From speed-dating to upcycling workshops, the people behind Peckham Palms have created a space for new
fashion talent. Is this a lesson to ailing bricks-and-mortar stores?
With the
British high street in serious decline and luxury fashion houses such as Burberry closing down stores globally, it’s no secret that the retail landscape is due a rethink. The public may be changing the way it shops, but retailers are also changing the way they sell. On Thursday, for example, models dressed in the latest collection by Amsterdam-based denim fashion label Hardeman joined members of the public in west London’s Eccleston Yards for a round of speed-dating. Part fashion presentation, part serious opportunity to find “the one”, the gathering was just the latest on the long list of events pushing the limits of the contemporary retail experience. The location? 50m, a fashion concept storefounded by the creative studio Something & Son.
Andy Merritt and Paul Smyth, who founded Something & Son, believe their fashion venture – a communal space for emerging designers to grow and evolve as their businesses do the same – offers one answer to the problem of smaller labels being shut out of the physical retail space by skyrocketing rents.