Merchant & Found, a leading UK online vintage furniture and lighting store, is launching a 6000 sq ft Vintage Supermarket in London.
Championing the legendary forgotten makers of vintage furniture and lighting and celebrating and championing the skill of contemporary makers in association with London Craft Week at the Vinyl Factory Soho from 15-18 May 2024. The Vintage Supermarket is a unique large scale selling event, shining a spotlight on craft.
Vintage Supermarket will feature:
- 6,000 sq ft of the worlds best vintage furniture, lighting and a curation of smaller items sourced from the deepest darkest corners of Europe and beyond.
- A curated collection five years in the making, it will sell vintage in volume and offer the fun and unexpected.
- A specially commissioned supermarket with original fixtures and signage including a butcher’s shop, a fresh produce counter and a fish counter. With hand crafted produce which has been commissioned from a curated global group of artists and makers that span a range of mediums from paper to crochet and ceramics.
Confirmed Craft collaborations:
Clemence Joly
Clemence Joly lives and works in Paris. Clemence graduated as a graphic designer from Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Arts Appliques et des Metiers d’Art, and from the Chelsea School of Art and Central Saint -Martins. Clemence is an internationally renowned textile artist who has been commissioned to create a textile installation for the Vintage Supermarket.
Hattie Newman
Hattie is originally from Devon and now works internationally creating, building and directing the most extraordinary works principally in paper. Hattie’s studio is a place where sketches and ideas come to life. Hattie has worked globally with many household names bringing their brands to life in a witty and unassuming way. Hattie has been commissioned to create a dedicated installation for the Vintage Supermarket.
Kate Jenkins
Kate is an internationally exhibited textile artist from Brighton. Her playful work is often food inspired, a playful world of pop-art crochet, knit and embroidery creations. Kate is best known for her trademark sense of humour with colourful yarns and lifelike creations.
Sustainability
Buying Vintage furniture, lighting and accessories is the ultimate sustainable purchase. In line with Merchant and Founds core values Vintage Supermarket will be fully sustainable continuing to highlight to the wider market the fundamental long-term contribution that shopping vintage can make.
Events at the Vintage Supermarket
The Vintage Supermarket will host a full schedule of events exploring the wider skills and craft of:
- The ‘Forgotten Vintage Furniture Makers’
- The skill and craft required in the ‘rejuvenation of vintage’.
- The skill and artistry of the current craft artists and makers
- A celebrity supermarket trolley dash
- A range of official partners and events will be confirmed over the coming months.
Rare variety Apple Bar – Café
Putting a focus on the provenance of the original makers in its widest sense, The Vintage Supermarket will present a ‘rare variety’ juice bar and supermarket inspired café.
Founded four years ago by Paul Middlemiss, a veteran of the design and interiors industry (having worked at director level at The Conran Shops, Habitat, Pedlars, The General Trading Company, and House of Fraser), Merchant & Found, is backed by private equity and growing quickly with the aim of being the number one vintage home brand globally.
“We love saving stuff,” says Middlemiss. “Over the past four years we have built the business online and now serve a global audience from Europe to the States – now we want to engage the wider public and trade to experience, touch, and feel what we are about. We have a hugely creative team who has been dreaming of hosting this event for many years and thrilled to be turning it into reality.”
He continues, “We champion the forgotten maker, highlight the sustainability of vintage and the environmental benefits that come with saving and rejuvenating- not creating yet more new. We have a workshop team who give every piece the love that it needs to bring it back to life ready for its next home. We urge everyone who is interested in design, the home and interior to come and see us in Soho!”
Jonathan Burton, Managing Director, London Craft Week said, “It is a pleasure to work alongside Paul and the Merchant & Found team on an event of this scale and a delight to offer London Craft Week attendees such a relevant and witty moment to celebrate the very best of global contemporary craft and vintage design.”
More detail, names and collaborations will follow in the coming months.
The Vintage Supermarket, The Vinyl Factory, 18 Marshall Street, London W1F 7BE.
