Blondey McCoy started skating at 10 and was riding for Palace Skateboards by 14. He became a fixture under the concrete of London’s Southbank Undercroft before most of his peers had finished school. He turned up in Palace’s seminal videos, helped save the Southbank skatepark from redevelopment in 2014, and went on to ride for adidas and Supreme while also modeling for Burberry and walking Virgil Abloh’s first Louis Vuitton show. Somewhere in there, as a GCSE art project, he attached a name and a crown logo to a school notebook and called it Thames.

That doodle became a brand. After a run alongside Palace through the 2010s, McCoy split from them in 2019 and relaunched on his own terms as Thames MMXX — Roman numerals for the year he took back full creative control. The label nods to McCoy’s own biography and the cultural staples that shaped his taste — Prince George’s school uniform, Brideshead Revisited, Pete Burns, the Regency Cafe, Withnail and I. It sells almost everything, the catalog as wide-ranging as the references feeding it: heavyweight knits and graphic tees alongside tailored suits and tuxedos, fine jewelry, ties made in England, sunglasses, pajamas, houndstooth slippers, and shaped skateboards you can actually ride.

For years McCoy resisted a permanent shop, waiting on the right space. He found it at 53 Brewer Street, a Victorian bow-windowed unit in Soho he’d first enquired about in September 2019, before it unexpectedly resurfaced last year. He landed his original dream space — and, lo and behold, it’s a 36-second walk from the Thames studio. It opened this spring as Thames MMXX’s first permanent store, and it’s been built like one of his collections.

The window holds a wax sculpture of McCoy eating an egg-and-chip roll, recreating the English-breakfast photos Thames used to post to Instagram. A nine-hour video loop runs against the glass, an homage to the Supreme monitor he watched during his first trips to New York as a kid. Skateboards hang from nylon bows on custom star-print wallpaper. The floor is a patchwork of stained Aubusson rugs bought off eBay and cut into Thames diamonds. There’s a jumbo brass menu board, a knit-display fountain modeled on Piccadilly Circus, and a changing room with a painted ceiling and stained glass.

Everything in it is specific, and most of it is a reference. Who better to decode it than the man who put it all there? McCoy walked us through, fixture by fixture.

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Hypebeast: Walk us through the display in the window.

Blondey McCoy: Before we moved in, this space was occupied by a Korean bistro, so this table was as much a counter to eat at as it was a window to dress. I thought, someone really wants to be sitting here eating something — so maybe it should be some kind of English breakfast, because these pictures we used to do for Instagram. They were not intentionally the imagery that this brand was built on, but they just incidentally were. So we thought, why don’t we do a 3D eternal sculpture of one of those English breakfast pictures? Here we have a sculpture of me eating an egg and chip. But nothing is ever finished. The [sculpture] arrived one day before the shop opening, and his hair was very straight — my hair’s not straight. So Leon in the studio started curling his hair, but the curling irons started to melt his head because of the wax. We didn’t think about that.

Tell us about the TV.

We have a nine-and-a-bit-hour loop, a video playlist, of all things Thames. About 65% is Thames productions — skate videos, campaign videos, whatever. The remainder is old talk-show clips, music videos, individual skate tricks played again and again, all channeling Thames’s inspirations. We have in our studio a legend wall — it was a legend corner, now it’s a legend alcove, three walls, a pinboard with all our inspirations. This is the video version of that.

Did you curate those?

Yes, and that was a huge job in itself. When I was about 12 years old, I went to New York for the first time. I was wandering around the streets late at night and walked past the Supreme shop on Lafayette. All of their shops have a big monitor, but this one had a monitor right up against the window. I was there late at night on my own, and I started watching their videos. It’s such an eclectic brand — skate videos, which really interested me, but also Muhammad Ali footage and everything else. I always thought that was nice. I think it was then I decided that if I ever have a shop, I want to do something like that, for all of those 12-year-olds wandering around late at night. It says above the window, “A world to live in and delight in!” That’s not just a world of our own design. We want Thames to introduce people to all of the things which we deem wonderful.

How did you find this store?

This particular shop was the first of all shops that I showed any interest in at all. I walked past it in about September 2019. To give you an idea of how long ago that was in Soho property terms, there was a piece of paper in the window that said “to sublet,” and a number to ring. These days, retail spaces don’t need to advertise or even come to the market, because they’re so desirable. But they did then. I rang more out of curiosity than anything, because I thought that bow window, which is very Victorian, was very cool and very Thames. They told me it had been taken. We looked more actively way down the line, once we actually had a brand and things to put in a shop, but nothing compared to this. So when I learned this space was becoming available again, I seized the opportunity. It’s ironic that after seven years of on-off shop hunting, we ended up at the very first one I took an interest in. And the proximity to the studio — 36 seconds’ walk, last time I measured — is a huge bonus.

Tell us about the board wall.

The other shop that really influenced me when I was a kid was Slam City Skates in Covent Garden. They had a huge board wall, and I always wanted that, because the kind of art on skateboards is and always has been the kind of art that interests me most. So here we have our board wall. It doesn’t look like any other board walls, because it’s on fabric wallpaper for a start, and it’s hung with these nylon bows. I got the idea while looking at a book — I think the guy’s name is Mario Buatta, an interior-design guy who has all these dogs, and in his own home he has pictures in ornate frames hanging off these bows. I thought that would be a cool way to hang skateboards. The proximity of the skateboards to the tailoring and the ties is crucial, because therein lies the essence of Thames.

Can you tell us about the wallpaper?

This is a custom fabric we developed. It’s called the cloth pattern, made up of stars. The star is hand-drawn, which predates even this iteration of Thames. I like it because it reminds me of a restaurant I know. Even though we’re selling clothes and skateboards and jewelry, it’s very important to look delicious.

Tell us about the tailoring.

All Thames things, but especially tailoring, have to look good forever. So they’re all my favorites, not just seasonally. The boards next to the suits next to the jewelry — that’s Thames in a nutshell. We do everything. This is our Ambassador suit. And this is a tuxedo jacket we made for my wedding. I think we made about 25 of them.

You wore this to your wedding?

Yes but then I thought, if we’re doing it, we may as well make a few. Wedding season’s approaching, and we’ve got two or three left.

Can you tell us about the jewelry vitrine?

This vitrine is based on the boxes that all of our jewelry comes in — beveled edges. This ring, called the Ogee ring, is also based on that box. The jewelry, like the tailoring, is not seasonal. We take our time, we make it exactly the way we want. And it being jewelry, it should outlive us all. We have very intricate designs, like the Paragon ring, which has a whole map of the UK on it, set with a functioning compass. My favorite is probably the Faith earring, which I had to take out of my ear and put on the model.

There are a lot of different types of jewelry here.

This is a bracelet. That’s a tie bar — a lucky tie bar. That’s a bolo tie made of a bedazzled prefect shield. And you have this cameo of Pete Burns, the singer from Dead or Alive.

He’s also in the changing room. What’s the relationship with Pete Burns?

The relationship is that of a fan and the hero of the fan. These lockets — the display models have Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli in them. We sell them without anything in them, and we offer to put pictures in. If you don’t have anyone to love, no problem — simply say so at the checkout, and we’ll fit your locket with a picture of a randomly selected member of the Thames staff.

Can you tell us about the menu board?

Another huge influence on me is the Regency Cafe. They have big brass frames, and typically it’s a menu board specifying the food with prices. I thought it would be amazing to do a really jumbo one made up of all the Thames words and products in stock at the time of opening. It has Thames phrases — “knits, glorious knits,” “top drawer material.” This is one of my favorite things in the whole shop. It’s like an archive.

Was it hard to find someone to make this?

Someone who’s worked at Thames for seven years made this. I made a video of her putting in all the individual letters. I was going to post it and write on top of it, “So you think you want a job at Thames?”

Do you wear the Thames pajamas?

I personally wear the pajamas. These are one of the best styles we’ve ever made. They’re made out of 97% cotton and 3% elastane, and they have a really nice hand-feel. My son, who is five, has a pair from a shop in Rome, which I believe is where the Pope gets his socks. I loved those pajamas so much I wanted to remake them, match them as closely as possible for adults — specifically me. But that’s how it often is with Thames. I make what I want, and then we’ll make another couple of hundred to see if anyone else would like to buy them as well. Sometimes it works.

Can you tell us about the shields?

When we first launched this brand, we made these prefect shields with words on them — some of which would normally appear on prefect shields, like “monitor,” others less likely, such as “dominatrix” or “shoplifter.” I think the more of them you see, the better. They remind me of little treats, little sweeties in the window of a patisserie. Like Alice in Wonderland — the things she eats. “Drink me,” “eat me.”

Point out some you like.

Our current collection is inspired by Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, and the entire sealed set is pure plagiarism. Every single shield is lifted directly from the book. “Insular and medieval.” “Deliciously archaic spectacle.” “Terracotta bowl of the fifth century.” “British matron with beefy forearms.” “Semi-heathen.” I think they’re some of my favorite things in the world. And it’s one of my favorite books. It’s very quintessentially British. Neither art and fashion nor politics nor money, in Thames terms, exists outside of those ghastly things.

Do people put the shields on the shirts?

Sometimes — more often on bags or knits. We’ve recently started doing a lot more of those early styles the brand was built on. As a designer I think, oh, we’ve already done that, let’s do something new. I’m so averse to this very streetwear idea of whatever might work, let’s do it in ten different colors, long sleeve, short sleeve, hoodie, crew. But as time’s gone on, I’ve realized that to fill the world with these things would not be such a bad thing. Why not give customers what they want? Ditch this idea that nothing worth having comes easy. These come easy, but they’re worth having.

It does take time to work out what you want to do.

Perhaps if we’d done what people expected of us in the beginning — made a lot of t-shirts and built a skate team and focused solely in the predictable direction — then we wouldn’t have had time to develop some of these more specialist styles. Jewelry as a category took so much time and thought. I don’t think I’d have been able to do that if I’d been on skate trips making t-shirts. I’m grateful that we’ve rediscovered skateboarding at a time when we’ve already worked out within ourselves what this brand is. Now it’s almost like I’m afforded the luxury of skating and making t-shirts and all those fun things, because they’re fun when we’re not dependent on them as a business.

Can you tell us about the knitwear style?

This is the most classic of all Thames knit styles — the knit we launched with. It’s called the PG knit, and the “PG” stands for Prince George. The very first collection we ever did, I saw a picture of him in his school uniform — he went to a school called Thomas’ in Battersea — and it had these blue Bermudas and a navy V-neck with a red stripe. I thought, wow, that looks so good. What an unlikely source of inspiration that would be for a British company rooted in skateboarding, and yet how much sense it makes. So we had the PG knit and the PG shirt and all these prefect shields, and the skateboards had the words of some of the houses of the school I went to.

Can you tell us about the slippers?

These are the Baskerville slippers, because they’re a take on houndstooth — mental connections with The Hound of the Baskervilles. Of every Thames style I’ve ever made, the ones I’ve gotten the very most use of are the Baskerville slippers and the pajamas. What does that say about me? Sounds like I’m always in bed. The truth is that I’m living the dream.

Can you tell us about the changing room?

We have the painted ceiling above, like Caesars Palace — what changing room is complete without one? And this lovely sack-of-pearls chandelier. The stained glass was produced by Brian Clarke’s team — sadly passed away now, but a longtime supporter, friend and collaborator of the brand. It’s a take on a window we have on Lexington Street, itself a spin on one at Hampton Court Palace. That one has the Plantagenet coat of arms; this one has us. It reads a line that translates from Latin as the perfect combination of imperfections — from my joint-first favorite movie, Withnail and I.

Lastly, can you tell us about the ties?

We’ve just started making these ties in England. I think you’d be surprised how many people of around our age group have lived their entire lives so far in hoodies and t-shirts and sweatpants, and are suddenly thinking, “I wonder what it would be like to have a shirt and tie?” Of course there are funerals; more happily, there are weddings. Everyone eventually has a reason for formal attire. Why not wear the best when that day comes?

For more on Thames MMXX, visit their website here and follow them on Instagram