Interview
EAGLE EYED
Through her eponymous shop-meets-gallery in Soho – which sells a meticulously curated blend of art, interiors and fashion – Alex Eagle has redefined the concept of retail. Here, she shares her thoughts on sustainability, style icons and the importance of kitsch Words BETHAN RYDER
M
eeting Alex Eagle is just like catching up with a best girlfriend. Founder and creative director of lifestyle retail concept Alex Eagle Studio and The Store X projects, as well as her own brand, Eagle has been credited with reinventing the fashion boutique. She is possibly the coolest woman in London, and yet she is disarmingly easy company. We meet at the vast warehouse flat in Soho that she shares with husband Mark Wadhwa, a commercial property developer, and their two young children, Jack and Columba. So relaxed is Eagle that the front door is wide open on my arrival, without a soul in sight. An artwork-lined entrance corridor leads into a basketball court-sized openplan apartment. Calls of “Helloooo?” are met by a lady with a Hoover, but seconds later Eagle breezes in, apologises for her scruffy appearance, proffers tea and chocolates and leads me to a sofa. No ordinary sofa, of course, but one of two six-seater linen Axel Vervoordt beauties that flank a large coffee table – also by the Belgian minimalist – that does well to survive under the weight of 15 towering stacks of art and photography tomes.
“As a little girl I would get changed 20 times a day. I constantly tore pages out of magazines to create collages and scrapbooks, which I still have” 30
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02/07/2019 18:12
