APOC has been an offbeat emporium of next-generation designers since 2020 and now, for the first time ever, the online retailer will open physical space in London, from 29 November to 1 December 2024.
Friends Ying Suen and Jules Volleberg launched the platform during the Covid pandemic as an alternative model for how retail can work, proposing a way to allow young designers not to be compromised by commerciality.
APOC’s hidden London pop-up
Since the beginning, APOC has given designers a say in what pieces are sold on the platform and a 65 per cent commission from those sales. For shoppers, the APOC experience is equally fruitful. It's like entering a curiosity shop – the kind of place where you find strange, beautiful objects from all over the world that you’ll treasure for a lifetime – but with avant-garde fashion and jewellery.
Pieces from APOC designers include necklaces made from plastic gems and toy cars by the South Korean jeweller VACSOM, acrylic nails by Raw Nails that are made to look like human teeth, Rosie Evans corsets made from damaged wool scarfs, and so much more.
If you had no idea where to get the fashion has-it-all this holiday season, then the new pop-up has the answer. Over 70 of APOC’s designers will be on show in the pop-up space, including London-based talents and more than 50 international names. Among the many exciting things on offer are elegant silver bow earrings by Freya Douglas Ferguson, crocheted tops and dresses by Raquel de Carvalho, and chainmail hats and tops by Jalaconda.
The pop-up is located in a former underground club in east London and, as always, the retailer is innovating traditional shopping experiences by operating on a booking system. Customers can reserve a one-hour slot via a booking link or by sending a DM to @apocstore, receiving an email with the location and entry instructions for the hidden spot.
Those who do not book in advance can also sign up to a waitlist or try their luck at getting one of the few daily drop-in slots. For those who can’t make it there is, thankfully, always the website.
‘Emerging designers create as an extension of themselves,’ Suen tells Wallpaper*. ‘The work you see is a part of them, and what they want to project into this world. APOC is a place to share and sell the work of people we love that you can’t find everywhere.’
APOC’s London pop-up is open from 29 November – 1 December 2024 at a secret E1 location. Book your space here. You will receive the location when your space is confirmed.
