ concept being pioneered by parent company Farfetch (the billon-dollar platform that unites the world’s designer boutiques online). In essence, this means integrating the instore experience with how Browns’ customers already shop online. Get ready for a Browns app that allows you to share your purchase history and wish lists with store staff (or, as Rogers puts it, ‘tap in and let us know that you are here’), as well as mobile points of sale

Holli Rogers wears Gucci hoodie, £1,260; Halpern trousers, £1,390, both at brownsfashion.com

and smart mirrors (allowing you to request another size with a swipe of the reflective screen). Throw in an edit that includes Calvin Klein’s plastic covered check coat and Gucci’s Coco Capitán bumbag, and Browns’ West End girl is headed east. Stat. There will also be radio frequency stock Farfetch tracking (so a sales associate will remain by founder, José Neves your side while your request goes direct to the stock team) — and, should you like to try on anything from brownsfashion. com that isn’t in store, it can be delivered within 60 minutes. Oh, and for those who prefer to be left alone, the app will also feature a ‘do not disturb’ function. ‘Everybody wants something different,’ smiles Rogers. ‘It’s not technology for Styling it her way: Holli Rogers technology’s sake,’ she adds of the absence of robotic arms or staff posing as holograms. ‘We can give customers a more personalised experience; find out what you want to wear now, and even in three months’ time.’

Rex; Getty

Imagine being able to alert your supermarket that you’re en route, and when you arrive your basket is already filled with your favourite goodies, plus the latest coconut product you didn’t know existed, but will definitely buy. That’s already happening within Browns’ VIP styling pods. When we visit a sales associate is prepping for an incoming client. ‘We need to display the Balenciagas higher so it’s the first thing she sees,’ he critiques, repositioning a pair of Jerry Seinfeld-issue, triple sole sneakers. His client has already buzzed in from a side entrance. You need one of these when your client list includes Rihanna and Mick Jagger. ‘The sales associate’s role is also an inspirer,’ Rogers adds of her team, kitted out in the latest Off-White and Jacquemus. Even the security guards blend in courtesy of sporty bomber jackets. ‘We had to get rid of that black suit situation,’ she laughs. It has been two years since Rogers joined Browns, injecting a new vibrancy into the 47year-old brand via a full reboot: logo, packaging, buying strategy and e-commerce site included. Under her tenure the growth of the business has quadrupled, and the 30 per cent online versus 70 per cent bricks and mortar sales figures have been reversed. This is no doubt thanks to Rogers’ e-com expertise as a formative member of that small disruptor known as Net-A-Porter. So why the expansion of bricks and mortar, and why now? It turns out Rogers has been looking for a new retail site for Browns since day one in the role. ‘A new store gives us a new identity and east for me has the vibrancy and energy.’ As well as its forward-thinking features, the boutique will be the first incarnation of the brand’s ‘Nomad’ project, so named because it has been designed to undergo a full transformation every two to three weeks. ‘We all have short attention spans,’ Rogers says matter-of-factly. ‘That is the reality of where life is going, so we have to cater to that.’ At Browns East, flexibility has been built into the store’s foundations, conceived by Brinkworth as a series of moveable modules. Even the café and the Immersive Experience Room will be short-term residencies. Fatties Bakery will pop up until the end of the year serving salted caramel brownies, while the Immersive room will host free light and sound therapy sessions. Trust us, you’ll want Chris Connors’ ‘BeBox’ meditation room in your own home. The Gallery, which is currently selling affordable artwork, with drawings by Polly Morgan and neons by Lauren Baker, and the Focus lab, which will showcase the team’s latest obsessions, will be an evolving visual feast. ‘I don’t want it to just be a store selling clothes,’ Rogers reinforces. ‘We hope we are able to make people happy.’

What isn’t changing is the space’s wooden flooring, reclaimed from the BBC’s former sound studios and once trodden by Winston Churchill. ‘Those aren’t going anywhere!’ laughs Rogers. And in keeping with Browns’ legacy of championing innovation — former owner/fashion icon Joan Burstein ruled the London fashion scene for some 40 years, dressing everyone from Linda McCartney to Diana Ross at her original South Molton Street store before selling to Farfetch in 2015 — the overall offering remains an eclectic mix of megabrands like Saint Laurent and up-and-comers such as the Ukraine’s Navro and Australia’s Ex Infinitas. Browns East is also embracing fashion’s gender fluidity movement. Men’s and womenswear will represent a 40/60 split in store, and will be sprinkled throughout the racks rather than separated into sexes. The MO here is inclusive. After all, Rogers’ b a ck g rou nd wa s c ent re d a rou nd democratising designer fashion, ‘because I always found luxury a bit scary,’ she smiles.

“I could either sink or swim, or fly — and I think I am going to fly” Rogers studied for a degree in fashion merchandising from the University of North Texas, before going into the Neiman Marcus buying programme then moving to Chanel USA. In 2003, she joined Natalie Massenet in London, where she now lives in Notting Hill, at her start-up that would ignite the luxury e-com revolution. After years of relentless travel and long hours she scheduled a year-long sabbatical in 2014. ‘I slept and finally got to exercise with some kind of regularity,’ she laughs. She was approached by Farfetch CEO José Neves during her year off. ‘I didn’t want to go back into retail because I thought, “Can you top that?” Then José called for lunch.’ The attraction was two-fold: ‘One, because Browns is an amazing company and it had lost some direction, and secondly, the technology aspect of what Farfetch could bring to the table,’ she

Floor show: the Browns East interior

explains. ‘I was like, “I could either sink or swim, or fly — and I think I am going to fly”.’ What’s it like to be reunited with Massenet, who joined Farfetch as non-executive cochairman in February after resigning from Net-A-Porter in September 2015? ‘It’s great, I adore her,’ she smiles. ‘She has been brought in to do some higher level things, but just knowing she is around makes me happy.’ Rogers has just arrived back from the style triathlon that is the succession of London, Milan and Paris fashion weeks, where, despite her title, she still likes to get up close to the product. ‘I never wanted to be a CEO,’ she reflects. ‘What has been really amazing about being in this role is how the preconceived notions of what a CEO means, particularly as a woman, are very different from the way that I am approaching it.’ She pauses, adding, ‘I’m not going to lie, it’s difficult at times because I fall back, even in my head, and I’m like, “Should I be doing this, shouldn’t I dress like that?” But the reality is that there is no reason why a CEO can’t be different to what we have seen previously. It should evolve because everything else is evolving around you.’ South Molton Street will be the next Browns store to undergo the Nomad transformation (slated for the end of next year), but she adds that the roaming retail concept could pop up anywhere. To that end, 2019 will see Browns set up shop in São Paulo within the luxury Cidade Matarazzo development that includes a Rosewood hotel. ‘It is going to be a must-see in South America,’ she enthuses. But for right now, Rogers’ focus is making sure that Browns East is just that for Shoreditch. Browns East, 21 Club Row, Shoreditch, E2

the best of Browns: Holli Rogers’ faves Spinelli Kilcollin Nexus ring, £6,790 ‘This ring speaks for itself — gorgeous.’ Balenciaga triple sole trainer, £535 ‘The must-have shoe of the season and luckily we saved a few pairs for Browns East.’

Ksubi x Travis Scott denim jacket, £380 ‘We have the UK exclusive on this collaboration. There are so many cool pieces, but I love this jacket as a nod to our Texan roots.’

Boyy bag, £725 ‘We have this in an exclusive shade of red as a prerelease of SS18. I love its vibrancy and the structured silhouette.’

Alyx T-shirt, £170 ‘With a cult following, Alyx is the hottest name in menswear.’

Sacai fringed skirt, £1,115 ‘To fringe or not to fringe — there is no question this Sacai skirt must be yours!’

20.10.17 es magazine 23

SOLACE LONDON dress, £470 (solacelondon.com). Y/PROJECT earrings, as before Hair by Joanne Petit-Frere (braids) and Vernon François. Make-up by Dana Delaney

Elliot Jerome Brown Jr

“braiding is an act of beauty… and an act of tradition — it is its own art form”

20.10.17 es magazine 31

my london

anthony joshua as told to lily worcester

Home is… A two-bedroom flat in Golders Green; I grew up in Watford. First thing you do when you come back to London? Go to church to wash away my sins.

Earliest London memory? Going to Finchley and District Amateur Boxing Club (above). That’s where I started boxing when I moved to London.

Most memorable meal you have had in the capital? Smith & Wollensky (above) off the Strand. About 15 of us went there to eat after the Wladimir Klitschko fight. It’s private and chilled, with good steak as well. What would you do if you were Mayor for the day? I’m not really into politics; I’m more of a conspiracist. Let’s say a crash happened — I would think that someone had probably put the car there. If you could buy any building, which would it be? Buckingham Palace. There’s enough palace for myself and all the homeless to live in as well. It’s a big old place. You could look after a lot of people. Favourite shops? My barber (below). His name is Mark but his nickname is Slider Cuts. He’s based on Hornsey Road; it’s called D&L’s Barbers. I was actually his second client today at 6.30am — Reggie Yates was there before me.

50 es magazine

The world heavyweight champion enjoys steak at Smith & Wollensky, parties at Tape and goes to the zoo in Golders Green Where do you go to let your hair down? Mayfair club, Tape, or Libertine, a club in Fitzrovia. I’m always up for it. What’s the best thing a cabbie has ever said to you? This guy had me calling up his whole family. I was so tired and I missed my appointment. He called up five or six people but they didn’t wanna talk. They weren’t as excited as he was.

Favourite London discoveries? Golders Hill Park (left). It’s got its own little zoo — you don’t expect to see that in parks. Best piece of advice you have been given? I saw the musician, Rick Ross the boss, being interviewed. He’s always like, ‘I’m a boss, I’m a boss’. Then, when he’s like, ‘Oh, I had to ask for help’, I was like, ‘Huh?’ I thought this guy was untouchable. So, ask for help, ask for support, let people know what you’re going through.

Last play you saw? One Night in Miami (above) at the Donmar Warehouse. It’s based around Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X and Sam Cooke (the singer). It brought back to life how they were in different industries but were all friends. It was really good, really interesting. Who’s your hero? Your hero should be yourself, but the version in, like, 10 years, because you’re always striving to be better. Anthony Joshua is the face of Westfield’s AW17 fashion campaign (uk. westfield.com)

The Progress 1000, in partnership with Citi and supported by Invisalign, is the Evening Standard’s celebration of the people who make a difference to London life. #progress1000; Blair Getz Mezibov; Alamy

What do you collect? I’m going to start collecting paperwork and documents to leave a trail of what I was about, the stuff I’d achieved. We all have pictures, but they don’t explain the time and what that person was like.