As well as limited-edition pieces that will travel straight from the studio to the shop, the best testament to this more flexible way of working is the store’s skirt bar. Centred on a haberdashery unit restored by Lowena-Irons, painstakingly covered in over a thousand vintage stickers sourced from collectors worldwide, the bar offers customers the opportunity to fully customise their own versions of the brand’s carabiner skirts – from the colour and width of the deadstock leather belt down to the beads that line the fabric’s pleats.
This, naturally, is among the Clubhouse’s more premium offerings, with the resulting skirts priced to reflect the bespoke service. The girls, however, have been concerted in their efforts to ensure that a full gamut of fans can fully participate in the shop experience. Alongside custom pieces and the main collection, the Chopova Lowena Clubhouse also stocks exclusive merch designed specifically for the store. Featuring Petal in various guises and punny slogans, the capsule’s tees, baseball caps, underwear, socks, bandanas and more were designed as more accessible touch points to the brand.
Speaking of its motivating logic, Chopova reminisces on teenage trips to the Marc by Marc Jacobs store in New York’s West Village, an outlet that sat next to the mainline flagship, but that offered a dynamic array of merch – like the iconic “Protect The Skin You’re In” tees and campy lipstick pens – at pocket-money prices. “Being able to go to this sister store and access this product at a more accessible price point, you still felt you were part of the thing.”
That sense of camaraderie, of being part of something, coloured the atmosphere at last night’s opening event, where members of the brand’s community convened to toast the opening – and their newly attained club membership (Clubhouse ID cards were even printed as ID cards as proof).
It’s a spirit that will carry on over the course of this opening weekend, of course, but also far beyond it. What makes that feel so certain is the timeless foundation that the brand is built on, one that anyone can relate to. “Friendship is the basis of this brand,” Lowena-Irons says, “and friendship is a huge thing that we stand for.” Check out what some of the brand’s best friends wore to celebrate this new chapter of one of London’s best-loved indie brands.
