The Dalston Department Store was on last week Thursday through to Sunday as a bit of an experiment by the owners of an incredible building come office space; Star House on Richmond Road. It looks like they'll be back in various guises until the end of November, so I'm not playing my irritating trick of telling you about something you can't attend. This time around, the store stocked a mixture of jewellers, home furnishings and clothes, with about 15 different stores to choose from but without that market-like feel that so many of these things have.
The house, once you've found it has an intriguing, sparse entrance with a warehouse lift to the basement which makes you feel a little like you're in The London Dungeons for a moment, until you step out into the light, beautifully lit space of the store. The owners have a background in store fittings and experiential but they only had a week to put this together, so you can see how clever they were at making do with what they had. I particularly like the lights.
I was first told about it by Ginny of Fred and Ginny, the lovely vintage seller from the Primrose Hill Vintage Fair I posted about last week. She was there with an even more alluring array of pieces including a vintage YSL Khaki green coat with velvet lined sleeves and collar and a tartan interior lining. This was about 1 inch too big for me on the shoulders. Thankfully, as otherwise I would be £250 the worse for it.
The main appeal of DDS for me was the jewellery. Katie Monroe was there with some of her signature rose gold knuckle rings, as worn by Ferne Cotton most recently.
My favourite was Jessica de Lotz. I'm biased because she's a NW5 gal like myself and lovely to chat to but her jewellery is stunning and totally original too. She makes bespoke wax seals, stamps sealing wax with them and then casts them with the lost wax technique. The result as you can see is beautifully tactile and textured pieces with organic sculptural forms and an imprint in the middle. I'm very tempted to get my family seal done by her some time in this lifetime and will be attending her open studio to talk about it more... watch this space.
Claire English's animal skeleton inspired pieces caught my eye too. My Christmas list is getting worryingly long...
Follow DDS on Facebook to see what's next. We chatted to the building owner as we walked out and he's got some great ideas. This will be the place to avoid the usual mundane roundabout of Christmas shopping this year. I'll see you there.
Flo and Elle Dalston Department Store Christmas shopping things to do Katie Rowland Jewellery de Lotz Flo and Elle Dalston Department Store Christmas shopping things to do Katie Rowland Jewellery de Lotz Flo and Elle Dalston Department Store Christmas shopping things to do Katie Rowland Jewellery de Lotz Flo and Elle Dalston Department Store Christmas shopping things to do Katie Rowland Jewellery de Lotz Flo and Elle Dalston Department Store Christmas shopping things to do Katie Rowland Jewellery de Lotz Flo and Elle Dalston Department Store Christmas shopping things to do Katie Rowland Jewellery de Lotz Flo and Elle Dalston Department Store Christmas shopping things to do Katie Rowland Jewellery de Lotz Flo and Elle Dalston Department Store Christmas shopping things to do Katie Rowland Jewellery de Lotz Flo and Elle Dalston Department Store Christmas shopping things to do Katie Rowland Jewellery de Lotz Flo and Elle Dalston Department Store Christmas shopping things to do Katie Rowland Jewellery de Lotz Flo and Elle Dalston Department Store Christmas shopping things to do Katie Rowland Jewellery de Lotz Flo and Elle Dalston Department Store Christmas shopping things to do Katie Rowland Jewellery de Lotz Flo and Elle Dalston Department Store Christmas shopping things to do Katie Rowland Jewellery de Lotz
