Power dressing: The interiors trend for bespoke dressing rooms

The dressing room in the 18th century was quite the hive of fragrant activity, where well-heeled women would receive friends and guests while beautifying themselves. Even spiritual advisors were welcomed into the lair by some soul-seeking mavens.

In some ways, this glamorous space has come full circle. While there might be less gossiping and, presumably, religious enlightenment, the dressing room has once again become something of a centre point to the house. This time around it means museum-worthy display cabinets for a showstopping collection of rare handbags, temperature-controlled and moth-proofed wardrobes and mannequins displaying the week’s outfits ordered by a personal stylist.

Luxury kitchen and interiors specialist Smallbone has seen a boom in demand for dressing quarters. “Dressing rooms and ensuite bathrooms have become the new inner sanctum,” says ideation director Iain O’Mahony. “It is, increasingly, becoming the focal point for a lot of houses, especially with people spending more time at home. The beautiful and elegant way in which couture houses present and display their goods has been hugely influential in how we design dressing rooms.”

This means more space for clothes to breathe, accent lighting and bespoke storage devices — the emphasis is now on display, rather than storage. It also incorporates the Samsung AirDresser into dressing rooms on request — an ingenious bit of kit that extends the life of clothes by steaming, de-dusting and sanitising them.

Interior designer Charu Ghandi from luxury designers Elicyon has seen a meteoric rise in high-tech dressing spaces. “We have created a dressing room with a mirror with an inbuilt camera and screen, so you can record yourself from all angles; one with bespoke watch winding, cufflink storage, shoe display and makeup drawers; and a dressing room space where the clothes are categorised by designer,” she says. She has also seen the security of the dressing room space evolve, incorporating fingerprint to retina scanners for dressing rooms with high-value items.

Ghandi sees this stylish transformation as a return to the glory days. “A lot of our clients have personal stylists or have a hairdresser come to their home as part of getting dressed. There is a sense of circumstance or pomp to the process, however small it may be.”

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