Leather satchels, the bags that were once virtually universal for children carrying homework to and from school, are hot property. It’s on the wave of this newfound enthusiasm for leather bags with vintage appeal that The Cambridge Satchel Co. (Cambridge, England) has boomed.
Founded in 2008 by Julie Deane as a means of paying her children’s school fees, the company now has five shops in the U.K., as well as trading outlets across the globe, and a flourishing online business. But until recently, the retailer predominantly catered to women.
That changed in June 2015, however, when the transformation of the retailer’s former flagship in Shorts Gardens, in the Seven Dials area of central London, was completed.
The repurposing of the space into a men’s store was made possible when The Cambridge Satchel Co. decided to relocate its flagship to a new, two-floor premises in the heart of nearby Covent Garden.
Gary Porter, founding director at design consultancy Elemental (London), which worked on the newly revamped Seven Dials location, describes the design pace as Olympic: “From brief to opening [it] took a month, which is almost unheard of.”
Prior to engaging Elemental, the retailer had been mulling the creation of a men’s store for close to six months. Tasked with creating an interior that would appeal to men, the firm pulled in elements of a traditional gentleman’s club.
Porter says that the final design breaks the store into three distinct zones. The first, at the front of the store, has an almost “living room” aesthetic and is filled with found objects from flea markets and antique shops. The second zone, also the location of the cash wrap, is dubbed “Reception” and is meant to resemble a hotel lobby. The third zone, at the back of the shop, is described by Porter as an “educational area” where the traditional club-like feel is most prominent – a studded leather Chesterfield sofa beckons and a vintage museum case displays the tools used to create the brand’s satchels. Here, shop-goers can also personalize the bags with initials of their choosing. Formal portraits featuring animal heads and pendant lights sculpted to emulate classic Roman busts confirm the store’s tongue-in-cheek design intent.
All of which makes this a distinctly masculine environment, in spite of the child-like origin of the product and the generally female-orientated offer that is the hallmark of The Cambridge Satchel Co. Porter says that designing this store for men was different from other flagships that the retailer has operated: “I think the priority was the visual merchandising aspect and the propping, which created the general mood and feel.”
He adds: “Julie [Deane] felt that for men entering the Covent Garden flagship, they were faced with a barrage of pastel and bright colours and that this could be intimidating. Creating an exclusively men’s collection was an attempt to overcome this.”
To date, the men’s store is a success, and it’s a measure of the renewed popularity of the familiar leather school satchel that this savvy retailer has been able to create two stores within a quarter mile of each other, both serving distinctly niche markets.
PROJECT SUPPLIERS
Retailer
The Cambridge Satchel Co. Ltd., Cambridge, England
Design
Elemental Design, London: Gary Porter, founding director
Architecture and Ceilings
Househam Henderson, London
Fixtures, Furniture, Props/Decoartives, Materials/Wallcoverings
Elemental Design, London
Signage/Graphics
The Cambridge Satchel Co. Ltd., Cambridge, England
Photography: Nina Fordham/Poppy French, London