BOWNS BOUTIQUE - ART AND FASHION COMBINE
The millennial year of 2000 brought Rosalind Bown to Cambridge. Amid a riot of razzmatazz and champagne ( I was there as a radio reporter trying to get an interview through the crush of models and mates knocking back the fizz) something new had arrived on the scene. Rosalind opened her boutique in Magdalene Street, right opposite the venerable College’s sixteenth century stone entrance in a medieval building marked out by its ancient gargoyles as a house of ill repute, (glance upwards next time you’re there).
On that day, the fusion of artistic inspiration and super savvy business sense, also opened Cambridge to a fresh new look at fashion. Sure the city had had its boutiques long before but Bowns took the serious art of shopping to a different more contemporary level.
“My vision for the shop was clear in my mind’ Rosalind recalls,
“I was new to Cambridge and wanted to introduce the exciting designers suddenly on the scene. Brands like ‘Workers for Freedom’, the remarkable John Rocha and Tracey Boyd were the darlings of London Fashion Week. I calculated that Cambridge women were ready for a new creative approach to fashion – away from the boring classics on offer every single year.”
It worked. Women who loved clothes began to recognize the Bowns style and try something different . But times change. The London designers gave way to a new wave of fashion,
“International, or more accurately, European designers began to bring a new directional look to the English scene, companies like the House of Carven, Paul and Joe, employed designers with flair and quality – and staying power”
Rosalind emerged from the art world – her father was a painter and as Captain Mount with the Eighth Army in the Second World War became a distinguished war artist. She studied design at the Cheltenham School of Art - she felt the world of fashion held the most allure for her individual approach to life – integrating art and style into one’s everyday world.
Today, the style has changed again. Vivienne Westwood is a perennial knock-out,an instantly recognizable must-have (for some) But now the Parisian label ‘Hartford’ has beautiful affordable quality clothes to save us the trip to the French capital. I used to walk past their double fronted shop near St. Supplice in the faraway days of last year when I was in Paris every month. I would think “Why get that mouth-watering suit here when I can bob into Bowns and try it on comfortably - not under the critical gaze of some unsmiling Gallic assistant, whose expression seems to say “What is that woman doing in here?”
But this is not to forget the British designers, Margaret Howell is top of so many women’s list. She seems to embody an authentic elegance with classic clothes that last decades
‘During the latest crisis, Margaret Howell has been very much in demand. Her style somehow matches the quieter times we are living through. You can reach for one of her pieces for a day out in Norfolk or a lunch with friends and still feel well dressed.’
The clothes look as good ten years on as the day they arrived in your wardrobe. Those classic, somehow nostalgically reassuring clothes stay with anyone forever. On a walk at Wimpole only yesterday I took a spectacular dive off the path in my own Margaret Howell tweed jacket. I bought fifteen years ago in Bowns. Back home I brushed off the dried mud and reflected it had been in service for so long – miraculously it looks as good as the day I walked out of the shop with it.
And in his anniversary year, Bowns celebrates the distinguished designer Paul Smith. Iconic is an overused word but Paul Smith’s style is just that, an identifiable logo to signify his unique take on fashion. As Ros Bown remarked “Only Paul Smith would invite you to wear a chiffon skirt – printed with vibrant Granny Smith apples” However his smart quality staples of scarves , heavenly jumpers, chic timeless frocks and fabulous boots and shoes are reliably everyday go-tos. Where on earth would you get to encounter such joys in Cambridge? Solid British styling is being rapidly replaced by mass imports ( carefully re-branded even at the top of retail – I mean you John Lewis) so a haven of curated style is a necessity if we are to have our own designers celebrated in the way they deserve.
For me, Bowns is the chance to take your own style seriously. Sometimes women’s clothes choices amount to a set of ‘occasion’ wear – wedding and best frock pieces little seen after their glad confident morning of a first time wear. All the money goes on them. And little is left to fund the clothes women are most seen in, their everyday style. The result is a hopeless seesaw between the very ‘done’ look reminiscent of Princess Diana in her heyday ( channeled by The Crown) and a battered left— over-from-your- youth style statement that’s seen better days. Or at least mine was. I had never quite got everyday sustained style right. I wanted to. Ever since my beautiful flat mate at University, shamed us all in her well -cut jeans and simple but sophisticated series of jumpers I had longed for a look I could maintain. Mind you Sarah was an art student and I wasn’t. The look always eluded me. Yet suddenly we could all have our very own grown up fashion student with life long skills in what women really want, in Rosalind ready to apply her knowledge of line and colour and design to customers’ look.
In Bowns you get carefully selected style, not mass produced fashion moments. Clothes bought there ten years ago appear in the mainstream fashion chains with a decade delay. And beautiful quality acquisitions are where we’re at now. Mountains of fastwear are as out of step with the Planet . ‘Pieces’ as the industry calls them are there for the long haul, to be carefully guarded from moths and slipped on every time you want to recreate that sense of quiet confident style these designers have devoted their lives to achieve.
All on our doorstep.
An early design by Rosalind Bown
