Smak Parlour’s fashion truck on 40th Street between Locust and Spruce Streets / Photo by Mia Holley.
Over the last 10 years, pop-up shops have become a must-do trend in the fashion industry. While seasonal holiday stores—like Spirit Halloween—have already anchored themselves in this market for decades, retail and fashion tycoons like Target, Gucci, Dr. Martens, Louis Vuitton and Kate Spade have all developed pop-up shops at one point or another.
Smak Parlour, located at 219 Market Street, is no stranger to the pop-up concept. The Old City boutique founded and run by best friends Katie Lubieski and Abby Kessler has a temporary space at 126 S. 19th Street opened through November 9th, moving to the King of Prussia mall the day after for the holiday season.
While the two 34-year-old fashion designers—who started their t-shirt line SMAK in college—are following an established trend, they’re hoping to capitalize on another budding craze already taking over Los Angeles: the fashion truck. And they’ve started here in West Philly.
“We love the idea of bringing our merchandise straight to our customers, it is the ultimate in customer service,” Lubieski and Kessler wrote to West Philly Local in an email. “It’s an emerging trend for food to go mobile, we decided why not do that for fashion too?”
Since July of this year, Lubieski and Kessler have operated their Smak Parlour mobile store on 40th Street between Locust and Spruce Streets, serving mostly students from University of Pennsylvania and their alma mater Drexel University. Equipped with a dressing room, West Philly shoppers can peruse the truck’s array of affordably priced clothing (available up to size Large), jewelry, and accessories while on break for lunch, in between classes or during a mid-day walk. Smak Parlour’s parked on 40th Street every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday between 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., and occasionally visits other locations throughout the city.
But, for the fashionistas, a brick and mortar store, pop-up shops and fashion truck are just the beginning. The two women are looking to expand their brand through “whatever opportunities come our way.”
“We have a great staff and awesome, affordable merchandise. Maybe there’s a Smak Parlour store coming to West Philly down the line, who knows?!,” they wrote.
–Annamarya Scaccia
May 2nd, 2015 at 1:45 am
This is a good fashion work started by the designers in such a low cost with their creative skills. This will also give inspiration to other learning designers to motivate them in naturing their fashion talent.