New & Lingwood Store Visit

Of the two dozen or so men’s stores I visited while in Paris and London there is one that continuously comes to mind as my favorite.  Guarding the Jermyn Street entrance to the Picadilly Arcade are two store fronts that make up one shop called New & Lingwood.  New & Lingwood dates back to 1865 when it was first established in Eton.  Soon after its inception it was made the official outfitter to Eton College (if you don’t know what Eton is I recommend you read up on it).  The store was founded by a then unmarried Ms. New and a Mr. Lingwood, they later married.  It was not until 1922 that New & Lingwood opened a storefront on Jermyn Street.  50 years later Poulsen Skoane was acquired to bolster New & Lingwood’s shoe offerings (and with Poulsen came the infamous butterfly loafers which will be discussed in a separate post in the future, but they are badass).  In present day New & Lingwood continues to sell traditional menswear with the New & Lingwood flare.

The New & Lingwood flare is what I really liked about the store.  It was like a combination of J. Press, Paul Stuart, Brooks Brothers and Lilly Pulitzer; which are some of my favorite brands.  Needless to say, the combination is rather glorious.  As soon as I walked in the store and saw the socks that were displayed on mannequin feet I know I had found my place.  As I delved further into the store and found the ascots, braces, waistcoats, shirts, pocket squares, shoes and blazers I became even more enamored.  Two things kept reappearing in many of New & Lingwood’s offerings; bright colors and skull and cross bones.  The skull and cross bone socks that I have previously commented on were just part of the spread, I also could not resist picking up a skull and cross bones pocket square.

I would like to note the blazers.  Now, dominant thought of the day claims a blazer to be a navy (or sometimes dark green) jacket with metal buttons, I would agree with this.  However, originally blazers were of bright colors and sported by rowing teams like those shown below, but more on that at another time.

The shoe offerings are pretty much in line with the style of the rest of the British shoe houses, but they did have Butterfly loafers, which are badass.  The last things I would like to comment on are the scarves and ascots and finally the staff.  The scarves (as seen below) and ascots (which are of the same/similar print to scarves) were quite amazing.  They were almost all of paisley patterns and in bright colors.  In fact, one of the shades of pink in an ascot I like was referred to as being ‘delicious’ by one of the salesmen, who had a sarcastic, somewhat negative and always laughter inducing sense of humor.  The salesmen, I should say were not pushy, were helpful and did know their stuff; which was the case of most of the Saville Row and Jermyn Street salespeople I encountered.  I would consider the New & Lingwood gents an exception to Rule 14.  If you ever have the chance to stop by New & Lingwood, I recommend you do not pass up the opportunity, just bring your money and sense of style.