FIeld Visit: Dalston Junction

Last week when we had creative industry field visit in Dalston Junction, I have got chance to do the actual field research about creative industry in London. It gave me the oppurnunity to see how the creative sector works and how they managed to survive in this critical economic crisis.

I visited in the outlet called: Here today Here tomorow, Print club London(Print studio for Arts and Fashion), Open the Gate (Photo Gallery) and LN-CC (A boutique/art gallery). I manged to talk with Katy (Director of Print London Studio) and she provided the information about how does the print market runs. she also stated that these creative sector are affected by recession however they are managed to market because of marketing and dealing in local and national level.

Open the Gate was which was simply Photo Gallery which had some interesting collection of Photos and images and on the roof they planted small green house with varriety of Flowers and other plants.

However, I found LN-CC( Late Night Chameleon Café) more interesting and exactly relevant with my trip. The outlet was- a concept boutique/event space/art gallery tucked away underneath an otherwise non-descript building on Shacklewell Lane. It opened last year and has fast become a figurehead for fashion in east London, offering a welcome relief from the all the over-priced pseudo vintage tat and influx of high street brands that permeate Brick Lane and Shoreditch. On this occasion, the group I was with was able to chat to the boutique's John and Charlotte, (John is the creative director) who explained a bit about the development.The whole team has a long background in retail, and knew exactly what they want to do to try to evolve the business a little bit, while still retaining a workable shopping experience.

The interior is designed by artist Gary Card, chosen by the team because of their desire to see an artist that they love given a permanent installation space, and the result is a wonderland like maze of Perspex and wood, tunnels and a treehouse.The reason for my ending up at LN-CC this time was actually not with the intention of doing any writing specifically on them, but I find it such an interesting place that I couldn’t resist. It’s completely worth a visit.

It's probably one of the most interesting and modern places for fashion around at the moment, and I predict that we'll see some pretty good things from it in the future.