Our November issue is, in particular, a sweeping survey of the best new stores, boutiques, galleries and emporia to have swung open their doors over the last six months. And more broadly to the sometimes grand, sometimes less so, theatre of retail. Now we work our way through a lot of stores to arrive at a shortlist. We’ve done it before and we are getting awful good at it. So for this issue, we thought we might set up our very own temporary if not entirely fully functioning ‘Put Up’ shop, as we called it. We thought we should set a good example, put the merchandise where our mouth is so to speak.
After a long search we found the perfect space for our perfect little store; a two-storey glass-fronted box designed by Norwegian architects Brendeland & Kristoffersen. Most fortuitously, the work was the centre-piece of the 100% Norway exhibition, curated by long-time Wallpaper contributor Henrietta Thompson and installed at London’s Earl’s Court as part of this year’s London Design Festival.
With the help of Henrietta and our friends at the Norwegian Embassy in London we arranged to move in, lightly stock our timber trading post with a selection of things to keep and treasure, from Vincent Van Duysen pottery to a Ferragamo brief case through a Gucci high heel ‘bootie’ (you know how much we like a high bootie), and have photographer Jonathan de Villiers shoot the results. You can see what we came up with on p.43 of the November issue. But as a little added extra, here’s footage (above) of our beautiful store taking beautiful shape.
INFORMATION
With special thanks to 100% Design
