Around nine years ago, I was given a hot tip by an independent fashion retailer about a new brand they had picked up, called Rixo, whose fan base was quickly growing. I checked it out: with its clashing printed dresses styled with thin metallic belts and silk scarves, it looked like something thrown together by a cool London girl who shops vintage. It was much more design-led and original than anything the high street at that time had to offer, with nicer fabrics, but still accessibly priced.
I got in touch with the co-founders, Henrietta Rix and Orlagh McCloskey, and they invited me to their shared flat in West London, which in those days was doubling up as their head office and stockroom. After coffee and a chat, I tried on a few dopamine dresses in their tiny bathroom (bumping into a famous TV presenter on the way out, who’d come to do the same). “The weirdest things happened in that flat,” recalls Rix when we catch up over Zoom. “One time, a princess from Saudi Arabia turned up in a Rolls-Royce, thinking it was our boutique — we invited her in.”