Fashion House
Alfred Dunhill, the quintessentially English luxury goods’ purveyor, has tapped into the ancient model of gentlemen’s clubs to create new luxury emporiums that they like to call home.
These days luxury brands are frenetically diversifying their offerings like never before. Forget about the expected expansion into jewellery, perfumes, accessories and travel goods, nowadays it is all about branching out into unchartered territories. Calvin Klein, Fendi and Bottega Venetta want to furnish your homes. Bvlgari and Armani want you to stay at their hotels. Hermès is even hoping you will fly in its handcrafted helicopters. So when Dunhill announces that it is now offering eponymously branded gentlemen’s clubs, we are almost too jaded to take notice. But rest assured that upon closer inspection, you will find a plethora of benefits within these unique global concepts.
Reflecting the brand’s pillars of masculinity, functionality, quality and Britishness, Dunhill has just converted a Grade 2 listed Georgian mansion into a retail space, offering services more typical of a five-star hotel than a luxury retailer. The Mayfair residence, built in 1720, is called Bourdon House and it had at one time been the noble London residence of the Duke of Westminster.
Naturally, the club adheres to traditional stiff-upper-lip discretion when it comes to divulging details concerning the memberships and fees. But the retail space is open to everyone. The house itself has three floors including a basement level but the retail space is only above ground. Sumptuously catering to the modern gentleman’s needs, you will find menswear, leather goods, accessories, gifts, gadgets and gizmos on the ground floor. Up the stairs to the first floor and you can discover the wide array of Dunhill personalised effects from bespoke tailoring to leather customisations.
But it is the more exclusive areas of the Home that are the most intriguing. There are four private bedrooms, a concierge, an in-house barber, a spa replete with 2 treatment rooms, a Mark Hix restaurant, a private cinema, a lounge, a walk-in humidor, a museum curating the brands vintage pieces and two customised Bentley Continental Flying Spurs always on call. It is certainly special but apparently not one of a kind.
That is because the first Home of Alfred Dunhill was opened in Tokyo back in December 2007. Then came Shanghai in September 2008 and now the Mayfair residence brings the total to three. Given the popularity of the brand here in the Middle East it should only be a matter of time till we get our region’s own Home. Till then tender a membership at one of the existing spots, you won’t regret it.
Home of Alfred Dunhill,
Bourdon House,
2 Davies Street,
+44 845 458 0779
Photos: Dunhill
