The menswear store Simpsons of Piccadilly was opened on April 20th 1936. Intended to showcase the DAKS range of trousers, the flagship store was designed by Joseph Emberton, and featured interior design by Laszlo Moholy Nagy. The building was built using a steel frame, engineered by Felix Samuley, although his initial plan to use welded steel fell foul of London County Council who told him to alter it. After the structure was finally put in place, a Portland Stone finish was added, inter set with five bands of horizontal windows.
Hungarian photographer and artist Lazslo Moholy Nagy, former professor at the Bauhaus and emigre to Britain from 1935, was commissioned alongside Gyorgy Kepes to design the displays and signage for the store, and he installed three aeroplanes on the fifth floor, in a bid to get the curious passersby into the shop. Much of the furniture and fittings was designed by Emberton himself, including shelves, storage racks, chairs and display tables.
Emberton’s simple but classic design has endured through various changes in retail design. Even in the 1960s, an advert for the brand would highlight the store's design as “spacious, light and airy”, calling it “London’s most modern store”.The building was listed in September 1970, and in 1999 it was converted into a branch of Waterstones bookshops, which it remains to this day.
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