ALL SAINTS SPITALFIELDS | SEATTLE - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design

All Saints Spitalfields | Soho (video from allsaints.com)
Brand legacy, place, story, music

Ever since All Saints Spitalfields launched in New York City, I was curious about the strategy of design. What’s the story?

There is one, a part, here:

It starts here, All Saints, the group. All Saints, the street.

According to Anne Ashworth, in a note from 12.28.2005, The Times, UK, “All Saints, Karen Millen and Marks & Spencer? The answers are: All Saints is named after the hip and happening All Saints Road in Notting Hill, the street that also inspired All Saints, the 1990s girl band. Kevin Stanford, a retail dealmaker, connects these disparate shops: he founded Karen Millen and still has a stake in its parent company; he recently turned an £11 million profit on his M&S shares and is now bringing his high-street smarts to bear on fast-growing All Saints, his latest purchase.”

She continues on the theme of emergence — a strangely unfamiliar brand — know it? Or is it a mystery — for many, it’s a surprise, yet the brand originated in the late 90s.

All Saints Spitalfields | website

Ashworth notes, “My attention was drawn to the chain by Stanford’s intervention and the enthusiasm expressed by All Saints believers. These fans are not all in the 18-35 target demographic. One fortysomething devotee of the cult told me: “I never feel sexier than when I’m wearing All Saints — I’m Gwen Stefani or Nico from Velvet Underground.” The reference to these two singers provides a clue to the jumble of trends that form the All Saints’ glamour-meets-grunge ethic: Stefani, a platinum blonde, favours get-ups that are Jean Harlow crossed with a principal boy; Nico, a sultry blonde, was an Andy Warhol muse and early Goth.

All Saints Spitalfields | Soho (Girvin)

Geographically, the opening store conception, Spitalfields and neigbouring Hoxton, the character of the conception of “distressed” is never anything but positive. “The All Saints store is an expensive monument to the distressed style of decoration: the brickwork is exposed, the wood flooring carefully aged.” According to friends working as the architects of record for the Seattle location, the concept of detailing that degradation is one of careful staging — teams working for weeks on the blasting and chiseling of every single brick. All Saints Spitalfields becomes in this light, a kind of set design, a cinematic production. And indeed, the idea of story and the context of brand narrative is a tactical character that is infused in every detail.” Still, getting more information is hard to come by — staffers are not allowed to talk about the brand or comment on the concept. Querying one manager, I was referred to another, and another — and finally All Saints PR, who never responded. That, of course, leaves me to my own devices.

All Saints Spitalfields | Soho (Girvin)

There’s another intriguing twist — the financial background, leading all the way to Iceland. Julia Finch, the Guardian, notes “last year AllSaints was almost wiped out in the Icelandic banking collapse. AllSaints’ chairman, Kevin Stanford, the fashion entrepreneur who also co-founded Karen Millen, faced a battle with the administrators of the collapsed Kaupthing Bank to retain control of AllSaints. The high court had to intervene, but the argument was eventually settled. Both sides now own the business and fresh finance has been provided by Lloyds Banking Group.”
The spirit of the brand speaks to a strange amalgam — antique sewing machines frame the opening, newly configured industrial hardware supports the clothes rigging, staging lighting punctuates the store interiors, all oiled in the grease of hard-working display. There’s a steam-punk attitude — old equipment being refurbished to a renewed utility. But the idea of this victorian retro, fitted with ram’s skulls is a curious mix, conceptually a kind of Dickensian factory space with the ragged, distressed character of gothic punk equipage. The design is ascribed to Brinkworth a UK firm, that built other brands in the Stanford retail mix.
Some imagery from the Seattle store (below) — what’s the story, the evolution of the telling and the character and the legacy?