Designer, shopkeeper, arts curator, events planner, and style icon: polymath [Alex Eagle] could lay claim to every one of these monikers. The ebullient founder and creative director of an eponymous concept store and London retail-gallery concepts The Store X—now with outposts in Berlin and Oxfordshire and a second in London—is known for putting together spaces that put style, art, and commerce together into dynamic dialogue. She’s just 36 years old, but Eagle’s eye and edit have become signal definers of 21st century British style.
Alex Eagle first opened her eponymous boutique Alex Eagle Studio on Walton Street in Chelsea in 2014—a tiny space where both major international and cottage-industry names met and merged. It wasn't long before she moved to a much larger space on Soho's Lexington Street. Clothes run the gamut from extremely feminine dresses to austere Savile Row-style suiting, and collectible pieces by Audou-Minet or Pierre Jeanneret might share display space with glassware designed by the Venetian nobleman Giberto Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga or gallery-caliber fashion illustrations. Eagle’s notable collaborations—with the likes of haberdashers New & Lingwood or 250-year-old luggage makers Swaine Adeney Brigg—recast the best-of British heritage brands with an edge.
After opening The Store X's first outpost in 2015 in Berlin’s Soho House, Eagle’s exposure in Europe expanded. “What I love about Berlin is that at any given table in any given restaurant there will be five different nationalities. It’s a true global hub for creativity and not just in art—science and tech, too. Anything goes, and there’s room for everyone. And I really love that it’s still in flux; it’s not fully developed.” She conceived of a space that would be “sort of this big hangout, not just a shop. There’s also a healthy food place, so you get juices and locally sourced seasonal salads. I designed a lot of the furniture and mixed it in with mid-century pieces. I love all of that.” Berlin is also where Eagle focuses on working with more global brands.“It’s great, very stimulating to have [labels like] Junya [from Japan], Vetements [from France], Off White from [the US]—all of that more ephemeral stuff.”
In 2017, Eagle launched her own limited-edition womenswear line—including a careful selection of trousers, jackets, and scarf-neck shirts and dresses that have become staples in London editor circles. And a year later, Alex Eagle Bespoke made its debut. These days, women from Santa Monica to Sydney (with no shortage from South Kensington) book in for fittings.
Travel has been a driver of her creativity her whole life, Eagle says, referring to trips through Morocco, India, Los Angeles (“I’d live there for a bit”), and Japan (“style-wise they just get it all, because it’s all about craft and heritage and the finish”). These days, though, she’s roaming closer to home, busy renovating a cottage and small farm for her family in Oxfordshire. “It’s quite humble,” Eagle says, “with a lovely orchard of pears and quince and apples. My three-year-old, Jack, loves it. It’s great to watch him go from being such an urban child to just immersed in it there. It’s amazing how seeing [a new location] through your kids’ eyes changes it. It’s added a huge element of pleasure to travelling for me.”
