James Brown and his South African wife Christie Fels are a dynamic, creative and refreshingly unpretentious couple. Collectors, curators and cultural magpies, they are the co-founders of the Blue Mountain School, the name a nod to the experimental American art school Black Mountain College – a hub for mid-20th-century art, music and poetry.
Their Blue Mountain School (BMS) is a multidisciplinary art, retail and restaurant space located inside a sleek, silver, six-storey townhouse on the corner of Chance and Redchurch Streets in London’s Shoreditch. It’s a place that, as Brown says, “can represent anything we feel passionate about”. Alongside the fashion, the craft and the art, there is Cycene (meaning kitchen in old English), a warmly decorated restaurant that seats only 15 and is headed by the engaging British chef Theo Clench. Offering a 10-course menu, Cycene gained a Michelin star in its first year. It sits alongside a listening space and a glorious roof terrace. “We’re not traditional about anything we do,” says Brown.
The curation of their elegant home is a natural extension of the aesthetic that defines BMS – an editorial vision led by Fels, a trained interior architect. Built as a “dower house” in the late 17th century, it is one of the oldest houses in the historic Canonbury conservation area. Much of its furniture has been created by the makers who also exhibit their work at BMS. Its original features remain unchanged: tall sash windows frame the lush garden while inviting light to flood onto the white painted walls and floorboards. The uncluttered interior feels fresh, modern and very cool.
Brown’s entry into the worlds of art and fashion might at first seem unlikely. Although he’d always been interested in those worlds, he initially followed a career in football. “I never thought for one second I would stop playing and end up opening a fashion store,” he says. He is stretched out on a bespoke sofa designed by Tyler Hays’ design brand BDDW in the airy sitting room of the Grade II-listed house. The husband-and-wife team (both 36) share a Byronic beauty, with porcelain skin, dark tumbling curls and eclectic style. Both are swathed in black, their clothes created by Paul Harnden, one of the designers sold at BMS, their bare feet encased in woven tatami house slippers.
Brown retired from football following an injury at 22, having played professionally in the UK, LA and Italy. “I never really enjoyed the culture around the game,” he reflects. “When it all got more professional and less ‘pure’, I found I was lonely living alone in rented apartments,” he says. “When I stopped playing, there was a huge sense of relief and I haven’t kicked a ball since. That’s my nature, I’m very single-minded.”
He channelled that single-mindedness into his love of design (“I had always been interested in designers like Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto and shopped in stores like Dover Street Market and the brilliant Library”), and his first business on the Redchurch-Chance Street site was the menswear store Hostem, which opened in 2010. “I rented the ground and lower-ground floor space in a very gnarly building. I knew nothing about retail. I just went for it,” he recalls.
The store gathered a cult following and within two years the family decided to acquire the entire six-floor property. “I was lucky, I had been building an art collection over almost 18 years and many of those works had increased significantly in value over that time from what were then emerging artists.” It was this collection and the family’s property acumen that allowed Brown to proceed without outside investment.
His purchase was well timed – the East End art and design scene around them was hotting up. “It was beginning to get very interesting around there,” he says of the neighbourhood that was also inhabited by many YBA creatives. “Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Rachel Whiteread and Cornelia Parker were among our first neighbours,” he says. Today, Brown’s art collection contains works by modern British artists including Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, Bridget Riley, William Turnbull, Kim Lim and Barbara Hepworth – while his home is currently host to more contemporary works by artists such as Rachel Whiteread, Ricky Swallow, Christopher Page and his wife, sculptor Clementine Keith-Roach as well as letter paintings by their close friend, the South African artist Jared Ginsburg.
Despite the success of Hostem, the pair became disillusioned with the speed of the fashion calendar and the space has evolved into one offering a selection of garments, ceramics, objects and artworks that are presented in permanent rotation and are added to over time. “No sooner had we put some amazing piece of clothing in the shop than it had to go on sale because that was what the online shops and big retailers were doing. It was just dispiriting for us,” explains Fels. “It seemed so wrong to devalue clothes so quickly and so we decided to rethink our model and focus more on projects with artists and makers such as Amy Revier, Geoffrey B Small, Anecho and Paul Harnden. Since we’ve shunned the commercial transience of fashion retail, many clients love the fact that they won’t find these pieces and this curation anywhere else.” The concept of a multidisciplinary space took hold and Blue Mountain School was born in 2018.
Brown and Fels, who spearheads Studio School, the interiors arm of BMS, have lived in the Canonbury house for the past 10 years (they also have a home in West Sussex). Its four storeys are built over a basement that now serves as the kitchen; their sitting room above is furnished in a classic mix of BDDW furniture, antiques from Howe and a collection of pieces that the couple have gifted to each other for birthdays and anniversaries. The look is pared-back and artisanal, allowing the beauty of material and craftsmanship to draw the eye. At the top of the house, a higgledy staircase leads up to a Pierre Jeanneret desk and chair in an attic “writing room”.
Fels soon found that Brown’s professional enthusiasm for editing also extended to his home style. “The biggest difficulty of living in a period house is that it has its limitations, so we have to change up the furniture all the time to appreciate the things we have,” says Brown of his predilection for swapping pieces around. “Recently I came home to find that James had had everything taken to storage because he had an idea of doing something completely different,” Fels continues. Brown admits, with a laugh, having a trait of, “On to the next. I am terrible! I got the removal guys to empty the entire house. Christie’s brother came to stay with us and when he arrived there wasn’t even a bed for him!”
His impetuousness comes from forward thinking. “For me the process is about the creation of the thing, and then it’s next, next, next. I don’t have emotional attachments to projects.” Fels nods. “Emptying the house was extreme, even for James,” she says. “But it’s something about him I have got used to over the years!”
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Yet, as unusual as their life might sound, Brown and Fels’ home is a testament to their vision. At the large kitchen table, not one for PG Tips, Fels pours her own Fynbos blend of wellness tea from her and her brother’s brand Felsfyn (also sold at BMS). It combines Rooibos and wild-harvest Buchu leaves, and is brewed in a cast-iron Tetsubin teapot – bought as a birthday gift for her by Brown from a 16th-generation family studio in Morioka, Japan. She serves it in mugs by ceramicist Steve Harrison along with a slice of almond tart. Laid on the table are other pieces the colour of clotted cream, including a large collection of ceramic pots that she has brought home from frequent visits back to South Africa.
But what of the “next”? The pair are embarking on a project in the north of Scotland in collaboration with Wildland Scotland, which will consist of an art foundation, restaurant and rooms, extensive gardens and a residency in the wilderness. As Brown happily admits, “I’m always saying ‘let’s work with this person on that project’. Then Christie has the ability to harness it and make it happen.”
