Just a few months ago, the pop of Champagne corks was a common sound on Sloane Street, a particularly opulent corner of Knightsbridge, as customers quaffed a little bolly while browsing £2,000 handbags in designer stores.
One global pandemic later, however, and there’s sobering news for the well-heeled shoppers who might be hoping it’s business-as-usual in the nation’s luxury boutiques.
The likes of Chanel, Fendi, Dior and Hermes, along with the rest of the high street, re-opened for business this week – but the free champers is firmly on ice, with affluent shoppers now expected to unscrew lids themselves if they fancy the replacement bottled water that’s on offer.
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FEMAIL’s Jo Tweedy makes for one of London’s swankiest shopping areas, Sloane Street in Knightsbridge – and finds out how customers shopping for designer brands are faring in the aftermath of a global pandemic
Mask? Check. Gloves? Check, then let’s shop. Most stores have adopted their own individual strategies to welcoming customers back to their boutiques – with some more relaxed than others (Jo dons gloves in the Fendi store)
Couture disguise: while many shops we visited only asked customers to wear face masks if they wanted to, gloves were considered more compulsory (Jo pictured trying on new-in Fendi sunglasses)
Step this way, it may take a while! All of the stores in Sloane Street are operating social distancing outside, with queues short but still lengthy as customers take time to browse
Each label appears to be operating its own strategy – with some stores almost worryingly relaxed, while others are following super-strict safety measures that may well sap the joy out of retail therapy but will ensure you don’t pick up anything other than a designer dress.
Customers face lengthy one-in, one-out queues, closed-off changing rooms, and a ‘no touching rule’ on garments – unless you’re wearing a pair of plastic gloves.
If you frequent just a few of these premium stores during a post-lockdown shopping spree, you’re likely to come away with a small mountain of plastic gloves and a collection of paper masks alongside your on-point sunglasses.
FEMAIL took a whistle-stop tour of Sloane Street’s most exclusive stores to find out what shoppers can expect on the first weekend for retail in more than 80 days…
HERMES
There are just four people queuing at the Hermes store, where Cadogan Place meets Sloane Street, and I assume getting in will be a breeze. Standing on a stickered black circle, placed to measure out the 2-metre social distancing rule, I expect to be in within minutes.
I quickly find out that small numbers can still mean a big wait in the world of high-end shopping – when you’re spending thousands on the latest handbag, you can take your sweet time about it.
View from the queue: The Hermes line was only four-deep, but took around 45 minutes to crack
Once in, Jo was assigned a personal shopper – and while there didn’t appear to be much social distancing in place, masks and gloves were given out
Not a fancy restaurant menu but the brave new world of shopping after a pandemic
After 30 minutes in the midday sun, I’m no closer. The staff member on the door, wilting in a sharp suit, senses the boredom amongst customers and shimmies down the line to ask us what we’re looking for.
Leather goods, says the man in front. The ageing couple behind me want a watch, but their impatience grows, and they give up shortly after and head back down towards Harrods.
We try our best to speak through the masks but it’s hard – like chatting through an egg box…
Finally, I’m waved in and greeted by my ‘personal shopper’, a lady wearing a mask who points me to a chic-looking hand santiser dispenser and gives me a neat parcel containing a paper mask and some plastic gloves.
There’s zero social distancing – despite the sign stating there should be – and I’m told I can touch products but the staff-member must accompany me at all times. After expressing an interest in purses, I’m handed a wooden tray of brightly-coloured leather wallets. We try our best to speak through the masks but it’s hard – like chatting through an egg box.
Still, I’ve waited 45 minutes to get in, so we head for the fragrances and I enjoy a spritz of eau de rhubarbe ecarlate – Hermes’ ambrosial rhubarb cologne.
It’s an awkward encounter but I leave feeling reassured that this branch of historic French fashion house has good measures firmly in place.
SOCIAL DISTANCING? NONE
FACE MASK? OPTIONAL
GLOVES? IF YOU WANT TO TOUCH PRODUCTS
HAND SANITISER: COMPULSORY AT THE DOOR
FENDI
A pair of smiling employees greet me, as does an automatic hand-sanitiser.
The staff are cheery and tell me they’re delighted to be open again – and feared, like the rest of the nation, that their smart attire would no longer fit them after lock-down.
After being open for just two days, their feet are already killing them, they add.
Italian label Fendi seemed to manage the experience with ease, keeping to social distancing rules but maintaining a friendly approach that made this boutique visit still feel like a treat
Provided shoppers are wearing gloves, they can peruse the products, including a signature leather tote bag, without fear
Department manager Evangeline Ananayo showed me how a transaction now works, with purchases made on the shop floor rather than in the swish office-style area that is normally used
This London branch of the Italian fashion house has taken its lead from stores in its homeland, which reopened several weeks ago.
It’s the most relaxed experience I have – with no other customers in the store, I’m free to browse and try on, although I feel a little guilty when I frivolously try on a pair of Fendi sunglasses and know some poor staff member will spend an age cleaning them up again.
Department manager Evangeline Ananayo says footfall is down two-thirds, with around 30 people back on the first day of re-opening compared to the usual 90 per day that this shop usually woos.
I feel a little guilty when I frivolously try on a pair of Fendi sunglasses and know some poor staff member will spend an age cleaning them up again…
The store has a strict 72-hour quarantine rule on clothes that have been tried on in the changing rooms, and again, I can’t bear to put them through it, so decide to hold off.
Personal shopping appointments are available too, where the whole store is closed so vulnerable customers can shop in peace and Evangeline shows me how customers can safely pay for goods – doing the transaction out on the shop floor, rather than in the swish office-style area where customers usually pay.
In short, a positive atmosphere where staff manage to breeze through the restrictions upon them.
SOCIAL DISTANCING? YES
FACE MASK? OPTIONAL
GLOVES? IF YOU WANT TO TOUCH PRODUCTS
HAND SANITISER: AT THE DOOR
CHANEL
We stand patiently outside the store, behind a quartet of teens, who’s friends are already enjoying a spree inside. After ten minutes, one of them calls the queue-time ‘brazen’ and contemplates walking off, but stays after his pals emerge triumphant, carrying the brand’s signature yellow bags.
Next stop Chanel: Jo joins a short queue that ends up lasting 30 minutes as the store carefully keeps customers to a minimum inside
Queue chat: I pass the wait time chatting to art dealer Leon Smith, who tells me he’s fed up with the long queues but is pleased the Chanel one looks manageable
Behind me is art dealer Leon Smith, we chat a little to pass the time and he tells me Knightbridge doyenne Harrods ‘is much worse’ with queues of at least an hour.
20 minutes later, I’m in. This is a highly-organised affair and after walking past the two door attendants, I pinball between serious-looking staff, many of whom are wearing visors, as they try and ascertain what I’m keen to buy.
The first staff-member hands me another parcel of gloves and masks and tells me customers can touch products but only if they put on the gloves. I try…but they’re tiny, and there’s more embarrassment as they rip.
‘Sorry about the small gloves…’ my assigned personal shopper utters as she whisks me off to a corner of the store. Again, I look at some beautiful purses, a snip at £400, before making my excuses and making for the door.
Can I look at anything else on the way out? ‘No browsing, I’m afraid’, I’m told.
A Bentley cruises down Sloane Street…but riches can’t buy you a queue pass in the current climate
SOCIAL DISTANCING? YES
FACE MASK? OPTIONAL
GLOVES? IF YOU WANT TO TOUCH PRODUCTS
HAND SANITISER: AT THE DOOR
DOLCE AND GABBANA
Pandemic? What pandemic? There’s no queue in Dolce and Gabbana and I walk in to find an empty shop and four staff attending to my every whim.
There’s sanitiser if I want to use it, but no need to wear face masks or gloves, and I can browse for as long as I like.
Clothes that are tried on must be quarantined for 48 hours in Dolce and Gabbana…but the staff were remarkably laid back, with no masks, no gloves and no sanitiser required for shoppers
After 15 minutes of browsing, Jo picks a jumper with a £1,200 price tag and tries it on…
A friendly manager tells me that clothes are all quarantined for 48 hours after being tried on but this feels the closest thing to ‘business as usual’ as I’ve experienced in this portion of SW1.
After a long look around – this really does feel like a private shopping experience, I head to the changing room with a beautiful jumper – and all that stands between me and buying it is the small matter of £1,200. A polite attendant waits at the door and offers to bring me more sizes if I need them.
SOCIAL DISTANCING? NOT ENFORCED
FACE MASK? NOT ENFORCED
GLOVES? NOT ENFORCED
HAND SANITISER: AT THE DOOR, OPTIONAL