Kanye West and Morrissey are not artists who often find themselves in competition; but with both opening pop-up stores this weekend what better time to bring Yeezus and the Mozzfather together? What would fans find inside the 21 Pablo stores dotted around the world (from Singapore to Berlin, Miami, New York), or the Mporium (one location: the iconic Salford Lads Club)? Kanye vests? Ultrawhite Ts? A Meat is Murder apron? Hand in Glove gloves?
21 PABLO STORES WORLDWIDE THIS WEEKEND LOCATIONS HEREhttps://t.co/tYuzqs7kJW
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) August 18, 2016
As you’d expect from an artist like Kanye who has spent the last few years making his presence felt on frows around the world, name-dropping designer labels, collaborating first with Nike and then Adidas on his Yeezy trainers, and launching his own catwalk collections, there’s a proper style edge to the shopping experience in the London pop-up: ie, a very long wait for a heavily edited collection.
Staff at the Kanye pop up maintain a strict policy of only letting 20 people shop at any one time. An orderly queue of fans shuffling for 90 minutes to be let in. A shopping guide is handed out, like a menu at a no-reservations restaurant.
Everyone pours over the 12 items on sale: “WE YOUNG AND WE ALIVE SAND LONG SLEEVE T-SHIRT £70”; “PABLO GREEN MILITARY JACKET £295”; “WOKE UP AND FELT THE VIBE WHITE HOODIE £95”.
A double decker drives past, full of tourists waving at the fans who’ve woken up to feel the vibe in the soft August drizzle. Cabbies stick their heads out to ask what the queue is waiting for, and seem satisfied with “Pablo merch.”
Inside, tracks from The Life of Pablo boom at full club volume. Racks of T-shirts and hoodies in London’s tasteful white or sand with Kanye’s gothic font in muted orange or grey hang on racks alongside military jackets in faded green, and black satin bombers. They’re just for size: you queue again, circle the items you want on the menu, and they’re handed over from the back in a see-through plastic bag, with the same “PABLO PABLO PABLO PABLO” logo in gothic. A request for two bags doesn’t go down well. Probably too loud to hear.
For Londoners Chirag Parmar, 21 and Deesha Parmar, 23, the 90 minute wait was worth it. Kanye fans for a couple of years, they’re fans of both his music and fashion. “I like the sand colour, but we were hoping for the red maybe” says Deesha. Would they wait for anyone else? Drake.
Abounayan, 18 and Hassian, 17 from Stuttgart in Germany have come away with two T-shirts and a hoodie. “We might come tomorrow again, there might be different stuff.”
What did Anna Dancey, 28 buy? “Everything! One of everything pretty much, I’m from Australia, friends from Brisbane were calling me because they didn’t get a pop up store, so I bought a bunch of stuff for them. Even if you buy heaps of stuff you can resell it. It’s a really good set up, I was here pretty early, the line moved fast, the music was pumping, it’s very London! I like the basicness of it, I like the sand, the white goes with everything and you can’t beat a black bomber jacket. There’s not much else I’d queue for – maybe when street labels like Palace or Supreme do crossovers, but not a big artist.”
For fans, the ritual of buying a T-shirt at a gig has always been a big part of the live experience – a chance to wear their art on your sleeve, as it were. West’s raft of 21 pop-ups is very much in keeping with a pop world where the lines between merchandise and fashion have blurred – whether it’s Justin Bieber collaborating with Fear of God designer Jerry Lorenzo on his Purpose Tour, Beyoncé’s Ivy Park range, or Drake partnering with OVO. RV
If it was a Kanye album it would be: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: pop charts, pop ups … this weekend it’s a West world. (If you like waiting for 90 minutes to buy some nice crewnecks.)
Marks out of ten: nine.
It was grey, dark and damp and that set the tone for Morrissey’s pop-up shop in the Salford Lads Club. The rain lashed down sideways on the 100 or so diehard fans that huddled outside the red-brick building. There was a modicum of excitement but nothing too overwhelming – a bit like the merchandise.
As the doors of the historic club opened at 10.35am, five minutes late, the crowd piled in, more so to get away from the grey skies and cold.
Inside they found vintage inspired T-shirts priced from £25 to jerseys selling for £40. Tea towels emblazoned with Morrissey’s face selling for £15. Goodie bags or “bundles” with a signed autobiography, a poster bag and a pen and another containing a signed Bona Drag LP, a poster and a T-shirt were the most popular selling at £70.
And that was it at pop-up shop, Mporium.
Brendan, 40 from Stockport, drove by the club at 1am to scout out any potential crowds and returned in earnest at 3.30am to secure his plot at the front.
With a Johnny Marr tattoo on his arm complete with his signature, Brendan had only come for one thing – the signed merchandise.
He said: “We were worried whether there would be a big queue so we wanted to make sure we got here early. I have come for the bundles.
“I have been a fan since I was 16 – I leant my brother a blank tape and he didn’t tell me what he was taping and he put Smiths and Morrissey on it. And I listened to it and he never got the tape back.”
He added: “He appeals to people who felt like they are a bit of a billy no mates. To people who are slight outsiders.”
Meanwhile, Alistair McLellan, 30, had driven over from Barnsley, South Yorkshire who had been waiting for four hours in the pouring rain to buy signed Bona Drag vinyls which were going for £70.
He had missed out at the pop-up shop in the Battersea Dog’s home in London last year so thought he would give it another try this year. And there was success.
A fan since he was 15, he said: “I have a pretty big record collection at the moment. I have probably spent upwards £8,000 on Morrissey records alone in my lifetime- from old records to literally new ones.
“I missed out at the Battersea Dogs home last year so decided to get here really early today. It’s been raining on and off for the past four hours. It’s been horrendous but hopefully it will be worth it.”
Alejandro De Luna, 30, from Mexico who is living in Manchester and works in marketing, who bought two Morrissey bundles, said: “I love him – I have been a fan since I was 12. I am really happy – I got what I wanted.” NP
If it was a Morrissey album it would be: Kill Uncle… Underwhelming merchandise but fantastic venue with a rich history.
Marks out of ten: six.
