Shop Wright: the pop-up shop joining forces with big name artists

As another ‘let’s touch base in January’ email lands in your inbox, you can revel in the fact that for most people, December is the month of winding down. Lucy Wright is not most people: launching a pop-up shop in The Columbia Hotel in the key Christmas shopping period has left her busier than ever.

‘The idea for Shop Wright came about around six weeks ago,’ Wright explains. ‘We had about 55 vendors in the end. I worked my arse off – I don’t think I’ve slept in about two months. I really get tunnel vision – if I want to do something, I just go for it.’

Despite working for years within the art and architecture world, Wright has only recently ventured into selling wares herself. ‘I actually quit my job the day before lockdown was announced in March 2020. I had about three months of doing absolutely nothing, which was really scary,’ she says. ‘Then I started finding artists from different galleries and selling their pieces online, and could see that the market was picking up for homeware. Everyone was desperate to buy things online as they weren’t able to go into shops.’

The eventual result was the pop-up, launching on December 8 and finishing on Sunday. Shop Wright is an amalgamation of all things beautiful; from high art and fine jewellery to one-off fashion items and curated homewares. The artists aren’t from one luxury pool of talent either, Wright assures me: ‘I wanted to get established artists next to more up-and-coming artists, and it’s worked really well together.’

Sourcing items from big name artists including Anissa Kermiche, Christabel Macgreevy and Alfred Bramsen has set Shop Wright up for inevitable success, but the real stars of the show were surprising to Wright. ‘The ones that did really well were the Usisi Sisters, Silvia Astore – her dresses are so Christmassy and fun, Annina Dirndl who creates amazing Alpine fashion, and all the sculptures I got in just to dress the shop up, which really shocked me.’ Part of the beauty of the shop was the unpredictable nature of the customers and what they buy, Wright explains. ‘I partnered with this rare book shop called Reference Point, and this random dude came in from the street, and bought like 20 of them. It was amazing.’

Despite Omicron impacting her last few days of trading and forcing her to cancel events, Wright is looking forward to what the future holds for her business. ‘I don’t want anything permanent. Having a pop-up brings a sort of hype to it. I think I want to do the next one in March or April. I’ll change the venue, and get brands that I really wanted to have this time but they couldn’t do it. And the brands that did really well this time, I’d like to work with again.’

As Wright prepares to shut up shop this time around (the last appointments are on Sunday), keep your eyes peeled for her next iteration; it’s sure to continue her thundering success.