Jenners of Edinburgh winds of change

The oldest independent department store in the world says it's been contemporary since 1838. Kate Patrick went to Jenners to find out how

A personal recollection, to begin. I spent much of the 1980s working at Vogue magazine, during the era when models became supermodels, labels were designer labels and you didn't just dress: you power-dressed, preferably complete with Cutler & Gross sunglasses. Stores and specialist retailers in the fashion capitals of Paris, Milan, New York and London vied for the hottest names to set their rails alight. Yet on those iconic fashion pages, it was intriguing to see how often the words ‘Jenners, Edinburgh' cropped up. How could a traditional, provincial department store figure so prominently amongst all this international über-style?

The answer is that the Princes Street store was doing just what it had done since it was founded in 1838: retailing the best of the prevailing fashion. Charles Jenner and Charles Kennington set up their drapery after being sacked for taking the day off to go to the Musselburgh races. They took the lease at 47 Princes Street and claimed they would provide “every prevailing British and Parisian fashion in silks, shawls, fancy dresses, ribbons, lace, hosiery, and every description of linen drapery and haberdashery.” At the time, silks and linens were only available in the great fashion houses of London, so it was an ambitious aim. But 150 years after opening, Jenners was still jostling with Harrods and Saks Fifth Avenue for caption space in the glossy magazines.

In Scotland, of course, Jenners is an institution, and an intrinsic part of Edinbu...

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• By : Kate Patrick
• In : Contemporary Scotland
• Issue : 3
• Page : 40
• Words : 1,422