Harrods Unveils First Charity Pop-Up Shop

Today, Harrods opens its doors to the first standalone charity outlet in its 184-year history. Situated around the corner from the Knightbridge emporium on Sloane Street premises that have been donated by Cadogan Estates, the pop-up boutique, named Fashion Re-told, will run for one month.

All designer and high-end pieces on sale have been donated by Harrods customers, employees and brands, including Mulberry, Loewe, JW Anderson, Céline, Victoria Beckham and Anya Hindmarch. Prices of the womenswear, menswear and childrenswear range from £100 to £200 for both vintage and current-season pieces.

All proceeds will go directly to the NSPCC, Harrods’ long-standing charity partner, whose mission is to end child abuse in the UK and Channel Islands. NSPCC staff have been trained by Harrods managers on how to serve luxury customers within the millennial-pink store, which happens to be one of the corporate colours of the NSPCC.

“Number one for myself is that it is completely Instagrammable, because when you’re doing a charitable initiative, if you don’t generate noise on every platform, you’re never going to make it a success,” Alex Greco Wells, head of visual merchandising at Harrods, told WWD.

The pop-up comes just months after Vetements used Harrods as a platform to call out the issue of overproduction within the industry. Four of the store’s Brompton Road windows were dedicated to the Swiss label’s call for action, with customers invited to donate garments to the stockpile installation of clothes.

Now, the donations from the 4,000 employees – including an Alaïa dress donated by Helen David, chief merchant of Harrods – are available for purchase on the daily-changing rails in Fashion Re-told. “We just want to create something fun, a visual interpretation of an appropriate aesthetic for the collaboration, without the ostentatious and overpowering feel of a luxury store,” Greco Wells added.