ARRAY gets ready to open its doors!

ARRAY Northampton is a pop-up shop ran exclusively by Fashion Marketing students at the University of Northampton.  Based in the town centre, the pop-up shop will sell innovative brands from local and upcoming designers, as well as fashion pieces created by current and alumni students.

The pop-up show has been set up as part of a second year project to set up and manage a 'live event'. All proceeds from the pop-up shop will be going to the graduate fashion show.

ARRAY Northampton will be opening its doors on 24th March 2014 until 29th March. Don't miss out!

Second Year Fashion Marketing Students Set to Open Pop-Up Shop in Northampton Town Centre

Northampton Chronicle & Echo, March 8th 2014

• by paul.lynch@northantsnews.co.uk

A ‘pop-up’ fashion shop is set to open in Northampton, as a team of students aims to bring a taste of the London retail scene to the town.

A group of 30 students on a fashion marketing course at the University of Northampton are due to take over an empty unit at the Market Walk shopping centre from Monday, March 24.

The business, which the team is calling Array, will keep its doors open for a week, selling clothing designed and made by the university’s fashion students alongside a host of other artwork and music from homegrown talent.

Second year student, Tilly–Jane Kidman, 21, of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, is handling the publicity for the new store.

She said: “We are required to set up a ‘live event’ as part of our course, but we wanted to do something a bit different, a little bit more innovative.

“Pop-up shops are becoming more and more popular 
in London, we wanted to 
bring that sort of thing to Northampton,” Tilly-Jane added.

The proceeds from the week-long shop, which all go towards the University of Northampton’s end-of-year catwalk fashion show.

But Tilly said the project also aimed to showcase the work of students on a number of courses.

“It won’t just be about clothing made by our graduates,” she said. “There will be art and jewellery on sale too, all by local artists and students, people making lino-prints and canvases.

“We think it’s going to go really well.

“As far as we know, nothing like this has been done in Northampton before.

“I really think local people will be interested to see what the shop is about. There will be a lot of mystery to begin with.”

In order to afford some of the start-up costs of Array, including rent of the Market Walk premises, the fashion marketing students are holding several fund-raising events.

Today, the team is holding a second hand sale at the Park Campus library foyer in Boughton Green Road, selling CDs, DVDs and clothes, all for £1. They are also hosting an eating competition at Momo bar, in Abington Street, on Tuesday, March 18. Entry is £3.

For more information about the Array pop-up shop, head to arrayuon.blogspot.co.uk. If you want to volunteer at the store for a week, email ferameliahartley@hotmail.co.uk

Tracking Northampton's Shoemaking Revival

Northampton's rich shoe history is no secret and the town's shoe-making past continues to gain recognition from around the world. The Wall Street Journal has today published an article which encompasses the variety of high-end Northamptonshire-based factories who continue to have global impact within the fashion industry. Northampton is proud of its heritage and our students and it is a real privilege for us to have this on our doorstep; we can quite literally take a walk in history's shoes! 

"I don't think the Northampton brand will ever go away...If you are Italian and you like shoes, you've heard of Northampton."  

Nicolas Cooper, The Wall Street Journal (6th March, 2014)

The Northampton Museum and Art Gallery

In Welcome Week, the first year Fashion Marketing students were given the opportunity to visit the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery to see for themselves the vast shoe collection that the museum holds as a testament to Northampton's shoe history. The students were also able to go inside the museum's shoe archive and handle shoes from centuries passed.


This year, the first year Fashion Marketing students have also benefited from a tannery tour at the University's Leather Centre and a valuable leather marketing talk from visiting Professor Mike Redwood, a specialist marketing consultant for the leather industry.





Visiting Professor Mike Redwood