A family-owned UK fashion retailer based in West London that designs its own womenswear, menswear, kidswear and accessories.
River Island is a fashion retailer that designs its own clothes for women, men and children, and sells them in UK stores and online. Its in-house design team and its core teams are based at its West London headquarters. It is one of the UK's early vertically integrated fashion retailers, which means it designs the clothes it sells. The company also runs a River Studios concept store format, introduced in 2022, and sells maternity, kidswear and baby ranges that were added in 2009, 2010 and 2018.
Bernard Lewis started the business in 1948 with a market stall in Notting Hill, selling fruit and vegetables, and soon added The Wool Shop. It sold its first own design, a lace-trimmed blouse, in 1950. The shops traded as Lewis Separates and, by 1965 with about 70 stores, as Chelsea Girl. Menswear arrived in the 1980s under Chelsea Man, and the whole business was renamed River Island in 1988. Its first online sales came in the late 1990s. Leonard Lewis introduced menswear in the 1980s as Chelsea Man, later Concept Man. Rihanna co-designed three collections in 2013, and the brand launched online in the US and Canada in 2021. Its first store outside Great Britain opened in Dublin in 1993.
We did not find a short mission statement. The business is privately owned by the Lewis family through the Lewis Trust Group. It published a sustainability strategy in 2020 with 12 commitments tied to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Its long-running charity partner is Newlife, a charity founded by Leonard Lewis in 1991 for disabled and terminally ill children, and it also works with Mind, Age UK, Place2Be and Ditch the Label. Its sustainability commitments include the Bangladesh Accord, work with the Carbon Trust and WRAP, and membership of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. Wikipedia says carrier bag levy donations had raised 3 million pounds since 2016, and 850,000 garments were reused or recycled through the Newlife partnership in 2021.
Wikipedia says River Island employs around 8,400 people in the UK, including store staff. Its UK store count varies in sources, between 230 and 250. It sells in over 125 countries, and supplies UK wholesale partners including Next, Very and ASOS. Will Kernan became chief executive in 2019 and announced in 2022 that he would step down in 2023.
Roles span store colleagues, design, buying and merchandising, garment technology, marketing, e-commerce, distribution and head-office functions. It is a useful employer to look at if you want to see how an idea becomes a garment in a shop.
Website: www.riverisland.com
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