Gabriela Hearst opens Selfridges handbags pop-up

Selfridges has dived deep into pop-ups in recent years with a continuing stream of big and small names opening temporary spaces to drive both sales and buzz around the store and the brands.

The department store’s Comer Shop is the ultimate pop-up space but the retailer also hosts a large number with the main body of the store.

And the latest is from of-the-moment label Gabriela Hearst. The designer (who’s also creative chief at Chloé) opened a pop-up this week that runs until 4 June. It focuses on her cult Nina and Demi handbag models and will allow visitors to Selfridges to shop limited edition colourways and animations of the brand’s handbag collection.

The space is particularly important because it's the first time that the brand’s classic handbags are being offered at Selfridges.

Hearst said: “It’s always a joy to feel that you are coming home, at Selfridges, in our second-ever installation, this time with our treasured handbags, which could only be displayed on furniture designed by my favourites Antoine Dumas and Benji Gavron.”

The company said that the space “has been entirely reimagined for the occasion with natural-toned linen wall coverings and reclaimed local French oak display shelves, echoing the Gabriela Hearst flagship store designs in both New York and London”.

Meanwhile, custom furniture and fixtures have been designed in collaboration with French sculpture and furniture designer/maker Dumas and woodworking artisan Gavron, “both of whom focus around accentuating the beauty of raw large-scale material and sustainable production, working almost exclusively with reclaimed lumber”.