River Island used to be called something completely different

Who knew?

river island
(Image credit: Rex Features (Shutterstock))

Who knew?

We know, we know, it’s been a little while since we last schooled you on your favourite high street brands. Remember what H&M really stands for, and the first item Zara ever sold?

So we thought we’d give you a bit of history behind another fave, River Island. Did you know that way back when, it used to be called something entirely different?

As reported by Cosmopolitan, it first started out in 1948 as Lewis Separates, after being founded by Bernard Lewis.

It was a far cry from the brand as we know it now, as it mainly sold grocery products and wool in five stores.

In 1955, Lewis Separates was rebranded as Chelsea Girl, and became one of the UK’s first female fashion chains, with 70 stores at the time.

The brand bought up Concept Man in 1982, thus expanding into menswear. Concept Man and Chelsea Girl both ran alongside each other, until 1988, when they were both merged into a third brand, River Island.

You might have noticed in the past that some collections or products are called Chelsea Girl, and now you'll know it was simply a nod to River Island's origins.

Always handy to have a bit of fashion history knowledge for the next pub quiz.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.