The partnership Here Today Here Tomorrow is not only a charming shop but also a functional studio in which large windows and open displays of sewing machines give customers and passers-by the opportunity to appreciate the skills and materials required to create handcrafted products.
Their name, a play on the popular idiom ‘here today, gone tomorrow’, renounces the convention of disposability in fashion and trends and epitomises the values they advocate, those of promoting longevity and quality of product. Their ethos concerns not only the recent convention of using organic materials and practising fair trade, but also the cultivation of mindfulness, community engagement and resourcefulness.
Made in Nepal project
Apart from stocking the merchandise of other innovative designers, Here Today Here Tomorrow also showcases items from the collaborators themselves, such as knitwear and accessories. Yet while their products – which include jewellery from Lithuania and jojoba soaps from Kenya – excel in keeping within their philosophy of sustainable craftsmanship, HTHT’s greatest promotional strategy is their practice of embracing the immediate community by conducting multisensory DIY and craft workshops. Workshops in the past have included sewing lessons, film screenings of a wind-powered knitting machine and demonstrations of natural dyeing using colourful botanicals aimed at encouraging attendees to replicate the process at home.
In addition, Anna-Maria, Emma, Julia and Katelyn all contribute towards a blog, which features new stock and current happenings at the shop.
Tous ensemble, Here Today Here Tomorrow has, most notably, a fresh and unique take on ethical fashion.
Here Today Here Tomorrow, 30a Balls Pond Road, Dalston, London N1 4AU
