Luna & Curious is a shop in Shoreditch run by three designer/makers who sell their own work alongside other people's. The trio consists of two ceramicists and one jeweller who are passionate about supporting new British designers and have been doing so since 2006. They’re also behind Semi-Automatic a luxury vending machine at the design-led St Martin’s Lane Hotel which sells an edited gift collection of their idiosyncratic items 24 hours a day.
Describe your store in five words: Eclectic, White, Inviting, Treasured, Adventures.
What makes you different?Polly George, Kaoru Parry (of ceramics studio welovekaoru) and Rheanna Lingham: three overactive imaginations with obsessive natures curating beautifully produced objects.
How you decide what makes the cut? The most important marker is it made In England? Do we engage with it? Is it well made? How will it sit in Luna & Curious? All questions we consider when selecting products, we have got fussier in our old age and so the products we sell now are really the best of the best.
What were you doing before you did this? I had just graduated from Middlesex [in jewellery design] so I was standing on the step looking into the future about to make those big decisions about what I would do with my life when Luna & Curious walked into the picture and I'm still here seven years on.
If you were starting again what advice would you give yourself? Slow and steady wins the race.
What are you most proud of? Our store on Calvert Avenue. When we took over the shop it was a fire damaged squat with no electricity. The three of us worked tirelessly for seven weeks to get it up and running. Our families and friends were there with us the whole way, without their support we would not have been able to do it. We were the painters, plasterers and builders and we got it turned around so quickly in the deepest of winter.
Do you have a favourite thing in the store right now? Yes, Rachel Boston's Insect Leg Hoops with a garnet earrings, they are in my head constantly.
What's hot for 2013? Our Beastie Banquet, the debut range from Luna & Curious is where it is at this year.
Every Wednesday 'Indie of the week' celebrates the best independent stores around. These places sell interesting and varied collections of design-related things you don't see everywhere else. They may support young or local designers or be great at finding unique things from around the world. By thinking a little more creatively about what they stock they are fighting the bland homogenisation of so much of the high street. And since I'm down with the realities of modern life, online only stores count too, because a beautiful and easy to use website is just as delightful an encounter in cyberspace.
