On any given day, a trip to Anya Hindmarch’s Chelsea retail precinct could see you pop into Anya Cafe for coffee and walnut cakes bedecked with the designer’s signature eyes, pick up a passport wallet for your next trip abroad at Anya Travel, shop custom jewellery boxes at The Bespoke Shop or enjoy a scoop of soy sauce ice-cream at The Village Hall, where Hindmarch hosts a pop-up ice-creamery every summer.
What connects these varying venues is a creativity-first mindset. “It’s exploring something new, looking at something in a different way, not taking something too seriously, but taking it very seriously in terms of the creative exploration,” Hindmarch tells Broadsheet. “Something that either gives a thrill or is of interest.”
Over the years, Hindmarch has gradually picked up shopfronts on this leg of Pont Street, immersing visitors into her quirky world with multiple shops, a cafe and The Village Hall, where she hosts seasonal pop-ups.
An ode to modern craftsmanship, The Bespoke Shop is on the same site where the designer opened her first store in 1996. At one point, the Essex-born designer had a global brand with more than 60 stores worldwide – but in 2021, Hindmarch decided to scale back (she now has 15 shops around the globe, including in Hong Kong and Japan) and open this more personal shopping village. “It was just a really big dream of mine to have this destination that people come and visit, where we can actually really welcome them fully,” she says.
At The Bespoke Shop, there are gifts to be passed between generations, such as jewellery boxes personalised with photographs printed on silk satin, and leather wallets and accessories embossed with childrens’ drawings or notes in their handwriting. With a workbench to one side, the store smells of leather and wicker.
Pop across the road from The Bespoke Shop into Anya Travel, which looks like a mid-century airport lounge, and browse recycled nylon luggage and incredibly organised in-flight pouches, along with a Fast Track leather passport holder and a Do Not Disturb eye mask. Over the road at Anya Life, the brand’s graphic eyes are emblazoned on leather wallets and bone china butter dishes, and there are bag charms that look like Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers.
For actually edible refreshments, Anya Cafe is a playfully reimagined British diner, with burgundy booths and edible eyes rolled onto coffee and walnut cakes and cappuccino froth.
The Village Hall is the centre of Hindmarch’s community. It hosts innovative concepts and collaborations that attract loyal customers, as well as new visitors from around the world. This year, it has transformed from an elevated Boots pharmacy into the Ice Cream Project (serving flavours like Kikkoman Soy Sauce and Walker’s Shortbread), and now a Snoopy-themed space station selling a collectible cosmos of Peanuts accessories.
And in the hall? It has welcomed back Anya’s Grotto, where Hindmarch’s youngest customers can meet with Father Christmas from November 7 under twinkling baubles and by the light of a fireplace (tickets are available online). There is the Christmas Shop upstairs, and a festive-themed high tea served at Anya Cafe. “It’s as much for the adults as it is for the children,” says Anya. “It’s very layered and sort of funny and fun.
“It’s not only about the product, it’s about the world, the message, the meaning, the idea.”
