Meryl Fernandes’ new lifestyle shop Thethestore fits into Hoxton like a missing jigsaw-puzzle piece. As an area for independent shops, Hoxton is growing in hipster popularity so fast that it may cease to become hipster altogether. Fernandes’ previous venture at this Hackney Road location was a vintage fashion shop called Found; she has now turned her attention to championing up-and-coming designers and beautiful packaging.
Swedish design brand Nonuform is behind the sleek, clean aesthetic of Thethestore, the white interiors complementing her carefully chosen products.
As with many lifestyle stores, it is difficult to find the thread that links the products together when walking around the shop – between the toothpastes and the clothing racks are snail face creams and typography calendars. But good design unites these products. Otho Clothing, Ben Sutton Ceramics and Baxter of California skincare are among the brands given the Fernandes seal of approval.
’It’s a tiny shop full of everything I love. I want people to take interest in these products and the designers behind them and become avid fans,’ Fernandes explains. ’Most of the products are minimally designed independent brands who I’ve obsessively researched and persuaded to retail in London for the first time.’ Thethestore is the essential micro-emporium we never knew we needed.
