Category Archives: In the Neighbourghood

In the Neighbourhood: Hix Shoreditch /

Shoreditch’s gentrifiation continues with Start’s newest neighbour opening for business from Friday 18th May, 2012. The new kid on the Rivington Street block is none other than Soho Hix East London’s sister restaurant, specialising in steaks and chicken. Personally, I was hoping for the perfect place to knock back a few lunchtime oysters, but I suppose that’s a little bourgeois of me. Heck, let’s not pretend this is SW4.

The Tram Shed, which is a large Grade II listed building will host the foodie’s dream establishment and rumour has it, cookery classes and a farmer’s market on weekends.

This space will be one to watch.

Illustrated by R. Kilroy /

START has commissioned local based fashion illustrator and founder of DECOY, Richard Kilroy, to curate an installation for our menswear windows. The result is two window hangings based around looks from SS12 collections by Acne and One Nine Zero Six.

Routed in the elements of composition, suggestion and simplicity, Kilroy combines aspects of photo-realism with loose and suggestive line. In late 2010 he was selected by Christian Dior and Somerset House as one of only five illustrators to produce an original work for ‘Dior illustrated: Rene Gruau And The Line Of Beauty‘.  His most recent commission was to produce a portrait of professor Louise Wilson OBE for her birthday.

DECOY, includes original illustrations by Kilroy, Julie Verhoeven, Richard Gray, Tara Dougans and features work and interviews with Jasper Goodall, Cedric Rivrain, Si Scott and more. The second and third issues are currently available from his website.

To date, Kilroy’s clients include Christian Dior, VMAN, Topshop, Onitsuka Tiger, Volt Magazine, Ponystep, Husk, I.T Post, Start Boutique and more. He is currently producing a book with Vivays publishing on contemporary fashion illustrators, due for release in late 2013.

Kilroy’s work will be featured in the exhibition Go Figure: New Fashion Illustration at the London College of Fashion Gallery space from Friday 11th May.

Shop the Acne Look

Shop the One Nine Zero Look

Richard Kilroy’s In Store Installation

A Shaded View /

This May, START and Cutler & Gross launch a Shop in Shop—visual displays in both our womenswear and menswear stores, including more than 100 Cutler and Gross optical and sunglass frames, handpicked from the brand’s SS and AW 2012 collections as well as their line-up of collaboration frames.

Cutler and Gross Campaign Images

For decades, Cutler and Gross has relied, in part, upon their reputation being trickled and whispered within style and fashion circles in London like verbal quicksilver, from the days of Grace Jones sipping champagne in their shop to the cult-like C&G followers such as Jarvis Cocker, Tinie Tempah and Madonna. If you know about Cutler and Gross, you know about style.

Jarvis Cocker’s Iconic Cutler and Gross Opticals

For the last 42 years Cutler and Gross have specialised in handmade eyewear, manufacturing in their own factory in Cadore, Italy. The frames are a heady mix of colours, materials, shapes and eccentricity. But what matters most to Cutler and Gross is provenance—the specifics of design and the frame’s original use. This is reinforced by the absence of a logo on the outside of the frames, maintaining a quiet elegance and firm, yet graceful classism.

Messrs Cutler and Gross

The First Cutler and Gross Store

Over the years, Cutler and Gross has teamed up with several established ready-to-wear designers such as Comme des Garçons and Maison Martin Margiela as well as with burgeoning young designers such as Thomas Tait and Martyn Bal to create limited-edition collaborative frames. This includes several seasons with Erdem, incorporating French lace from the designer’s collections into their frames’ unique acetate, and three seasons with Giles Deacon who, along with design director Marie Wilkinson, have created collections inspired by everything from Scooby-Doo to illustrious swans.

Giles Deacon in his Cutler and Gross Aviator

Shop the Cutler and Gross edit.

Thirty Shades of Red /

The Nailgirls are back at START to help you keep your fingers in tip top condition. To book a shape and paint* for Friday or Saturday just call our womenswear store on 020 729 3334 or email womens@start-london.com with your preferred day and time. With a Valentine’s collection of over 30 shades of reds and pinks in addition to their fashion based collections, you can chose one Nailgirls polish or 10!

*Enjoy a Nailgirls shape and paint for only £12.

Click to shop Nailgirls