If you were looking for a chic, affordable shopping bag, where would you go? Zara, maybe, or & Other Stories? This summer, however, some of the most on-trend buys can be found in art gallery gift shops.
For example, the bag that defines summer 2018 on Instagram, according to influencers such as Lucy Williams, is a string tote of the kind in which your grandma might have kept the potatoes. The National Gallery in London has just such a string grocery shopper for sale. It comes in blue and red and, at £5, it’s a bargain.
Once only a destination for a pencil-sharpener, a postcard or a fridge magnet, museum gift shops have been steadily upping their game in the past decade, a change that illustrates a significant shift in the way we go shopping.
At the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art’s shop in Gateshead, for example Tom Pigeon’s rectangular stud earrings (£45) exude the art-deco mood that underpins the current statement earrings trend, while Luckies of London’s mint-choc-chip ice cream socks (£6.95) reference spring/summer 2018’s gelato-dressing movement. At National Museums Liverpool, you can pick up the Star Editions cotton tote depicting the city’s skyline for £15 and channel Balenciaga’s penchant for tourist-themed accessories.
It’s not just things that will make you look good, but your home, too. At the Hepworth Wakefield, a handmade Barbara Hepworth-inspired planter (£30) will add a creative note to a windowsill; at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, its Flensted Fentura Mobile (£42.50) typifies Scandinavian cool; while Tate Modern’s Margaret Howell collection – which includes Fresco Studio vases (£120), Irish linen tea towels (£12) and cotton aprons (£65) – makes use of the designer’s pared-back aesthetic.
Some institutions are cementing their status as shopping destinations by collaborating with brands. The V&A in London will launch the first of four instalments of its collection with lingerie label Coco de Mer next week. The brand mined the museum’s archives for vintage prints and embroideries – the red hues of its Signature range are an interpretation of Wreathnet, a textile originally designed by William Morris in 1882, while the leaf motif on the Midnight Vine range was derived from a mother-of-pearl and lacquer inlay from the V&A’s collection of Korean lacquerware. Starting at £65 for a silk eyemask, the collection embodies “glamour and opulence”, says Coco de Mer owner Lucy Litwack.
Luxury, adds Litwack, “is no longer about owning a designer product – instead it is about individual, exceptional experiences and an emotional connection”. The V&A gets royalties out of the arrangement, as well as “an opportunity to tell the stories of our many wonderful and fascinating objects, some of which may not be continuously on display in our galleries,” says the museum’s Lauren Sizeland.
A few of the most zeitgeisty objects on sale at the V&A are, of course, inspired by its Frida Kahlo exhibition – from a fuchsia headdress by Philippa Craddock to a tote bag bearing the artist’s image and even the £1 badge emblazoned with the legend: I am My Own Muse, a message that could hardly be more 2018.
• This article was amended on 8 August 2018 because an Anglepoise lamp cited in an earlier article version ceased being displayed on the website involved.
