クラブハウスに入る、チョポヴァ・ロウェナの初の実店舗

Building Chopova Lowena’s first store took compromise. Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons left their longtime Deptford studio, downsizing to a workspace above their new home on east London’s Teesdale Street. There were logistical hurdles and financial ones, too, though you would never know it from stepping inside. Part girl’s bedroom, part folkloric clubhouse, the store is as much of a patchworked collage as the skirts that made their name.

Perhaps that is because compromise has always been easier when there are two of you. Chopova and Lowena-Irons met while studying for their BA at Central Saint Martins, before going on to complete the MA together and founding Chopova Lowena in 2017. They consider the meeting fate. “We really complete each other,” says Chopova. “It’s a beautiful rarity where two people have the exact same vision, love the same thing and have the same idea about what luxury is – something that is special and unique and takes time to make. We bonded over that at the very beginning.”

Their skills complement one another, too. “Where I’m like, ‘I can’t do this,’ Laura can, and vice versa,” Chopova continues. “We’ve had every argument under the sun, but our partnership is rooted in friendship,” says Lowena-Irons. “We understand, love and respect each other first. Everything else follows.”

Over the weekend, the pair welcomed the public into the space, their first bricks-and-mortar store after almost a decade in business. “We wanted it to be a space where you could hang out with your friends, try on clothes, have fun, and take it easy,” says Chopova. “You know, come in, have a snack.” Which she means literally – each customer is offered a chocolate-covered Bulgarian date and a traditional tea upon entry.

Handmade Polish pinewood wardrobes and shelving are carved with ornate detailing; a secret peephole to a cartoon world; vintage door knockers, bells and fingerplates; coat hooks and pegs from the 1920s; custom light fittings with furry cables by Saelia Aparicio and bulbous ceramic vases by Alake Shilling; a horse-shaped metalwork bench; Bulgarian tapestries; chairs that resemble girls, each upholstered to wear their very own Chopova Lowena skirt. Then there is a skirt bar, where customers can customise a Folkloric or taffeta Carabiner skirt, choosing the fabric, buckle, belt, charms from an in-store haberdashery cabinet that is covered in thousands of stickers, hand-adhered by Lowena-Irons herself. 

“Look,” Chopova says, opening a little metal plate like a door. Behind it, a screen reveals a Chopova Lowena girl miming an escape, as though trapped inside. “See, she’s angry; she’s like ‘why am I here?’” then, “She seems not to mind being trapped,” she says, pointing to each girl who appears on the screen in full Chopova Lowena get-up, stockings and all. “We wanted that sense of discovery and fun,” says Lowena-Irons. 

A labour of love, the store was designed by the girls, its strange and ornate components sourced over months from Bulgaria, eastern Europe, America and the UK. Much of the furniture was designed, built or customised by Chopova’s partner, the fabricator and furniture-maker David Pringle. As a brand set up by two people who are first and foremost best friends, it was a family affair from the get-go: Chopova’s mother, who works for the brand sourcing textiles, also helped find the various wall hangings. She understands the vision. 

Chopova and Lowena-Irons show me a letterbox, beneath which sits a notepad and a pot of customised pens. “Write down a secret, do a drawing or something cute and post it through the letterbox,” they instruct me. “We’re going to send out a monthly newsletter of all the secrets posted.” Petal – the Chopova Lowena clubhouse mascot – pouts from the face of a clock above the fitting room. Across the space are clothes rails modified from old cast-iron gates – true to the brand’s philosophy, which puts upcycling and craftsmanship at the forefront – on which hang graphic T-shirts, jackets, bags, and the clubhouse merch, exclusive to the store and offered at a lower price point, bedecked with Petal’s face. 

Affixed to the pinewood between the shoes and the accessories is a Dutch girl string holder, a girl with a bonnet that dispenses red string through her mouth – it’s a traditional mid-century kitchen accessory. “She’s very special,” says Lowena-Irons as she opens a heart-shaped pot in porcelain, filled with vintage charms. “Customers can cut some string off and choose a charm and it’s like a good luck bracelet,” says Chopova. “In eastern Europe, tying a piece of red string around your wrist is thought to ward off evil spirits.” 

We arrive at the till, which is housed within a wooden cabana inspired by an 18th-century enclosed bed of the kind found across the Balkans. “We got this hand-carved by this carpenter in his late seventies in the village my family and I are from in Bulgaria and transported it back to London in pieces,” Chopova tells me. The space is remarkable, as meticulously considered as the clothes themselves. Actually, it’s not dissimilar to the bedroom the pair curated for MoMu Antwerp last year. 

The brand’s e-commerce sales have grown year on year, as has its broad community – encompassing the craftspeople who make each piece as well as the devoted crowd who wear them. The clubhouse gives the designers another kind of freedom. “We can make one of a piece, five of a piece and not have to reach minimums or think about how wholesalers will sell a particular design or how it represents us,” says Lowena-Irons. “We can do exactly what we want, and do it in a small and artisanal way.”

The clubhouse will host activations and events. Launches. Pop-ups. Poetry nights. Book clubs. “Come after work. Come down on the weekend. Maybe we’ll do a dating night for Valentine’s Day,” Chopova laughs. There will be no dedicated store manager, at least for now. Instead, the entire team will pitch in. “Emma and I will be here to help out. We want to experience what it’s like in the store,” says Lowena-Irons. “If we don’t know how it works, then how can we expect our team to? It’s important that we figure out what we want the store to be.” 

And it’s a huge milestone. After registering Chopova Lowena in 2017, the pair refer to the following year as “the year of depression”, a period of pub jobs, long hours, dingy flats and struggling to make ends meet. “Just when we thought we weren’t going to be able to pay our rent, we’d land a scholarship or an award or a grant,” remembers Lowena-Irons. Chopova looks back on it rather differently: “That year was one of the best times of my life.” 

Last Thursday, marked a new chapter. The pair celebrated the store’s opening surrounded by editors, designers, artists, friends and family, with cocktails and a suitably Chopova Lowena cake by Nil Mutluer, AKA Healgoblin: a red velvet sponge with black icing and edible embellishments, and a strawberry, raspberry and lychee filling.

“Our community is everyone and all,” says Chopova. “There’s something for everyone.” Soap, a bracelet, merch, at lower price points; or a custom skirt, at the other end of the spectrum. “It’s kind of a weird brand in that way. I say weird because I think for a lot of brands you can pinpoint exactly the audience, the person who wears it, their age group. Our audience is varied in terms of age, gender, geography. Our clothes can be worn by anyone in any way.”  

The Chopova Lowena Clubhouse is open at 84 Teesdale Street on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays from 11am to 6pm, and on Sundays from 12pm to 5pm.  

Building Chopova Lowena’s first store took compromise. Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons left their longtime Deptford studio, downsizing to a workspace above their new home on east London’s Teesdale Street. There were logistical hurdles and financial ones, too, though you would never know it from stepping inside. Part girl’s bedroom, part folkloric clubhouse, the store is as much of a patchworked collage as the skirts that made their name.

Perhaps that is because compromise has always been easier when there are two of you. Chopova and Lowena-Irons met while studying for their BA at Central Saint Martins, before going on to complete the MA together and founding Chopova Lowena in 2017. They consider the meeting fate. “We really complete each other,” says Chopova. “It’s a beautiful rarity where two people have the exact same vision, love the same thing and have the same idea about what luxury is – something that is special and unique and takes time to make. We bonded over that at the very beginning.”

Their skills complement one another, too. “Where I’m like, ‘I can’t do this,’ Laura can, and vice versa,” Chopova continues. “We’ve had every argument under the sun, but our partnership is rooted in friendship,” says Lowena-Irons. “We understand, love and respect each other first. Everything else follows.”

Over the weekend, the pair welcomed the public into the space, their first bricks-and-mortar store after almost a decade in business. “We wanted it to be a space where you could hang out with your friends, try on clothes, have fun, and take it easy,” says Chopova. “You know, come in, have a snack.” Which she means literally – each customer is offered a chocolate-covered Bulgarian date and a traditional tea upon entry.

Handmade Polish pinewood wardrobes and shelving are carved with ornate detailing; a secret peephole to a cartoon world; vintage door knockers, bells and fingerplates; coat hooks and pegs from the 1920s; custom light fittings with furry cables by Saelia Aparicio and bulbous ceramic vases by Alake Shilling; a horse-shaped metalwork bench; Bulgarian tapestries; chairs that resemble girls, each upholstered to wear their very own Chopova Lowena skirt. Then there is a skirt bar, where customers can customise a Folkloric or taffeta Carabiner skirt, choosing the fabric, buckle, belt, charms from an in-store haberdashery cabinet that is covered in thousands of stickers, hand-adhered by Lowena-Irons herself. 

“Look,” Chopova says, opening a little metal plate like a door. Behind it, a screen reveals a Chopova Lowena girl miming an escape, as though trapped inside. “See, she’s angry; she’s like ‘why am I here?’” then, “She seems not to mind being trapped,” she says, pointing to each girl who appears on the screen in full Chopova Lowena get-up, stockings and all. “We wanted that sense of discovery and fun,” says Lowena-Irons. 

A labour of love, the store was designed by the girls, its strange and ornate components sourced over months from Bulgaria, eastern Europe, America and the UK. Much of the furniture was designed, built or customised by Chopova’s partner, the fabricator and furniture-maker David Pringle. As a brand set up by two people who are first and foremost best friends, it was a family affair from the get-go: Chopova’s mother, who works for the brand sourcing textiles, also helped find the various wall hangings. She understands the vision. 

Chopova and Lowena-Irons show me a letterbox, beneath which sits a notepad and a pot of customised pens. “Write down a secret, do a drawing or something cute and post it through the letterbox,” they instruct me. “We’re going to send out a monthly newsletter of all the secrets posted.” Petal – the Chopova Lowena clubhouse mascot – pouts from the face of a clock above the fitting room. Across the space are clothes rails modified from old cast-iron gates – true to the brand’s philosophy, which puts upcycling and craftsmanship at the forefront – on which hang graphic T-shirts, jackets, bags, and the clubhouse merch, exclusive to the store and offered at a lower price point, bedecked with Petal’s face. 

Affixed to the pinewood between the shoes and the accessories is a Dutch girl string holder, a girl with a bonnet that dispenses red string through her mouth – it’s a traditional mid-century kitchen accessory. “She’s very special,” says Lowena-Irons as she opens a heart-shaped pot in porcelain, filled with vintage charms. “Customers can cut some string off and choose a charm and it’s like a good luck bracelet,” says Chopova. “In eastern Europe, tying a piece of red string around your wrist is thought to ward off evil spirits.” 

We arrive at the till, which is housed within a wooden cabana inspired by an 18th-century enclosed bed of the kind found across the Balkans. “We got this hand-carved by this carpenter in his late seventies in the village my family and I are from in Bulgaria and transported it back to London in pieces,” Chopova tells me. The space is remarkable, as meticulously considered as the clothes themselves. Actually, it’s not dissimilar to the bedroom the pair curated for MoMu Antwerp last year. 

The brand’s e-commerce sales have grown year on year, as has its broad community – encompassing the craftspeople who make each piece as well as the devoted crowd who wear them. The clubhouse gives the designers another kind of freedom. “We can make one of a piece, five of a piece and not have to reach minimums or think about how wholesalers will sell a particular design or how it represents us,” says Lowena-Irons. “We can do exactly what we want, and do it in a small and artisanal way.”

The clubhouse will host activations and events. Launches. Pop-ups. Poetry nights. Book clubs. “Come after work. Come down on the weekend. Maybe we’ll do a dating night for Valentine’s Day,” Chopova laughs. There will be no dedicated store manager, at least for now. Instead, the entire team will pitch in. “Emma and I will be here to help out. We want to experience what it’s like in the store,” says Lowena-Irons. “If we don’t know how it works, then how can we expect our team to? It’s important that we figure out what we want the store to be.” 

And it’s a huge milestone. After registering Chopova Lowena in 2017, the pair refer to the following year as “the year of depression”, a period of pub jobs, long hours, dingy flats and struggling to make ends meet. “Just when we thought we weren’t going to be able to pay our rent, we’d land a scholarship or an award or a grant,” remembers Lowena-Irons. Chopova looks back on it rather differently: “That year was one of the best times of my life.” 

Last Thursday, marked a new chapter. The pair celebrated the store’s opening surrounded by editors, designers, artists, friends and family, with cocktails and a suitably Chopova Lowena cake by Nil Mutluer, AKA Healgoblin: a red velvet sponge with black icing and edible embellishments, and a strawberry, raspberry and lychee filling.

“Our community is everyone and all,” says Chopova. “There’s something for everyone.” Soap, a bracelet, merch, at lower price points; or a custom skirt, at the other end of the spectrum. “It’s kind of a weird brand in that way. I say weird because I think for a lot of brands you can pinpoint exactly the audience, the person who wears it, their age group. Our audience is varied in terms of age, gender, geography. Our clothes can be worn by anyone in any way.”  

The Chopova Lowena Clubhouse is open at 84 Teesdale Street on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays from 11am to 6pm, and on Sundays from 12pm to 5pm.