How has Jermyn Street changed?

London is extraordinarily hot but surprisingly we have been very busy and wonder if word has got out that we are the coolest shop in Jermyn Street! Our curved shop front, oak stairs and shelves were all made by hand by carpenters I knew well in Wiltshire. I visited throughout and watched our shop materialise and remember so well the bizarre sight of the shop front standing completed and unpainted in the middle of their workroom.

Jermyn Street twenty years ago was a place to shop for formal shirts, ties, shoes, umbrellas, hats and grooming, always predominantly for men. Our Summer windows would have displayed plain, striped and checked cotton shirts and pastel silk ties.  Now they are filled with linen shirts with sleeves rolled up, matching linen boxers, dressing gowns, T-shirts and polos and people lunch on the terrace at Francos opposite in shorts and sundresses.

It is always a pleasure to buy our linens from the specialist family-run Italian mill Solbiati, the many weights and weaves in so many beautiful colours. I feel it’s important to make my final choices for the most Summery of fabrics in strong, southern sunlight, last year in Patmos, Greece and this month our linens for Summer 2027 on a sunlit kitchen table in South West France. And of course this is the most planet-friendly fabric we can wear, requiring less water to produce, and if you are in Europe the flax is being grown close to home, so what is not to like about linen!

From us all at Emma Willis we thank you for supporting us and wish you the best weekend.

Best wishes,