Lalage Beaumont Brings Timeless, Elegant British Luxury To The World

Lalage Beaumont is an entry in our Great British Brands 2024 book. 

Lalage Beaumont: Great British Brand 2024

‘One of 2023’s highlights was our new Burlington Arcade shop, which drew so many new customers. Each day we had one of our coats on a mannequin in the window, creating overwhelming interest, especially from Americans, as not many people are making elegant modern coats in gorgeous colourful tweed.

Another highlight was opening our franchise in Riyadh. We’ve been fortunate to have always had a number of Saudi followers, and the Gulf countries are very important to the handbag business. We also hosted our first ever handbag trunk show in New York in November. I’m obsessive about the quality of our bags because I really believe people should be able to have something that’s beautifully made but affordable.

While there’s much positive to report, it’s also been a challenging year with the cost-of-living crisis and loss of tax-free shopping. Fortunately people do continue to spend on outfits for special occasions like weddings, and understandably they are even more focused on quality products that stand the test of time.

AI doesn’t have a huge bearing on our business but it’s brilliant for rewriting things like press releases and newsletters without grammatical errors and I think we’ll benefit from it hugely in terms of researching. But we’re intent on keeping a really human connection with our customers. In fact, we discourage clothes shopping online because we prefer people to come to the shop where we can show them how the outfits can really flatter and how we can alter them. All our clothes are exquisitely tailored and structured so need to fit perfectly, and we are proud that they are made in the UK. When people do shop online, we’ll phone them to talk through all the choices of colour and embroidery and alterations we offer. We make everything in small batches so we can customise outfits, while avoiding waste. Our ethos is staying close to our customers to help them find their perfect outfit.’

Lalage Beaumont, founder

Five Proudest Moments

1. Opening the first shop in 2006 in Avery Ray, Mayfair, and seeing the mannequins in the window and the merchandise beautifully displayed.
2. Opening the second shop in Beauchamp Place in 2012 and truly knowing we had a fabulous brand.
3. Launching the handbag range in 2015 and selling some of the first pieces on Christmas Eve.
4. Being approached by a beautiful store in Qatar, which gave us our first Gulf-region wholesale account, lifting our spirits during Covid restrictions in October 2020.
5. Seeing VIPs wearing the clothes on television for the first time back in 2008.

What I’ve Learnt

• Never give up.
• Always have an up-to-date cash flow statement.
• Very few things turn out as you would expect, so always prepare to be surprised.

LALAGE BEAUMONT

58 Beauchamp Place, London SW3 1NZ

+44 (0)20 7584 9977

lalagebeaumont.com

@lalage