A Different Kind of Project

We may get nostalgic, we may like to reminisce but there’s no doubt that the internet has democratised the fashion world in a good way.  People can now launch themselves and their careers with websites, blogs, javascript fancy portfolios, MySpace etc.  Similarly, designers no longer need to pay extortionate rent to set up a physical shop when they can present and sell their work online.  Selling designers and artists’ wares on the web is nothing new but presenting a website like an artistic space where you can really get a true sense of the designer/artist’s work is not that common.  Which is why I was really chuffed to find The Shop Floor Project,  a curated online space that’s part museum, part department store, set up by mother and daughter Denise and Samantha Allan (both artists).  More often that not, the products sold here were exclusively produced for the The Shop Floor Project.  The site is designed such that it’s beautifully presented with a mixture of photographic images, magazine cutouts and digital graphics.

The selection is small but obviously well curated.  A recent graduate of Central St. Martins, Kate Bratt has given TSFP exclusivity to her first collection.  This "Yolk" dress in a grey skyscraper material is a beauty – I want to wear it over a black polo neck and a pair of "tough" boots.

Menswear designer Olivia Hegarty has designed a "Hanbury Collection" based on the Georgian architecture in the old weavers’ houses lining Hanbury Street in East End London.  It incorporates historical tailoring.  This 4 piece set comes as one for £650. 

Probably the most well known out of TSFP designers is Julie Lundsten AKA shoe label FINSK.  She’s yet to make a mark in the commercial sense but Manolo Blahnik has heaped the praise on her ("It is like nothing anybody is doing at the moment; exquisite, divine, perfect.").  Exploring the possiblities of a wooden heel, the shoes have a sculptural way about them, as with a lot of shoe designers that are emerging from London’s fashion scene.

I’d keep this TSFP’s address on your favourites because it seems a lot of mini-collaborations and projects are underway and soon to be unleashed onto this online space.