Pastry shops are not usually on the most obsessed and diet-conscious fashionistas’ list. But things were very different in London’s Soho where legendary French patisserie Maison Bertaux hid in its basement a delightful surprise, Max Karie and Pippa Brooks’ ‘SHOP’ at Maison Bertaux. Sadly the shop ceased to exist this December, so the following post is a tribute to it and features the feedback Pippa gave me a while back.
Everything started in the ‘90s when Karie and Brooks met and began selling clothes out of a launderette on Frith Street. The two friends then spent over 10 years working in their basement shop in Brewer Street, before moving two years ago to the new location. “We’ve always ended up downstairs wherever we were and I’ve been working in a basement for 13 years, but I preferred this shop as you could see a bit of light from here and hear the buzz of the café upstairs,” Pippa Brooks explained me. Apparently, there weren’t too many people - apart from the occasional café customer looking for the toilet - who went down the narrow stairs that led to the shop by mistake. Most of the people who went to visit the little shrine were on a mission to find it and buy some very special clothes. “We had a lot of loyal customers, but, because we were near Central Saint Martins, we also had a slightly artier crowd, actors, actresses and fashion people,” Brooks said.
The shop wasn’t definitely huge, but it stocked some of the most original and interesting brands around. The main budget was spent on French modern and minimalist brand A.P.C. (Atelier de Production et de Creation), which also provided a nice cultural connection with the café upstairs. “We really love the whole aesthetics of this label as it doesn’t try to be particularly fashion-y, but there’s something about it that is great, we love for example the fact that A.P.C. also have a recording studio in their design offices, it’s great to see things like music, fashion and art combined together,” Brooks stated. The two other main brands that were sold in the shop were Sonia Rykiel and Eley Kishimoto, both known for their use of vivid colours. The shop was among the few ones allowed to do Vivienne Westwood costume jewellery without doing the main line and also sold T-shirts and accessories by Obey, the label launched by graffiti artist, graphic designer and illustrator Frank Shepard Fairey. Maison Bertaux also stocked Repetto pumps: the shoes available from the shop, such as the “Bardot” pump were picked by the customers through a mailing list survey. “People might think that all pumps are the same, but when you wear them you realise it’s not like that,” Brooks claimed, “The ‘Bardot’ is very special, it’s exactly what you would imagine Brigitte wearing while walking along the beach in a pair of Capri pants and a polo neck jumper.”
All the designers and labels stocked in the shop had one main quality, they could stand the test of time since Karie and Brooks were never interested in ephemeral stuff and since most of their customers were after things they were going to love for years.
There was also something else that you were able to find at the shop: “Misery Loves Company”, the latest CD by All About Eve Babitz. Brooks is the band’s voice and also has a DJ residency at the George & Dragon in London’s Shoreditch. The CD features seven catchy tracks, from the poppy ‘Strange Idea of Love’ to the melancholic ‘Stardusk’ while the carefree ‘Fantastic’ was recently featured on Alek Keshishian’s movie Love and Other Disasters featuring Brittany Murphy. “I do my residency every two weeks, I DJ and sometimes get behind the bar and sing some songs, it’s a sort of multi-tasking job - ever since I had kids I’ve been obsessively multi-tasking all the time,” Brooks joked, “I think if I didn’t do music, I’d go crazy, music is my creative outlet.”
SHOP at Maison Bertaux might be gone, but try to keep up to date with Max Karie and Pippa Brooks’ projects through their sites, you can bet they’re already onto something new and exciting.
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