And not in London!
Collections have always been present in design, fashion and architecture, but in todays quality focused society, expertly curated collections are a thing for now.
At Vintage Matters, this is something we do online with our unique collections of vintage and new product, bringing our customers a selected range of products for their home and business. Collections are a way in which we can stay relevant and flexible, listening to what our customers want and it’s something we take great joy in putting together. We will soon be releasing further collections to our online store so keep checking in. Our collections are released and titled as letters in the alphabet – we launched with A,B & C and our next collection will be D, and so on.
In this post we are highlighting a few other retailers/stores outside of London, (yes there is a world outside London!), that are offering collection focused retail.
Starting on the coast in Brighton, the Utility store is an inspiration for us! The owners and their team have been crafting a utilitarian product assortment for years now and the store looks great for it. Their strength comes from clarity and execution of the brand – from the name, product assortment and layout of the store – the whole package screams Utility. Organisation, function and simplicity of design is a thing of beauty and is hard to achieve. Utility stocks lots of the tools you will need to bring some order to your home or business. Like us at Vintage Matters, they can clearly see the beauty of design in these products, displaying them wonderfully throughout the store. The entire store is a crafted collection of utilitarian products and we take a bow to them. We love this place and we hope you do too!
http://www.utilitygreatbritain.co.uk/
Next, along the coast a bit, is Alastair Hendy, who is a food writer and photographer turned shop owner and restaurateur, that opened a homewares retail store in Hastings. The store is very unassuming and strikes us as one of those stores that the unobservant amongst us would just wonder straight past and we love that! The design of the store and restaurant interior totally embrace the building in which it is housed. We’re sure they had to work hard to deliver the dilapidation look so beautifully, or maybe the building was partly like that, but either way it’s executed brilliantly. At Vintage Matters, we are big fans of utilitarian pieces and Alastair and his team always merchandise their collections in such an effortlessly cool manner. If we had time, we could get absorbed in this store for hours, browsing every nook and cranny of beautifully housed collections.
The final store/brand we have learnt to love again is John Lewis, especially with their new investment in store design in which to house their quality assortment of products. We’re particular fans of the Loved & Found department at the new Birmingham store! Loved & Found is a curated collection of designers, lifestyle brands and standout pieces and it seems the buyers of John Lewis have been thinking along the same lines as us, that too much choice is daunting for their customers and they want to give them an area of the store that is more curated. It’s great seeing such leading retailers as John Lewis being bold and providing a new and different shopping experience. Well worth a visit!
http://www.johnlewis.com/our-shops/birmingham
Please get in contact with us and let us know if you have any great other recommendations where we can go check out some collections in retail, and we’ll be sure to keep you all in the loop.
