Supermarket Sarah A.K.A Sarah Bagner is a shop owner with a difference. She originally trained in graphic design and went on to work in corporate advertising for a few years but jacked it all in to run a vintage stall at Portobello Market which was the starting point for something altogether more innovative.
Part pop-up shop, part installation and part e-commerce, Sarah now creates thoughtful and colourful 'walls' of products, photographs them and then uploads them onto her website where each item can be clicked on, viewed and purchased.
There seems to be no limitations to the type of products that Sarah sells, what ties them together is a common theme of each 'wall' for instance, here is a wall which was centred around the colour red
And here is a wall which was based on the concept of African Patterns.
Her aim is to create a visual supermarket for the customer, where products are laid out alongside eachother and in formats which are pleasing to the eye.
She began creating these walls at her own home, just around the corner from Portobello Market, but her concept has flourished and she has since been commissioned to create walls for designers such as Bethan Wood, Donna Wilson, Tatty Devine and Patternity to showcase their range of wares. In recent months, Sarah has also created a giant concept wall for Selfridges which has been on display inside the shop. Instead of clicking on the item, you can remove it from the wall and take it to the till and its gap will be filled by one of the sales assistants. You may have also spotted Sarah in recent weeks at the London Design Festival where she created a pop-up shop on the terrace of Portobello Dock.
This is Supermarket Sarah's latest wall a concept 'web' for designers Luna and Curious who create accessories with a vintage influence. It features a taxidermy seagull in a glass jar, cups and saucers based on Victorian designs and brought up to date with a smattering of graffiti and brooches based on the head and shoulders of Hollywood pin-ups. As you can see from the website, most of it is already sold out.
In terms of a creative, innovative and yet simplistic business model, Sarah has it in the bag. A glimpse at the sheer number of blogs she has been featured on will tell you as much. A carefully selected range of one-off products from rebellious designers along with an unflappable visual flair have proved to be a winning formula for Sarah and the designers she helps to promote.
Check out the website here
Jessica Hazel - [email protected]
