Yahoo News The Wing: inside London's newest members' club for women
This week, The Wing, an exclusive women-only private members’ club, which has a waiting list of 35,000 women in the US, celebrates its launch into London, its first international outpost, where the appetite for female-only spaces is growing fast.
First came The Allbright, London’s first women-only private members’ club, which opened its second club in the capital this year and has just made its debut stateside, having been recently valued at a whopping £100 million.
Like The Allbright, The Wing will provide a space for women to work, meet and network. Started by Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan, the club has spaces in New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston and over 10,000 members.
So now that it's landed on UK shores what can you expect from the space?
It certainly doesn't disappoint on the interiors front. Set across a five-storey townhouse near Oxford Circus, the club is all millennial pinks and mint greens and boasts loos that'll rival Annabel's in the 'gram stakes.
The in-house design team, lead by Laetitia Gorra, has given each of the five floors a unique look with a mix of British and European influences. In The Perch Cafe, for example, you'll find tiles inspired by Antoni Gaudi’s Casa Batlló in Barcelona, in the beauty room pieces have been sourced by London-based creative consultant Matilda Goad and accessories on the colour-coordinated bookshelf are from Clignancourt in Paris.
The Wing is a celebration of all things female. There's a fitness room fully equipped with Peloton bikes, a beauty room fully stocked with Chanel products and other Wing-approved, women-owned brands, a tea parlour brewing Dashwood teas, a full-service cafe and bar serving dishes from local female chefs including Skye Gyngell of Spring and Margot Henderson and Melanie Arnold of Rochelle Canteen, which can be washed down with biodynamic wines by the glass by female winemakers.
On the fourth floor there's the Lady Library which features rare books from The Second Shelf, a shop which sells modern first editions and rediscovered works by women, as well as an all-women art gallery; The Salon, which will promote artworks by London-based women and non-binary artists, including the likes of Dawn Beckles, Sara Berman, Molly Brocklehurst, Juno Calypso, Emma Corrall, Daisy Dodd-Noble, Nada Elkalaawy, Tobi Falade, Ludovica Gioscia, Alba Hodsoll, Harriet Horton, Katy Jalili, Reba Maybury, Adeline de Monseignat, Holly Revell, Fiona Shaw, and Faye Wei Wei.
There's also a checkerboard rooftop terrace to chill on, should the London weather hold out.
As for the clientele, founding members include Alexa Chung, Cara Delevingne, Poppy Delevigne, Emilia Clarke and Adwoa Aboah, so if you fancy rubbing shoulders with London's cool crew (and you're also a woman) this is the co-working space for you.
The place to do so could be one of the club's many events. The Wing will host a calendar of events for members, with the first month including programming with Caroline Criado, Fatima Bhutto, Funmi Fetti and Naomi Shimada; support groups for small business owners; business development and financial planning workshops; yoga classes with Jessica Skye; intros to coding and bike maintenance; and networking and community happy hours and breakfasts.
Membership costs from £170 a month monthly a year (or £1,836 upfront for one year) a single location, while all-access membership costs £240 monthly for 12 months (or £2592 upfront).
Click through the gallery at the top to take a look inside The Wing.
Read more
AllBright ups valuation to £100 million ahead of global expansion
