The retailer is uplifting its ties to London’s cultural scene with the pop-up. Image credit: Harrods
British department store Harrods is saluting the history of a luxury maison with a new activation.
French design house Schiaparelli is taking over several key areas of the flagship, including its window displays and several select spots across the first floor. The crossover coincides with London’s Victoria and Albert Museum’s recently opened “Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art,” an exhibition dedicated to the work of brand founder Elsa Schiaparelli.
Schiaparelli at Harrods
When approaching the department store from Hans Crescent, visitors are greeted by the brand’s iconic golden keyhole motif, which rests within the glass displays.
Each of the pop-ups also features the signature design, now taking on a sculptural appearance and stature. When looking into the crevice, guests will see images from “Anglomaniac,” a new book from Swiss-Italian publishing house Skira and edited by museum curator and fashion expert Thierry-Maxime Loriot; more than 50 artists contributed to the release, including Pat McGrath, Cecil Beaton, Tim Walker, Nick Knight and Norman Parkinson, among others.
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The tome is sold in the Harrods Bookshop, located on the lower ground floor, with the space also offering a special edition of the publication. Schiaparelli also hosts a boutique inside Harrods, which is the French label’s only dedicated storefront in the United Kingdom.
Harrods positions the takeover as a tribute to the V&A’s ongoing retrospective, which tracks the maison's history and connections to the global art scene from its founding in 1927 to the mid-1950s, when Ms. Schiaparelli retired and closed the original incarnation of the house. Located in the Sainsbury Gallery, the exhibition is set to run through Nov. 1 (see story); tickets are on sale now.