An online fashion retailer that’s built a reputation selling clothing to ‘yummy mummies’ is opening its first high street store – and, of course, it will be in Chelsea.
Clothing firm Boden is launching its first shop in the fashionable west London district as it rides a wave of soaring sales.
Boden, whose fashions have been worn by Samantha Cameron and Michelle Obama, said the store marked a new chapter in the brands expansion.
Johnnie Boden, pictured will be opening his first store in Chelsea after the successful launch of five concessions in John Lewis earlier this year
The firm was founded by father-of-three Johnnie Boden in 1999 and targets married couples between 25 and 50.
Born to a Lieutenant Colonel, Mr Boden was a member of the notorious Bullingdon Club while studying politics, philosophy and economics at Oriel College, Oxford.
Previous members of the raucous student dining society have included Mr Cameron – an avid Boden wearer who was photographed in a pair of its floral shorts while on holiday in Cornwall in 2008 – along with fellow politicians George Osborne and Boris Johnson.
The businessman, who once aspired to work as a writer, is now worth £410m.
He was recruited to edit the menswear Section of the 1997 Harpers & Queen Teenage Edition magazine aged 16, but his father called this a ‘bloody stupid job’.
So instead, the entrepreneur followed up his education with an unhappy career at investment bank Warburg.
The fashionable ‘yummy-mummy’ brand which is targets women over 35 with children, is also favoured by the likes of Samantha Cameron and Michelle Obama
He quit five years later after inheriting money from his uncle and eventually took the plunge to set up the firm after his wife Sophie told him he was ‘a failure’ and had to get his act together.
The firm began selling menswear products, which Mr Boden drew himself, before branching out into women’s clothing and childrenswear in 1996.
Since then it has developed an idiosyncratic English style – much like the man himself, who is known for recording the company’s out-of-hours answering tone and sends customers who haven’t shopped with the firm in a while letters saying ‘Johnnie’ is missing them.
He has even previously said he takes his dog Sprout into work once a week.
Today, Boden has around 1.5 million customers worldwide but calls women aged 35 with children the ‘bulls-eye.’
Mr Boden said the new store will allow customers to see the brand in all its glory.
He added: ‘I would like the shop to feel like you’re walking into my home.
The expansion also comes as rival retailers close traditional stores in favour of online–only businesses.
It will join other well-known brands at Duke of York Square including Cos, Monica Vinader and Joseph and comes Boden its opened five successful concessions in John Lewis earlier this year.
The launch follows the firm’s successful opening of five concessions in John Lewis earlier this year.
Sales in the company jumped 9% to £308m last year, while profits rose 9.6pc to £26.2m – a turnaround from a slump in 2015.
Boden’s original shop in Hangar Green, north west London, is still in operation and has been revamped to offer more products and services.
Chief executive Jill Easterbrook, a former Tesco veteran, who was appointed in February to revive fledgling sales, said: ‘We know that of the customers that love us, there is a proportion that enjoy shopping in stores and we know that we have an opportunity there.’