Isabel Ettedgui
If food can be reduced to hot, cold, salty, sour, sweet, soft, crunchy; it can be reduced further, colour, pattern, texture, taste and smell. Art, similarly, Matisse’s colours, Picasso’s shapes, Freud’s texture.
Of course all of the above are a mixture of the others, influences abound.
It’s the same with great design, from cars, planes and houses through to clothes.
Items which perhaps are judged (unfairly) less as art because of their commercial aspirations, but at their best, they appeal to the individual senses and then body and mind as whole.
Lucian Freud’s Self Portraits which closed at The RA last month, begged the viewer to stand back and appreciate the whole but step close and absorb the texture, whether late 40s pencil drawings with their infinite strokes of graphite, mid 50s life scenes where stone looks menacing and darkness covers the face, or his best known works where oil paint becomes sculptural, 3 dimensional flat portraits, each brush mark a singular shape, which like Marcus Harvey’s infamous, gruesome mosaic of evil, takes the individual mark and creates a world.
Sensation also at The RA, which showcased the said Harvey mosaic, alongside Jake and Dinos Chapman, Sam Taylor Wood, Gavin Turk, Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin, Chris Ofili, Damien Hirst et al, was a moment of face slapping awakening for me It was visceral, almost guttural, a greatest hits of the power modern art can hold and a reference manual for what was possible through graphic expression
Bang in the middle of supposed ‘Cool Britannia’ it spoke of a confident. An urbane society drawing upon our shared history to create something – which like all art fresh and of the moment – was shocking but felt new, that moment of stepping out after a storm and smelling the air, feeling the crisp breeze.
I remember it like yesterday, because after going, I was stood on the King’s Road when a storm erupted, soaking me through, my glasses coated with fat drops of rain, colours and lights running, then as the sun broke an odd calm.
Not the most unusual situation. I’m Welsh so rain is but a daily occurrence, it’s just for some reason this stayed with me.
Around this time, probably the same week, I first encountered Connolly in the hide, well the first time stepping across the threshold, because since before I could complain or come up with some excuse as to why I should miss school, Sunday nights were when dad polished his and by then my shoes for the week ahead.
It’s a habit that annoyingly I’ve picked up, a routine which includes Connolly Hide Care, that mix of lanolin and sorcery, which soothes and nurtures fine leather goods, an essential.
Connolly has been part of British life since, well a while, 1878. A family business, from Parliament to state coaches, then the cars, the cars, yep, if like me you have a problem with cars – the problem being a lack of the appropriate funds to finance the vintage Ferrari and Rolls as well as Aston & Ranger, then you’ll understand Connolly.
Connolly Leather, feels like car leather ought to, just say Vaumol to certain people and their eyes mist over, it’s like the Rolls Royce of leather…
Connolly, the home of leather. The home of texture. Softest leather, cashmere, proper wool, silk, cotton and linen. Everything at its peak.
Urbane, forward thinking and essential.
Now that first Connolly store a mews building on Grosvenor Crescent Mews was wonderful. As was the second, it’s bigger brother on Conduit Street.
Both were entirely of their time, having created a moment and mood, which many others tried and failed to copy. Impossibly chic, but with a British sense of fun and ingenuity.
That look, the one we think of as being the 90s at their best, slightly minimal, luxurious, sexy, that was Connolly.
Like the best of the art, music and culture of the time, it allowed this growing up in Wales boy to dream, to aspire and to strive for something else. For that I’m truly thankful.
Sadly in 2010 the store closed.
A few years later a friend told me that Isabel Ettedgui - who, with her husband Joseph, until his untimely death – had been the life force behind Connolly, was planning on opening again.
This time, opposite Anderson & Sheppard’s Haberdashery on Clifford Street.
Perfect placement really, they are in many respects kindred spirits, complimentary businesses, who present slightly differing but utterly cultured global views through a London lens.
Normally, unless it’s a business I’m involved in, I like to let a shop settle when it opens, the relaunch of Connolly was too exciting, so I gave it until half 2 on the day it opened before waltzing in.
Waltzing out half an hour later with a zip up drop back car gilet in blue.
It’s easy to copy the past, to be a slave to prior glory. Easy, boring and dangerous.
Better to take a long standing much loved legacy and adapt for the now, future proof it. Which is what the new shop did, it was very much of the Connolly mode, rich with leather, texture and trinkets.
A ground floor with leather goods at the front presented like jewels and the chic unisex designs of Marc Audibet in the temple like atrium at rear with its recessed wooden block flooring, light almost waxed wooden panelling and clothing hung from above. On the higher reaches of atrium sits a gallery of treasures, from vintage to antique, through to modern, everything the modern motorist – or anyone really could want. Things to make you smile.
The basement, long a narrow, cosy really, is where the ‘driving’ collection lives. Or, as I like the view it, where Daniel’s present and future clothing lives…
These perhaps practical items are a luxuriously pertinent solution to modern life. Modern Mayfair, modern country, modern Hackney, modern British workwear.
Designed to be used to do things, rather than for short term peacocking, they decrease stress through their usefulness, which alongside being beautifully made from beautiful things, means that you look happier, healthier, better in the long term.
The first floor off the hand carved spiral staircase is a play on contrasts, from ante room with yolk yellow walls, the colour of good eggs. Then the deceptively simple but utterly clever, sitting room, white panelled walls and natural flooring, although that’s just the story at first glance. This is the place to hunker down, to stop and think about the world outside and feel calm.
The walls almost beg to be touched (don’t worry, I didn’t) and the floor makes you want to rip up whatever you have at home.
A few chairs dotted around, it feels personal - because it is – rather than some exercise in retail design. Giles & Boissier have done a wonderful job with the whole building but the room in which it feels most triumphant is here. This room is where Connolly hold their exhibitions, the latest of which in conjunction with Michael Hoppen is a selection of Karl Blossfeldt photogravures.
The art on the walls is confident and important, in fact art is important to the Connolly story, this appreciation and promotion of beauty outside of the expected.
The works are modern, striking, texture rich, and from the early 20th century. Not simply photos of plants or objects, but artistic statements of intent: graphic tributes to the natural world. Frankly, they’re a marvel.
This is also the room in which Isabel, and I sat down and had a chat last week, as the sun streamed in and the strange world outside felt a little bit removed.
I like Isabel, always have, ever since I first met her. She has this wonderful knack of making you feel calm and at ease, is great company, chic, intelligent, kind, interesting and well informed. Full of laughter and life, her soulful eyes dance as she ponders the absurdity of life. You always leave feeling buoyant, ready to take on the world and knowing exactly how to do it.
Because Isabel is always willing to discuss complex topics, she’d probably sort the country out. With practical solutions that show a proper understanding of the real world.
But instead, it’s my wardrobe’s gain.
Isabel is Connolly, not in some autocratic sense but the brand, the world she has created is a fair reflection of her and her tastes. The store is her: I mean in the truest sense of the British shopkeeper; she has an apartment above.
What she and her team are attempting to do is unheard of, they want to - and are – taking on the big boys of the luxury industry, but doing so from a small and fair starting point. This is a brand which is about quality, buying less; those that know, go.
The quality is high, and products last so long it would keep other brands up at night. Because the idea of customers bringing in bags bought 20+ years ago for small repairs would scare many a CEO.
Instead, I think that Isabel views this as a badge of honour. It’s been said that once you have a customer in the not so trend driven luxury sector you have them for life, well at least until you screw up. Once they’re gone, that’s it, but Connolly keeps hold of people. They get a taste and want more.
Isabel smiled as she spoke of her daughter, Gigi and friends, wearing their parent’s old bits of Connolly, then coming into the store to buy new pieces and mixing them up with other things.
This is clever, the next generation hooked on the good stuff now. The “still want to be wearing it in 20 years” stuff.
Everyone cool I know – although I’m not cool - wears Connolly, but just not in the way that people expect. They wear it to do things; to live life, not stand posed.
Those like Isabel with actual style, a little bit stealth, yes aware of fashion, perhaps pretty fond of it, but always themselves.
None of this tired, ‘sart’ thing. When off duty I live in Noah sweatpants with Connolly jumpers. The same jumpers I wear in town with old battered jeans and my Connolly safari jacket, or with one of their genius vests, the closest in the UK we get to a Brown’s Beach - and considerably better than those ever schofleecy things I see everywhere.
Whether zipped up, or my new one. loden green and now with poppers, tightly woven, quite dry wool, made in England, these ingenious pockets which seem incapable of losing stuff. It’s rare I leave the house without one of them. It’s extremely rare I leave the house without something from Connolly.
In fact at the minute, impossible. I can’t find a phone cover I like and apparently have to have one, so have taken to using a piece of Connolly packaging to wrap it up when in pocket.
These little design flourishes are quiet, clever and give the clothing an artful edge, one which matches the customer and the brand itself. They are also borne out of passion, Isabel’s passion for Connolly, but also for a world which is a bit different.
Seeking out and working with the best, including a new candle done in conjunction with the wonderful Lyn Harris. Treating raw materials, factories, suppliers, staff and customers with respect. Look at how many members of Connolly’s staff have come back to work there now. That family ethos, that tie back to 1878 and every great luxury house has family at its heart. It’s no secret, just do things right. Be kind. Be fair. Be open.
Isabel and Joseph’s contribution to modern British life is huge. From showing us new ideas and concepts, introducing what have become staples for many, through to long term support for art and design. So many of the most talented people we as a nation have produced the past couple of decades have at some point come into contact or been promoted or supported by Isabel. Her words hold weight. Her support is thorough.
People stop and listen, because Isabel has that rare gift of being able to spot why one item is right and the more popular really isn’t. She also knows how to right the balance of power. Of course, sometimes people don’t just sit up, they copy.
Many a modern minimalist wardrobe has more than a nod to Connolly. What it lacks is that passion, that almost sensual use of materials and a forward thinking, utterly correct, unisex cut which is practical, purposeful and thoroughly flattering. A desire to be the future now, a future respectful of the past.
This is why Connolly works, because instead of being slave to the algorithm, or to the venture chaps, it’s a project built on love by someone with taste and the know how to back it up.
Never resting, Isabel outlined what is next: further refinement, world domination perhaps, but always that commitment to create hugely desirable things which perhaps on first glance we don’t need, but soon become things we struggle to live without.
Items which are beautiful from the off, but become even more so with use, wear and love.
It’s a desire to create and tell a story, a story which you then allow your patrons to take and then turn into their own.
As ever we posed 10 questions. Isabel’s answers show a hopeful belief for the future, one in which I share.
In difficult times, we need brave, skilful and single minded people. Let’s not kid ourselves, the times, right now, they’re not the best, but they will improve.
That said, it is vital for the future prosperity of our nation, that brands like Connolly and people like Isabel succeed, because if done right and they are doing it right, they will help in ways far beyond just simple economic growth.
As a nation we constantly pride ourselves on our ability to punch above. Well we need this to work, and work it will.
Hello.
Why do you do what you do?
Compulsion ... belief in Connolly as a brand relevant for the next generation and I love it!
Where’s home?
Above the shop!
What do you collect?
Friends and ceramics
Any heroes?
My late husband Joe and my daughter Gigi
Favourite dish?
Spaghetti bottarga
Hidden Gem?
Santo Sospir house, Painted by Cocteau on cap ferrat
What’s underrated?
Kindness and passion
What’s next?
Authenticity in all things .. and we are entering the e-commerce world next month .. a huge step for us to try and make a site that feels like the shop and that remains simple and clear and shows how good our clothes look on both men and women
Four items which sum up the UK…
Connolly candle - smells of woodsmoke, Connolly leather and the faint aroma of a good cigar.
Connolly Car Vest - made in England with beautiful sports loden wool that’s both practical and stylish.
Connolly Cavalry reversible raincoat - modern tailoring meets History. And keeps you dry.
Connolly seabag - made in beautiful leather by our craftsman in Spain - iconic design that respects no borders or fashions. And looks great on the back seat of classic car.
