{"id":11028,"date":"2026-01-15T13:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rutha.org\/index.php\/2026\/01\/15\/apoc-store-reimagines-london-boutique-as-rotating-gallery-for-independent-designers\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T13:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:39:19","slug":"apoc-store-reimagines-london-boutique-as-rotating-gallery-for-independent-designers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rutha.org\/index.php\/2026\/01\/15\/apoc-store-reimagines-london-boutique-as-rotating-gallery-for-independent-designers\/","title":{"rendered":"APOC Store reimagines London boutique as rotating gallery for independent designers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"APOC<\/div>\n

Design retailer APOC Store<\/a> has reconfigured its London<\/a> boutique so it doubles as an informal gallery<\/a> where emerging creatives can showcase their work amid “incredibly challenging” industry conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

APOC Store<\/a> is a “curated marketplace” that stocks fashion and furniture by young, independent designers, from Harikrishnan’s blow-up latex trousers<\/a> to Ying Chang’s cardboard stools<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"APOC
APOC Store has renovated its east London shop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Founders Ying Suen and Jules Volleberg opened their first permanent shop in London Fields, Hackney, last year, which has now been pared back to provide a minimalist white backdrop for a changing roster of collectible designs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Every six months, we will collaborate with a new artist to completely redesign the store and produce custom works that will also be for sale,” Volleberg told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

\"Pared-back
It now serves as a hybrid gallery space for independent designers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Making a living as an independent designer is still incredibly challenging,” he added. “With our store, we wanted to give designers a space where they can stay true to their vision and have full control over their work.”<\/p>\n

“Some produce one-off pieces each month, so even we never know exactly what will appear.”<\/p>\n

The debut designer showing at the shop is Barnaby Lewis<\/a>, a southeast London furniture maker who works predominantly with steel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Room
Barnaby Lewis is the store’s debut designer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among Lewis’s bespoke pieces are a gothic-style desk anchored by spindly legs and a wiry black chair with a fishbone-shaped back.<\/p>\n

One of his intricate room dividers, characterised by illustrative cutouts of a sun, moon and stars, also features in the space, finished in the same dark-hued metal as the rest of the furniture.<\/p>\n

Suen and Volleberg explained that while the store’s exhibition will change twice a year, its understated, gallery-style backdrop will remain in place to allow each of the rotating designers’ pieces to speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

\"Steel
Lewis works predominantly with steel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“If I’m being completely honest, going into the store every day, I got bored of the space staying the same,” Suen reflected.<\/p>\n

“I’m the same with my home \u2013 I move and change things every few months. It didn’t take long for the original interior to stop provoking new feelings for me. That boredom pushed us to rethink the store not as a finished design, but as an ongoing framework that could evolve whenever we wanted.”<\/p>\n