LONDON — Mayfair’s affluent shopping destination Mount Street is sharpening its cultural credentials with this year’s summer festival, coinciding with London Gallery Weekend and the broader summer circuit around the RA summer exhibition and Serpentine summer party.
Running from June 4 to 20 and presented by landlord Grosvenor, the festival leans on art, fashion, publishing and food to drive traffic to the luxury shopping street.
A new cultural hub on South Audley Street will anchor the program, hosting a Thames & Hudson pop-up with rare and signed editions. There will also be talks and children’s workshops, jewelry and accessories label Le Monde Béryl, and artist Kathryn Maple, who will work on collages inspired by London’s green spaces.
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From June 15, British Iraqi designer Walid al Damirji of By Walid will take over with an in-residence concept, presenting one-of-a-kind coats, homeware and sculpture made from salvaged materials, including rescued 17th-century tapestry, 19th-century opera gloves and antique Chinese and Italian embroidery.
Al Damirji said he has deliberately avoided the corporate route and kept the brand’s growth organic.
“By Walid is, at its core, an artisanal enterprise. It has never been a fashion brand,” he said.
“We don’t produce seasonal collections or disposable pieces. What we make is closer to craft, to art, to considered objects meant to endure. In many ways, we already exist beyond fashion. We work slowly and with great care at every stage of production, and that considered pace is itself a creative decision. Scale, for us, has never been the ambition,” he added.
Homeware from By Walid
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Sourcing is central to the brand’s identity, according to the designer who founded the label 15 years ago.
“I leave no stone unturned — vintage fairs, car boot sales, auction houses, specialist dealers. A meaningful part of every day is devoted to the hunt, and sourcing is as creative a process for me as the making itself,” he said. “Right now, I am particularly captivated by Napoleon III printed cottons — the richness of the patterns, the age in the cloth. There’s something endlessly generative about that period.”
The residency is designed to “present the full world of By Walid — the clothing, furniture, soft furnishings, sculpture and our latest screens — all in one immersive space. It’s the truest expression of what we do,” al Damirji said.
With the wholesale-led multibrand retail market shrinking, he sees this type of concept as increasingly strategic.
“The disappearance of independent multibrand retailers — both brick-and-mortar and online — has made spaces like this more vital than ever. Without those intermediaries, creatives need to create their own stages. The residency is ours,” he said.
And he believes the Mount Street audience is primed for that approach.
“They have moved well beyond conventional luxury. They’re not looking for a logo or a status piece — they’re searching for something genuinely singular. A one-of-a-kind object with history, soul, and a story behind it. That’s precisely the customer we make things for,” al Damirji added.
