Akris

There is a technique Akris is known for within the trade and almost nowhere outside it. Double-face fabric is woven so that both surfaces are finished, which lets a coat be built with no lining at all and no seam allowance showing anywhere inside it.

It is slow, expensive and effectively invisible to anyone not looking for it, which is a fair summary of the house generally. Akris is family-run from St Gallen, the Swiss city that built its wealth on fine embroidery and textiles, and the Old Bond Street store sits deliberately among the jewellers rather than in the busier fashion stretch to the north.

Who buys Swiss fashion Old Bond Street quietly

The clientele here tends to be long-standing rather than passing. These are clothes bought for a wardrobe over years rather than for a season, in a palette that never raises its voice and with no logo anywhere on the outside.

Service pitched at the returning customer

Staff are used to clients they have dressed before and to conversations that begin where the last one ended. Nobody is hurried towards a till, and browsing without buying is met with the same attention as anything else.