Lifestyle

Cabinet of curiosities: Edition 94 is an interiors shop with a difference



When India Whalley opened Edition 94 in September she had two weeks to do it.

The homeware and interiors shop in South Kensington is an Aladdin’s cave of colourful glass, shell lamps, jewellery, Victorian furniture, jewel bright throws and cushions fashioned from French tea-towels. It’s hard to believe that six months ago the space was completely empty.

India Whalley (Edition 94)

An interior designer by trade, Whalley began her career decorating other people’s houses and soon realised that the artwork was almost always an afterthought. So she purchased the West London space and launched a gallery called the Dot Project. Whalley wanted to showcase talented artists, who were so often overlooked in the art world by dint of their age and anonymity. The only problem was their lack of public profile and the dominion of traditional St James galleries meant that it was near impossible to make any money.

“By the end of The Dot Project it felt like the gallery had become an enemy of creativity,” laments Whalley. “All we thought about was being able to pay the rent. Months would go by without us selling any art.”

Some of the treasures found at Edition 94 (Edition 94)

After three years, she decided to close the galleryrelocating most of the art to her own home in Holland Park and sell the lease on the building. But two weeks before she was due to move out the lease sale fell through. “We had one weekend to figure out what to do with the space,” she says. 

On a whim, that weekend, Whalley went to Paris to visit an antiques market and stumbled across a set of Murano glass vases. She bought the lot. 

Murano Glasses (Edition 94)

“I put them on an old bookshelf in the window, there was literally nothing else in the shop.” The glasses sold out in a week; they hadn’t sold a painting in eight months.

Since then Whalley hasn’t turned back. She spends her days rummaging for vintage treasures in flea markets or collaborating with artists to design bespoke pieces. “People particularly love place mats,” she muses, “They sell out so quickly, it’s very strange.”

A treasure trove of Instagrammable pieces (Edition 94)

But Whalley is not in a rush to restock. Although Edition 94 is proving profitable, her mission, as with the Dot Project, is to support artists and champion sustainability. “A lot of our homeware is made by artists. They don’t work quickly and we don’t rush them,” she explains. “We are also passionate about finding and recycling vintage pieces. I love that they’ve been owned by someone else, it gives them a unique story.”

Bespoke luxury comes at a price though. A 1970s Liane Rougier Clam lamp is priced at £3,500, while a Pugin designed bench is up for grabs at £5,500. But, as Whalley explains, the good thing about homeware is that you’re not limited to the expensive and the grandiose. There is beauty in the smallest pieces. She almost vibrates with enthusiasm when describing an assortment of £6 spiral candle sticks, made in a factory in Poland in the 1980s. When her stock sells out she is going to refashion more in the same moulds but using eco-friendly wax. 

In our age of Instagram and the cult of individual authenticity, for millennials, particularly, even a candle stick can be as special as a piece of artand, crucially, much more affordable.

Find Edition 94 at 94 Fulham Rd, Kensington, London SW3 6HS. theedition94.com/​



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