Fledgling retailer Cambridge Satchel Company has opened a men-only store for its leather bags. Retail Week takes a look inside.

There are two outposts of the Cambridge Satchel Company in London’s Covent Garden, but the one at Shorts Gardens is a one-off for this rapidly growing retailer. What was a normal unisex store for the operation was reborn last week as a single-floor shop for men with a gentleman’s club-like feel to it.

Clubs where males of a certain age, income and background gather tend to mean oak furniture, leather Chesterfield sofas and portraits of animals and people. The Cambridge Satchel Company does all of this, but the majority of the pictures are tongue-in-cheek pastiches of the genre and the furnishings and fittings are given a twist ranging from lights set into suspended classical busts, to wallpaper that masquerades as shelves of antique tomes.

The predominantly soberly coloured leather bags blend well in consequence and the ambience is of genteel male relaxation.

Overall, the look is totally different from when this was a store that sold bags to both genders and is a good instance of what can be done with a cosmetic makeover.