Sheesh, I really do need a new watch. The Liberty/Merci collab landed in London last week but tsk, I’m only just posting about it now. Ah well, better late than never.
In a new take on the pop-up shop, London’s Liberty and Paris’ Merci collaborated on an exclusive line using Liberty’s spriggy florals and then did a swap shop. The Paris version launched during Paris Fashion Week, while London’s Carnaby Street wing gets the Merci treatment until 29th March. One of the key things about the line is it’s affordable to everyone. You can buy everything from mugs to make-up bags, to little children’s bikinis to envelopes (envelopes!). The stationery fiend in me got very excited about these and also about the little rolls of Liberty-print ‘Washi’ masking tape. There are also dresses and kaftans for women, supersized cushions and everyone’s favourites, the mini suitcases… Love the utilitarian merchandising clashing with the genteel florals I was very taken with the stencilled storage boxes Too damn cute! Liberty print envelopes = stroke of genius
Following the opening of its first London store in Regent Street, Anthropologie opens its King’s Road store on 19th March.
This is quite important, not only because it’s another Anthropologie store (AKA, the most beautiful-looking chain in the world) but because it will bring footfall to the King’s Road and other stores are sure to follow. What do we have in the King’s Road already? The Shop At Bluebird of course, towards World’s End and Jack Wills in the middle. Even if you’re not the Jack Wills ‘type’, there’s no denying that the stores, styled to the nth degree, are something to behold. The King’s Road branch has a coffee shop on the top floor (but shhh, don’t tell anyone) and hosts gigs in the basement. The fixtures and fittings are the best type of antiquey shabby-chic with a bit of faux-punk rebellious teen thrown in. There have been rumours of A Very Well Known US Designer sniffing around for a store nearby too but I’m not sure how reliable they are.
Back (way back) in the day, there was a clutch of superb shops between Vivienne Westwood’s World’s End shop and where The Shop At Bluebird resides now. As well as American Classics (the best used Levi’s 501s this side of the Atlantic), there was The Emperor of Wyoming (more vintage Americana), Liberated Lady (’80s interpretations of ’50s fashion) and Johnny Moke (the shoe dude). A bit further along was Eat Your Heart Out, another vintage store where I once bought a long black crepe Biba dress. Funnily enough I recently found out that it was run by vintage dealer Graham Cassie who now runs Cassie Mercantile. He probably sold it to me and I recently donated it back to him!
Not far from where Anthropologie is opening – on the former site of Antiquarius Antiques – was Flip, a smaller outpost of the legendary Covent Garden second-hand Americana store. This was the place to find love-worn baseball jackets, sweatshirts, prom dresses and tube socks – absolute bliss…
Of course Anthropologie is a far cry from those vintage dens and characterful hangouts but the point is, it’s a start. Retail needs to get people interested in discovering shops again, whether they’re vintage stores, toy shops, bookshops or funny little cowboy boot shops. Let’s see who else arrives in the King’s Road after Anthro…
I just made it to the Pop Life exhibition at the Tate Modern before it ends on Sunday. Some brilliant work in there but truthfully I was mostly excited by the Warhol and Haring rooms. The YBA stuff just isn’t visually exciting to me and I don’t really care about their ‘message’. Plus I guess I grew up with the excitement of Warhol and Haring so they mean more to me emotionally.
There was a reconstruction of Haring’s famous Pop Shop with – genius! – a real life shop within it, as in, a person behind a counter selling Haring merchandise and bringing the concept to life. Keen to participate in the art imitating life imitating art scenario, I made a point of buying my Keith Haring watches from the Pop-Shop-as-Art-Installation instead of the bog standard Tate bookshop downstairs. How very post-post modern of me.
I also adored the Warhol TV clips (Haring and Scharf… together!) although was sad not to see the Curiosity Killed the Cat video that Warhol directed – now that was a work of art. *Sigh*… if Andy Warhol was alive today you just know he would have the best blog of them all.
I went to this pop-up shop at the Wonder Room in Selfridges yesterday. The presentation was a bit sterile (you should’ve asked me to make a moodboard wall for you Selfridges!) but I did enjoy looking at the vintage magazines and a particularly nostalgia-inducing stripy Westwood suit from Rellik. The plaid and denim shirts from Beyond Retro ticked the grunge box but weren’t anything special. More my bag was a Hacienda Classics CD set, which made me go all tingly-spined and misty-eyed thinking of this. I may have to go back and buy it.
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