What did we do before Pop-Ups? Pre-Christmas and they're
sprouting like Santa's beard.
On the ground floor at Dover St Market, there's an exhibition of
5 beautiful watches - a collaboration between the Bamford Watch
Department and Brooklyn based artist Wes Lang. With amusing faces
and fine engraving in the Bamford trademark PVD coated bracelets,
these are watches to wet the boys beaks. And the skull boxes are
keepers. www.bamfordwatchdepartment.com
Trot down the road to Harrods where for the next two weeks
Montblanc have popped up in the Brompton Road windows with an
interactive 'Augmented Reality' exhibition (take your smartphone or
tablet and follow instructions!). As well as watches and jewellery,
the brand are selling limited edition fountain pens (the ebony and
diamond studded pen is a beauty). Surely it's time to put away the
keyboard and dip our quills lest we forget the art of writing. www.montblanc.com
Interaction continues over at Selfridges where Hermès have a new
range of 'techno' ties. Each piece is inspired by the whizzy stuff
that surrounds us, like the on/off button on a Mac or a USB sign,
while artist Miguel Chevalier has enlarged the prints on a huge
screen that move and make sounds as you walk or star jump in front
of it. Most distracting when you have serious shopping to do. www.hermes.com
And then zoom to the sticks, where Bella Freud with her
behind-the-bike-shed strand of cool, has popped up at Bicester
Village. Behind the pretty little clapboard exterior (see left),
the space has been 'Bella-d'; photographs, leather trunks, new
candles (a collaboration with Space NK) and piles of signature
sweaters. www.bellafreud.co.uk
The only bummer with pop-ups is that you have to make haste and
get to them before they… pop-off.