The opening of the new Turnbull & Asser store in the square mile of London – the first London store outside genteel Jermyn Street – has given us a moment of reflection on the pitfalls of retailing in the modern world. Gentry explore the machinations of a most intriguing brand.

Gradually over the past couple of years, Turnbull & Asser (shirtmakers to royalty and James Bond alike) have been tweaking things – an elegant new web presence with a site that is actually helpful, for starters – and this new City of London shop is a part of a mild expansion of this already well-established, blue-chip, though still discreet brand. We’ll come clean from the get-go. We have loved Turnbull & Asser for years, even in their crankier moods, before their new expansionism. We appreciate their rowdy stripes and are devoted to their collars; their cashmere is pleasingly, even insanely, brightly coloured and their silk pocket squares are unmatched. We happily admit that we probably have more of their shirts hanging in our wardrobe than any other brand. The old timers (and even the young timers who act like old timers) who work in the Jermyn Street shop are, well, lovely and the Turnbull & Asser semi-annual sales offer world-beating bargains (3 shirts for £150! Yay!).

But there’s a ‘but’… Okay, the new store in the City, just down the road from the London Stock Exchange, is probably a long overdo bid for the bankers’ business and it’s right to extend the reach to new customers, but the shop is a huge disappointment. Old Broad Street is no Jermyn Street – it has neither the gentlemen’s history nor the jaunty location. But we were looking forward to having a Turnbull & Asser nearer to where we live in east, so location isn’t the real problem – it’s the shop itself. Walking around the awkward Jermyn Street shop is fun – you have to turn corners, try not to bump your head in places, often search for things you know are there but aren’t readily apparent. Now that’s what we call shopping!

In the Old Broad Street Turnbull & Asser, there’s just no plucky English spirit. On the contrary, there’s a slightly worrying feeling that some retail advisers were behind the design of the shop. Where’s the playfulness we have a right to demand from Turnbull & Asser? Where’s the sense of history? Where are the wonderfully overstuffed windows? With competition from revamped and refreshed American stalwarts Brooks Brothers just across the street, Turnbull & Asser need to find a way to communicate exactly what they’re about, in the modern retail world, without dumbing and blanding down.

This is not an argument against buying Turnbull & Asser, and as long as they don’t tamper with their shirts, things will probably be okay. As they head towards their 125th anniversary, Turnbull and Asser still has a stylish soul..they just need always to remember it.

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