A preloved fashion department store concept will take over part of Fenwick’s former Bond Street department store next month as the retailer shuts up shop after almost 133 years.
The Charity Super.Mkt – which brings together five charities including Shelter, Traid, Shaw Trust and Havens Hospices – will temporarily move into the former handbag and accessories department from 9 February.
The multi-charity shop will open for a fortnight and host events with DJs at weekends.
It will use fittings and hangers from Fenwick as well as some items donated by designer brands, which will be finishing packing up from behind hoardings shielding the rest of the store.
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The new owner Lazari Investments, which snapped up the building for £430m, is to convert the site into a mixed-use development with retail on the ground floor and offices above.
Charity Super.Mkt started with a six-week pop-up in a former Topshop in London’s Brent Cross shopping centre in January last year.
The Fenwick project will be its 15th pop-up.
The “department store for second-hand style”, which will be run by volunteers, is the brainchild of Red of Dead founder Wayne Hemingway and Traid chief executive Maria Chenoweth.
Hemingway said: “We are on a mission to get charity fashion into spaces and places it hasn’t been before.
“Bond Street with all the big brands and dresses for £2,000 is going to be a major experiment. Will people come who have a very different background to most charity shoppers and who maybe have never been in a charity shop before?”
While its not promising vintage designer bargains, Hemingway said the charities would be “putting stuff aside” that they thought was right for Bond Street.
“There won’t be the same stock as on Scunthorpe High Street, it will be tailored as best we can,” he said.
Fenwick director of strategic partnerships Leo Fenwick added: “Partnering with Charity Super.Mkt combines many threads of our sustainability and charitable initiatives, including helping accelerate the move to a low-waste society with the reduction in textile waste, supporting opportunities for women to thrive, and partnering with charities to improve communities and the environment.”
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