Zara WongAug 27, 2026 – 5.00amThere’s a quiet hum of customers at Harvey Nichols in London’s Knightsbridge on a Friday morning in early July. Julia Goddard, its chief executive, is chatting with a woman who is picking out outfits for an upcoming holiday in Ibiza; it’s her second time back since the department store’s private shoppers team helped her with her outfit for Ascot. Goddard makes it her business to know her customers intimately.The nostalgia of Harvey Nichols looms large. In the 1980s, Princess Diana was a regular, often reserving a quiet table at the back of the top-floor restaurant. In the ’90s, it was the first British stockist for the likes of Stella McCartney, Nicolas Ghesquière’s Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen. Perhaps it is most famous for its star turn on Absolutely Fabulous; up-and-coming fashion buyer Mary Portas suggested the department store could supply clothes in exchange for mentions in the television show. But post-COVID it faced years of losses and the British media surmised that Harvey Nichols had fallen out of fashion. “I don’t have that connection with Harvey Nichols any more,” Fiona Golfar, a former Vogue editor, told The Telegraph in 2023. “And I think they’d have to work quite hard to pull me back.”Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles