With all these posh pubs and trendy restaurants, Chelsea’s other institutions have risen up (or veered slightly off-kilter) to meet them. Style Salon (99-103 Fulham Road, SW3, stil-salon. com), one of the most stylish hair salons in SW3, recently relocated from Notting Hill to Chelsea to meet the extensive hair-styling needs of the Royal Borough. But Stil isn’t all balayages and blowouts. Owner Christel Barron-Hough used to be former global technical director at Tigi, and she’s got a lot of experimental hair tricks up her sleeve. If you’re noticing Chelsea girls getting more creative with their barnets, best believe she’s responsible. Skincare too is starting to get more cutting-edge in Chelsea, reflecting the rest of London’s approach, with the rightly revered Debbie Thomas’s D.Thomas Clinic (25 Walton Street, SW3, dthomas.com) and the reliable Sarah Chapman’s sizeable skin emporium (259 Pavilion Road, SW1, sarahchapman.com), home to treatments galore along with shelves bursting with her products, both making their mark. Skin Laundry (69A King’s Road, SW3, skinlaundry.uk), the brand that “made laser facials a thing”, has expanded to Chelsea too. Plus, Chelsea has a thriving shopping culture, with the neighbourhood consistently bucking trends. A flood of new boutiques have opened since the pandemic — quite the contrast to nearly every other London high street. In the past two years, Chelsea has gained cool-girl brand Reformation (11 King’s Road, SW3, thereformation. com), floral dress haven Rixo (114-116 King’s Road, SW3, rixolondon.com) and renowned Italian highend furniture and accessories brand Hang (254 Brompton Road, SW3, henge07.com). The fashion editors’ favourite shirt brand, With Nothing Underneath (47 Elizabeth Street, SW1, withnothingunderneath.com), now has an outpost.
