Step inside KOIBIRD’s Marylebone store and, as per usual, you enter down a rabbit hole and into another world. Changing the buy as well as the store design biannually in line with its spring/summer or autumn/winter theme, which is often a destination, the boutique has in previous editions covered California, Korea and Lagos. This time it takes us to Eastern Europe, in particular Georgia, Ukraine, Russia and Poland. Under the title The Eastern Bloc, the seasonal edit includes designers Anouki, Matériel Tbilisi, Chakshyn and more.
But what can you expect from the store design? Working again with spatial designer Anna Burns, KOIBIRD presents a lilac and Pepto-pink space (a “KOIBIRD staple,” comments Burns), with “the added touches of flounce and pattern using lace and florals that are synonymous with Eastern European domestic interiors, which creates our most homely interior to date.” The result? Just about enough chintz to transport you to somewhere much further east than Shoreditch High Street.
Putting the chic in granny-chic, KOIBIRD’s reinvention is proud to be compared to your grandmother’s house, with a mix of repurposed fabrics and furniture as well as a folklore artwork in gold gilt frames. “You can almost see the chronology of the space coming to life; a family heirloom here, a repurposed piece of lace there." All the furnishings, although fanciful, are just a backdrop to the new season edit. The clothing and accessories speak for themselves, be it the Magda Butrym snakeskin suit, a Chakshyn body chain or the disco suit of the season, by Anouki.
Walk into the Marylebone store and step inside the chintzy world of Eastern Europe circa 1985.