But the genius behind this momentous fashion transformation was a shy man who shunned publicity and was known largely in the trade as the fashion retailers’ fashion retailer. Bernard Lewis was a demanding but fair boss, respected by his loyal staff and colleagues; a trend-setter, and a tough yet reasonable negotiator. His stewardship stood the test of time over seven decades, with many successful celebrity collaborations, including a tie-up with the pop star Rihanna in 2013 and another with Sofia, the fashion model daughter of Motown legend Lionel Richie.
But the Lewis family kept a low profile, eschewing public displays of wealth. There were no yachts, islands or private jets. Instead, they undertook charity work.
In the 1980s the shops began selling menswear, first as Chelsea Man then as Concept Man, but as Britain’s teenagers grew up, they demanded a more aspirational look. And so Chelsea Girl morphed into River Island, the brainchild of Bernard’s son Leonard. It was a chic, more sophisticated retail concept aimed at the 18 to 35 demographic, offering loose, androgynous styles. In the next decade it became one of the most successful fashion chains of the pre-internet era, with some 250 shops in the UK and more than 50 worldwide, generating sales of almost £1 billion and pre-tax profit regularly exceeding £100 million.
Bernard Lewis at his desk[Missing Credit]
The story of Bernard Lewis was literally one of rags to riches. Born into a simple background above the family greengrocer’s shop in Finsbury Park, north London, he was the second of the four sons of Louis Pokrasse, whose father was the son of a Ukrainian immigrant Spitalfields market trader; and Clara née Tauber, the daughter of Romanian emigrés.
The shop was the centre of family life and Bernard could remember rising before dawn on Saturdays to accompany his father to the wholesale markets. His school day was marked by a routine of laying out the produce, attending to the till and finally packing everything away. In a 2018 interview with The Sunday Times, Lewis recalled “very hard times – absolutely desperate” in the 1930s.
There were constant moves and an outstanding memory was the four brothers sleeping on mattresses in an Old Street basement. His father’s struggles to stay afloat proved a leitmotif for Bernard’s future commercial ambitions. Louis began to suffer ill health, the business was undercut by rivals, and he died of bronchitis at the early age of 48. With formal school behind him, Bernard enrolled in a radio engineering course at the Music Trades School, part of the Northern Polytechnic. But war had broken out and in 1942, watching aerial dogfights over London, he trained as a draughtsman in aircraft production. He was sent to Corpus Christi, Cambridge for six months, at the age of 18, but the war was over before his study period was up.
In 1946, the 20-year-old Lewis briefly sold fruit and vegetables from a corrugated iron and timber shack he had built on a bomb site on Holloway Road, but he soon diversified into selling yarn from another self-built unit. It seemed to have stirred his interest in textiles, because in 1948 the Lewis name was seen on a clothes shop in Mare Street, Hackney, east London, selling blouses and skirts, a harbinger of the Lewis Separates chain.
Lewis’s ambitions were checked by his own frugality. In November and December 1955, while growing the number of his London shops from five to nine, he would later reflect wryly: “That took some budgeting as we didn’t have the money to pay for the goods.”
But Lewis soon grew bored by wholesalers’ offerings, and began sketching his own designs. Lewis Separates expanded across the country, and his brother David managed the property side of the business. In 1962 the intrepid Lewis began regularly visiting Hong Kong in search of new suppliers, introducing innovative styles and establishing long-term relationships with manufacturers. He remained focused on analysing sales, backing bestsellers and always on the lookout for something new.
In 1951 he married Lorna Spencer, and they had two sons, Leonard and Clive, and a daughter Caroline, who married Sir Lucian Grainge, chairman of Universal Music. The next two decades saw continued growth of the family business, a period its patriarch described as – as “just grinding away, opening more shops”. But he and Caroline divorced in 1968 and he married Jenny Meredith the same year. After her death he embarked on a third marriage, to Vanessa Bracey, who had joined Chelsea Girl as a buyer in 1970, and was his constant companion from 1972 until his death. They had two sons, Sam and Jake.
Bernard and Leonard Lewis in the 1970s[Missing Credit]
Lewis involved his younger brothers, Godfrey and Geoffrey, in the business, but bought them out in the late 1970s, while retaining his partnership with David. His son Leonard became his right-hand man, until a tragic polo accident in 1994 left him with severe brain damage.
Leonard’s brother Clive then ran the company until 1998 when Richard Bradbury, a Burton Group executive, was appointed managing director of River Island, the first non-family member to hold the position.
Bernard’s nephew Ben was appointed CEO in 2009 and remained in the post for the next ten years. But high-street shopping took a serious hit with the financial crisis of 2008 and the rise of online shopping. The business was not immune from this downturn. In the year to December 2024 sales dropped to £537 million and the company posted a loss of £49 million.
Bernard Lewis continued to guide the company throughout its fortunes, good and bad. He was made life president of Lewis Trust Group, and came regularly into the office well into his nineties to assess the merchandise and that of his rivals. Today Clive Lewis is chairman of the group and his cousin Ben, son of David Lewis, is CEO, the second time he has held the position. In 2020 Lewis published his official biography, A Family Business, written by Catherine Blyth.
Marking Bernard Lewis’s centenary, the veteran retail analyst Richard Hyman described him on LinkedIn as “a one off. Built three retail brands. Avoided limelight and allowed his businesses to do the talking for him. Totally understood the balance between taking risk and conservative management.”
In 2005, Drapers presented Bernard Lewis, then 79, with a lifetime achievement award. He explained why he had kept a low profile for so long: “It’s difficult now for people to realise how hot we were once we found our successful formula in the late 1950s and early 1960s. We were growing so fast there was a rumour we had won the football pools! We deliberately stayed an unlimited liability company until the mid 1960s.”
Bernard Lewis is survived by his family. His death marks the end of the golden era of British fashion retailing, before the rise of e-commerce.
Bernard Lewis: born February 10, 1926. Died: February 28, 2026.
