I can’t speak for the rest of the country’s Hobbs stores, but the Covent Garden flagship has been recently refurbished and it’s now good to shop. It’s very open and light, with clothes laid out on beautiful leather topped tables (made by designer Bethan Grey) and in curved glass wardrobes with plenty of space on the floor to meander. There are plenty of comfy seats, by Amy Somerville, where you can chill and the atmosphere is modern and grown up.
Hobbs isn’t somewhere I shop regularly, but I was there as part of the day job and thought the range looked great, slightly COS-ish in places and very much true to size, rather than sizest. Everything goes up to a size 18.
I mentioned the fresh looking navy striped dress previously, but I also really loved this white cotton Madelyn top, made from an angular-take on broderie anglais, as an update on the classic white shirt. I have a weak spot for Broderie anglaise, too much time spent as a teenager sifting through Bath Saturday antique market looking for Broderie anglaise trimmed Victorian nightshirts to wear as dresses. Badly done lace should be avoided at all costs, but this is good quality, with careful sewing around each cut-out eyelet space.
it’s also spaciously fitted and has a generous length, which would look good worn over neat pencil-leg trousers or a slim skirt. I’ve given up on ‘tucked in’, due to menopausal-midrift.
It looks a little different in store from the web page image (top), so I’ve popped in my store snaps for you to compare. Those sleeves are rolled up in the web image but when left unrolled, it has a simple cuff and looks much nicer. The hemline is also a shirt-style finish, which again you don’t really see in the web shot.
Altogether a tempting update on a classic. it’s £129, What do you think, are you a Hobbs shopper?
I saw this in the Edinburgh store in George Street and it is a thing of great beauty.
That is divine. If I thought it would fit me I’d buy it …