Ethnic Art and Typography of the English Cotton Merchants

6pm, September 1st at 151 Ludlow Street, NYC the doors of The Inutilious Retailer opened.

6 months to plan, 2 weeks to build and the guests of honor were all those who either came to the Art Sundays or helped create the store. These were the only people who were allowed to see the whole store without being customers, and they got the best shop front manufacturers to create the front for the shop.

It had gone from an empty shell to a complete store, lounge and art workshop in just 2 weeks and the renovation came in under budget at $2,300!

Photos were banned behind the secret wall of the store and I am so appreciative that nobody in the whole time it opened ruined the surprise of the secret back area by taking any sneaky photos. There was media interest from the media, such as New York magazine but I refused to let images of the back part be published.

And social media interest too but all respected my desire to keep the back area secret

But now, all can be revealed…

The Store 

The Interior

Lit only by the giant barcode, it had consumerism’s “costs” on the left side and “values” on the right side

Clothing is hanging on umbrellas, still with price tags from the Salvation Army and if you showed an interest in anything, there was no salesperson (the door was always open too but nothing was stolen) but a voice came from nowhere, then the wall mirror flipped forward and at last, the customer knew there was more to this minimalist store than met the eye….

A person asks you to pull the slot machine to prove you have an imagination

and if you come up with your own idea of what might be on the reels of the blank slot machine, you have just proved you have an imagination and are told you have won the garment you like for free – with one condition.

You have to come through the hidden door into the secret back area and make something to replace it.

Then you enter the wonderland where you sit down, relax with a coffee or glass of wine, pick a new piece of clothing off the rack to paint on and then start planning what you are going to create for the next random person who comes into the store.  Taking as much time as you need and doing whatever art you want, without judgements….

The Lounge

The Workshop

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Because of the success of my Art Sundays, a day when everyone and anyone could come to my home and use the stamps to create art for free, I decided to expand the idea and open a free store in NYC.

So many people left the Art Sundays happier than when they arrived, yet all they had done was use the stamps to print on a t-shirt or canvas. They were reminded how enjoyable art could be, I was reminded how rewarding being altruistic can be and it felt like the stamps had come alive because they were being used again, maybe 100 years after being left to gather dust on a warehouse shelf.

I wanted to recreate the wonder of walking into my home and being surprised by the art workshop within, so the idea was to create a surreal monochrome clothing store, which confused all those who entered. But those who were curious enough to interact with a voice from behind a false wall would be invited back into a welcoming home and workshop that looked as though it had been hidden there for years.

Every ‘customer’ could have the garment they liked in the store for free but the condition was they had to come in the back of the store, make something to replace it and be photographed with both garments at the end of the process.

I hoped the store would inspire people to question why we are pushed to buy things to make us happy, why we think Art can only be created by artists and why it is important to have something in life that is nothing to do with making money – a hobby.

I found the things I needed – an old workbench off craigslist and vintage umbrellas off eBay

I bought 30 fluorescent tubes and made a light that looked like a giant barcode

Of course I needed to organize the stamps so people could get to them easily, so I bought 150 old bread trays and designed a shelving system for the store

The key to getting in the back of the store would be to pull a 1929 slot machine I had owned since I was a kid. It seemed the perfect focal point of a store that represented consumerism and capitalism to have a gambling machine from the year when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. I painted it white and it was ready for action.

Last but not least was the fictional Inutilious Retailer himself – Mr Herringbone Grey. Originally a pizza advertising guy, he had been thrown out 8 years previously and had become part of my family. I cleaned him up, painted him white and replaced his chef hat with a Phrygian cap – a symbol of the emancipation from oppression.

All that was needed now was a perfect location. I chose the Lower East Side because it still has a few remaining stores where things are made and sold on the premises. Retail and manufacturing were often directly connected, with storefronts selling everything from bagels to suits that had been made in the back of the store. In these times of internet delivery, I wanted to celebrate that history and so wandered up Orchard Street and down Ludlow taking note of the many empty stores until I came across the perfect location.

151 Ludlow Street, between Stanton and Rivington, NYC

and this is how it looked inside…

The realtor apologized that the back of the store was such a mess – I signed the lease immediately, knowing I had found the perfect spot..

I rented a truck and roped in some friends who moved everything in the space. I bought a vintage mirror from Craigslist that I designed the wall around and on the way to the store, we picked up an old leather sofa for the lounge area.  $400 of wood was delivered to build the false wall, I put three vintage mannequins in the window to throw the inquisitive off the scent and spent two weeks building out the interior with only hand tools and an electric drill.

Total spent was $2,000

Famous NY typographer Louise Fili created a logo for the store and a monogram, which I had made into a banner for the outside of the store.

The only thing missing were garments on which to print. The first pieces of clothing were bought from Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters – stores that have a reputation for copying smaller designer’s work. My idea was to do the reverse –  take their mass market designs and let people convert them into one off designs that would be given away.

Once those 14 garments had been used, I bought a stock of varied clothing from the Salvation Army. Firstly, because the money I bought them for would, as they say on their receipt, go to help others. Secondly, because the store was really about Salvation from consumerism.

Before it opened I was interviewed for Print magazine

The inevitable online confusion/ridicule about someone planning to open a store which didn’t sell anything followed.

After just 2 weeks, The Inutilious Retailer was ready…

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