Isabel Spearman will swing open the doors to her latest Daily Dress Edit pop-up tomorrow, this time transforming a restaurant located behind the new U.S. Embassy in Nine Elms into a colourful bijoux bursting with fab frocks from independent British brands.
Spearman launched the Daily Dress Edit Instagram in 2018, after working as special adviser to Samantha Cameron, crafting her image while she was in Downing Street.
The idea of the platform, which now has over 55k followers, is to spotlight independent, female-founded, sustainable dress labels producing in the UK — from the likes of Johanna Sands, who makes in Manchester, to Faith Rowan Leaves who sews her pieces in Brighton.
“The Daily Dress Edit customer is broad, they’re 25 to 65, and I meet everyone from lawyers and doctors to creatives… but what ties them together is that they are all really proud to support these female independent sustainable brands.”
The Embassy Gardens pop-up will stock over 50 dress brands. Alongside DDE favourites Justine Tabak, Coco Conran and Opioneers, Spearman is adding 16 new names to this pop-up, among them Well Worn, Faune, Smock London and If Only If; all of whom are creating exclusive dresses that will only be available at the pop-up. “For the brands it’s sales but it’s also customer acquisition…. it’s a melting pot for the brands where they end up sharing customers,” says Spearman.
This time she has also engaged eight more established labels with the launch of the Dead Stock Project.
“I had this idea in middle of the night to approach these brands, a lot of whom I work with anyway as a brand consultant, and ask them to create something from their own surplus fabric,” says Spearman. “All these brands are already pretty efficient with their dead stock but I wanted them to create something beautiful to make dead stock a desirable term, so their customers understand that surplus can be sexy.”
“I wanted there to be a good reason for the bigger brands to be part of it, and part of the messaging of the DDE which is to talk about limiting waste and circulatory in fashion.”
Spearman has thus co-designed a dress with each of the eight brands — Albany, Aligne, Brora, Boden, Cefinn, Jigsaw, Iris, Rixo. All are limited edition and in varying quantities depending on the material that was available — Rixo for example only had enough for 20 dresses, while Boden made 85.
“Creating something vibrant and cool from dead stock has been a joy,” says Cefinn founder Samantha Cameron, whose dead stock dress is a blue stripe midi with red sailor collar and hem. “Our playful Imogen dress is designed in our iconic Techni-Voile fabric which is made by a Japanese mill using innovative, sustainable processes. The fabric has a beautiful drape and is also machine washable and crease resistant, making the dress both eye-catching and practical. I’ll be wearing mine with a fresh white trainer for work as well as dressed up for summer parties with a heel or platform.”
The Dead Stock dresses launch online tonight and will be available to shop in the store from tomorrow. Prices range from £89 to £295 and to visit the pop-up you must book an appointment online.
The Pop Up opens on Tuesday 16th May until Friday 26th May 8.30am - 18.30pm.
Daily Dress Edit Pop Up Oxeye, 14 New Union Square Nine Elms, London SW11 7AX
