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Pop-up Christmas shopping

Posted Dec 11, 2009

It’s a case of all the cool kids are doing it with pop up shops literally, well, popping up all over London for the month of December. Whether you want a car, customised champagne bottles, Elton John's cast-offs or just some Marmite on toast, there’s a pop up for everyone – but get there quick or blink and you’ll miss them.

The Nissan Cube, perhaps one of the oddest looking cars of all time, has opened its own shop and event space inside London's Old Truman Brewery in the city's Brick Lane, but be prepared for a bizarre questionnaire on their website before they deem you fashionable enough to be on the guest list. Not that we’d usually care, but they have collaborated with Parisian boutique Colette, who have provided exclusive gadgets and gifts, and we want a peek.

 

Colette's first ever pop up store - London

Over at the Somerset House ice rink, step out of the cold into the temporary Tiffany Tuck Shop and indulge in a turquoise Tiffany cupcake while propelling any significant others over to the jewellery section (it is Christmas, after all).

 

David Furnish poses at Elton's John's latest pop up store 'Out of the Closet'.

From there, Elton John’s Out of the Closet pop up store is a short walk towards Covent Garden. The star is selling personal items and stage costumes to raise money for the Elton John AIDS Foundation, including outfits from Dolce & Gabbana themselves. Elizabeth Hurley was seen rifling through the racks at his last project, so you could find yourself fending off an A-lister for that last pair of sunglasses. Keeping in with the stage costume theme, be sure to embrace your inner child at Selfridge’s Santa’s Grotto, where pop-up pantomimes will be performed randomly throughout the month.

Images courtesy of anorak.co.uk.

If your stomach is a bigger priority than men in drag, the Marmite Pop Up cafe has a somewhat limited menu: tea, toast and, of course, Marmite. Ideal if you’re a fan, irritating if not.

For the true fashionista dining experience, chic restaurant Sketch has opened a pop-up at the Royal Academy of Art, alongside GSK Contemporary Earth: Art of a changing world. The cafe will be sustainable, with hot water bottles and patchwork rugs to keep out the cold and even eco-friendly champagne and oysters are on the menu. Don’t tell Moët and Chandon though – they have their own pop-up champagne emporium with Atelier Moët on New Bond Street, where bottles can be customised with Swarovski crystals by the shop’s very own artisans - definitely the Christmas gift for the person who has everything.

 

Sketch pop up cafe at the Royal Academy of Arts - London.

Possibly the biggest retail trend of 2010, show up and shop up, because the pop-up is here to stay (for the next month, at least).

Rebecca Irvine

Source & Photo Credits: Various

 

 

TAGS: pop up stores colette brick lane london nissan cube temporary stores shopping christmas shopping gift ideas sketch royal academy of arts elton john out of the closet david furnish

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