Solved! Your Summer Dress Dilemma: Fenwick’s 140th birthday range has weddings, parties and fancy dos sewn up
- This year, family-run department store Fenwick's celebrates 140 years
- The Northern business has commissioned a host of collaborations to celebrate
- Collaborators include Edeline Lee, Samantha Sung, Rixo, and Never Fully Dressed
There’s a familiar rags-to-riches story around many of our best-loved, high-end department stores: a humble family business grows into an iconic fashion institution.
Charles Harrod started life as a miller; Harry Gordon Selfridge was a stock boy while James John Fenwick (JJ, as he was known) was one of 11 children from a tenant farmer family in North Yorkshire.
Dress, £89, Never Fully Dressed, and bag, £350, from fenwick.co.uk. Themoirè, shoes, £299, lkbennett.com
Share this article
Dress, £745, E.L.V Denim, from fenwick.co.uk
But Harrods and Selfridges, along with Liberty and Harvey Nichols, are family businesses no more. Thesedays, they’re all owned by giant multinational corporations (or in the case of Harrods, the Qatar Investment Authority).
Only Fenwick remains firmly in the family, with its flagship store on the original Northumberland Street, Newcastle, site.
Left: Dress, £285, Weekend Max Mara. Right: Dress, £700, Edeline Lee, and bag, £350, Themoirè, from fenwick.co.uk
This year Fenwick turns 140 and has nine stores nationwide. It has a loyal — and royal — following. The iconic navy wrapstyle dress the Duchess of Cambridge wore to announce her engagement was bought from the Issa concession in Fenwick’s Bond Street store. To mark its anniversary, Fenwick has commissioned a host of collaborations with designers including Edeline Lee, Samantha Sung, Rixo, Nobody’s Child, Max Mara and zero-waste sustainable brand ELV Denim. Occasionwear is what Fenwick does best, and it’s no surprise the collection has pieces that will see you through the summer season.
Left: Dress, £450, Weekend Max Mara. Right: Dress, £365, Rixo, from fenwick.co.uk
Dress, £655, Samantha Sung, and bag, £190, Apatchy London from fenwick.co.uk
Samantha Sung’s floral-print pleated midi is a work of art that would flatter anyone, while Rixo’s striking fuchsia wrap dress with metallic thread detail will do weddings, parties and fancy dinners this year and next.
If the rich pink colour isn’t for you, the Fenwick collection also has pieces in turquoise, lilac and pale blue hues. My favourite design is the navy and white Edeline Lee sleeveless dress.
‘We’re always striving for a real “wow” with our collections,’ says Leo Fenwick, great-great-grandson of JJ and Head of Brand.
‘No one wants to look like everyone else. It’s that feeling of individuality that gives us our distinction.’ In other words, a quintessentially British approach to style.
