Amid the excitement of London Fashion Week, designers are finding that interest is no longer simply focused on the catwalk. Instead, increasing numbers are flocking to a wave of pop up shops opening in surrounding areas of London, with everything from design to vintage catered for by this recent trend.
One of the most popular pop up locations takes up two rooms on the ground floor of Somerset House. Known as The Shop, it is operated by the British Fashion Council and stocks items from the Spring/Summer 2014 collections by designers such as Zoe Jordan, Bella Freud and Dominic Jones.
Yet while this pop up shop enjoyed great success last year, it will only run for a relatively short period of time – from the 14th to the 23rd of February. This is largely due to the placement of Vodafone’s London Fashion Weekend, which takes place between the 20th and the 23rd and aims to draw consumers, rather than observers, of fashion.
Fortunately, London Fashion Weekend also provides opportunities for small business owners to showcase their offerings on a wider scale by moving into properties, rather than simply relying on the internet to market their firms. One such example is Designer Jumble, which has just established a 1,291 square foot pop up at Westfield Stratford City.
Although, unlike its Somerset House rival, the Westfield pop up stocks vintage clothing as opposed to this season’s fashions, it has several advantages over the more up to date store. For one thing, it will run until the 1st of June, allowing shoppers more time to drop by and picking up a lucrative spot for passing trade.
In addition, the prices offered will be much more in keeping with the average consumer’s budget with many items hitting the shelves for prices as low as £5.
Founder of Designer Jumble, Abi Chisman, claims she puts a high emphasis on quality and range when sourcing stock.
She says; “We aim to have something for all sizes, all ages and all budgets, and sell these high fashion brands in a friendly, unintimidating environment purposefully reminiscent of a jumble sale.”
Meanwhile Selfridges has announced that its pop up shop specialising in Mr Men art will return to stores in London and the Trafford Centre, expecting the craze to be a hit with children and big kids alike.
The pop up shop is run in association with retailer and distributor Art You Grew Up With, and will offer personalised art pieces based on the series of children’s books by Roger Hargreaves. Consumers simply choose a character and a unique personalisation, pay at the pop up shop then collect their design 20 minutes later.
This is not the first time the pop up shop has appeared in Selfridges, with its Christmas run proving exceptionally popular with festive shoppers.
The idea of a pop up shop within a larger store is fairly pioneering as, although department stores such as Debenhams and John Lewis tend to showcase concessionary brands, these are for the most part permanent fixtures. A temporary pop up shop allows a greater variety of businesses access to a broader market and provides greater choice for consumers.
This initiative, if taken on by other large department stores, could prove to be an interesting twist in a retail industry constantly attempting to embrace the fluidity and variety on offer for customers of online retailers such as Amazon or eBay.
Debenhams in particular could possibly consider embracing a similar scheme, as the department store chain has fallen far behind key rival John Lewis and was even forced to post a profits warning as a result of poor Christmas sales – something which, pre-recession, would be almost unthinkable for a popular high street brand.
Much of the focus on pop up shops has been on the role they can play in filling vacant properties on the High Street: perhaps it is time larger retailers began to think outside the box and, like Selfridges, bring alternative brands into their own stores.
