Inside London's Most Refined New Menswear Store, Designed Like an Open Wardrobe
The first collaboration between design studio Tabitha Isobel and fashion label LESTRANGE takes the form of a shop where coffee breaks, vintage armchairs, and retro-fueled joinery invite presence and pause
Retail destinations in London (and beyond) are beginning to resemble someone's beautifully curated and lived-in home. As Tom Horne, co-founder of essential menswear fashion label LESTRANGE, puts it in the notes behind the brand's just-unveiled new Soho concept, The Apartment, from greater demands come greater responsibilities, and room to evolve. "Ten years ago, retail was primarily about acquisition," explains Tom, one half of the label, known for its With Less, Do More motto and minimalist-chic seasonless wardrobe.
However, now that brands can go viral without ever opening a physical door, old-style brick-and-mortar stores have one challenge: attracting people by offering "something the internet simply can't replicate". The Apartment stems from that very aspiration. Completed by Tabitha Organ's namesake design studio, Tabitha Isobel, and launched earlier this month, the London concept store is a perfect synthesis between LESTRANGE's environment-conscious vision of fashion and the designer's "grounded, tactile, and instinctively calming" aesthetic, as she herself described it in a recent interview published in Livingetc.
Just like LESTRANGE moves away from the dynamics of fast fashion by releasing capsule lines comprising just a few high-quality designs made to last for a lifetime, Tabitha Organ, too, took the "low intervention" route. Instead of preparing for a full-scale renovation, the studio went on the lookout for striking vintage furniture to layer alongside curated pieces crafted for the occasion, as well as art and printed-matter collectibles. "A well-placed material or a single strong gesture will always feel more intentional than an accumulation of details," she told us a couple of months back.
That single-gesture confidence is what makes the space an instantly iconic design destination in London, as if it had always been part of the spirited geography of 68 Berwick Street. But let's look at The Apartment more closely.
Design Higlights — How The Apartment Welcomes Guests Home
"Ten years ago, retail was primarily about acquisition," explains LESTRANGE's co-founder Tom Horne. Now, in order to compete with online platforms, brands need to attract people by offering "something the internet simply can't replicate".
As visitors come in, the first thing they meet is a vintage oak cabinet with glass-fronted doors, styled with books and objects and lit by a faceted hexagonal paper pendant hovering above their heads. Compared to a typical tillpoint, this is a quiet yet meaningful shift that sells passersby an atmosphere and a lifestyle, rather than foregrounding the transactional nature of shopping right away.
Past the cabinet opens a cocooning central seating area anchored by a striped olive-green rug, two vintage mid-century William Plunkett armchairs in deep green leather, and smoked glass nesting tables. These aren't just for ambience: visitors wanting to spend more time at The Apartment, browse for buys, and enjoy the shop at its fullest are encouraged to sit here for a while, discussing options while sipping a cup of coffee with friends or loved ones and, simply, relax.
Perfectly in sync with Organ's earthy, biophilic palettes of browns, greens, and burned reds, the clothing itself becomes an active protagonist in the interior scheme. Hung up mid-air on linear, built-in rails, it reads less like anonymous stock and more like a wardrobe you've stumbled into.
Perfectly in sync with Organ's earthy, biophilic palettes of browns, greens, and burned reds, the clothing itself becomes an active protagonist in the interior scheme.
LESTRANGE's less-is-more fashion ethos has been translated into a considered concept store where every line, material choice, and styling decision contributed to a scheme that's as striking as it is peaceful.
Image credit: Oskar Proctor. Design: Tabitha Isobel
Selected garments hang on the rails, while crafty ceramics, books, and floral details dot the space. It's a masterclass in open wardrobes, made collectible.
Image credit: Oskar Proctor. Design: Tabitha Isobel
Here, the label's signature Trouser Bar sits against walnut-stained timber paneling reaching picture rail height, while a reimagined French Art Deco dresser — complete with chrome detailing and glass shelving — does double duty as both storage and display for extra sizes and colorways.
Toward the back, a vintage burl wood drinks cabinet has been repurposed into a crafty coffee station, paired with a newspaper rack and a sculptural Ferro wall lamp designed by Organ and crafted by Dom Callaghan — a folded stainless-steel piece that catches the light in what's easily the moodiest corner of the store.
Downstairs, the pace slows further even further: a dedicated wardrobe consultation room and sprawling changing rooms, softly draped in curtain rather than harsh doors, continue the same warm material story — oak flooring, Farrow & Ball's Slipper Satin on the walls, soft curtains from Nordic Knots — down to its quietest, most private moments.
Style Advice — How to Pull Off The Apartment's Look in Your Base
1. Give Furniture a Second Chance
The coffee station at LESTRANGE's The Apartment feels like a rather fitting nod to the atmosphere and sleek details of many of the most coveted boutique hotels.
Poetically curated throughout by Organ and the team at Tabitha Isobel, the strongest pieces on display at The Apartment aren't necessarily new, but carry the memories and the emotional and material patina they have gathered in their past lives, from their former owners.
What was once a drinks cabinet finds a new raison d'etre as a coffee station. A dresser is turned into a display case. To do this at home, visit your favorite antique markets or vintage dealers for buys with presence — then turn them on their heads (not literally, of course).
2. Forget Bright and Even Lighting: Go Warm and Low
Picture afternoon-long browsing and styling experiences immersed in quality textile and just as standout design.
Skip the shopfront-style overhead strips, spotlights, and skylights. All retail, restaurant, and hotel design experts agree: a single sculptural pendant or wall lamp, particularly those with a tactile surface, does more to set an intimate, welcoming tone than any amount of even, shadowless lighting. Whether applying the rule to your new shop or a corner of your home, you'll be thanking us when the trick entirely revolutionizes the feeling of your rooms.
3. Root in Place Through Sensory Touchpoints
At The Apartment, warm woods, mint green notes, and flowy drapery craft an atmosphere fit for a fantasy.
When it comes to designing and furnishing a shop, it is easy to slip into overdoing. The truth, though, is that you'd never want to spend more than a few minutes in a store that feels suffocating and overly bright, let alone call it your home.
Organ knows that well, which is why she lets a single interior accent pull the weight of the flagship at a time. A rug, a stack of books, a thrifted ceramic vase: here, every component feels like a long-cherished piece of decor, aged in tandem with those who own it, or a souvenir from some remote destination.
By giving each element its own place and purpose within The Apartment, Organ reminds us of the beauty that lies in being intentional with the environments we inhabit. Indirectly, she also reminds us that clothing, too, should be something we treasure and choose — a mission statement LESTRANGE has embraced from the very beginning.
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