Sails and Canvas @ The Whitworth Pop-up Store 12th-31st March 2019

Blue Patch’s ‘travelling’ Sustainable Department Store pops up at the Whitworth, The University of Manchester’s acclaimed art gallery on the 12th to the 31st March 2019. The first regional museum to host the store – marking the launching Blue Patch’s grand tour of the British Isles….and Sails and Canvas are among the exhibitors!

Visitors to one of Manchester’s finest galleries are in for a treat as national social enterprise Blue Patch, who represent over 400 of the country’s sustainable designers, crafters and manufacturers, are installing a radically refreshing retail experience: a ‘travelling’ Sustainable Department Store.

  30 members of the Blue Patch Collective will showcase high-quality products, these include Eco Stardust’s plant based, biodegradable face glitter, the ‘must have’ for festival season, Circular Economy startup Bundlee, a baby clothing hire service launched by The University of Manchester trained entrepreneur Eve Kekeh. There will be ‘word search’ organic tee-shirts by Identity Papers and Manchester’s celebrated quilter and textile designer Lisa Watson will also be exhibiting. For a little pampering, there’ll be palm oil free, organic beauty and handmade perfume in refillable bottles and of course Sails and Canvas will have a collection of our lovely recycled sailcloth products. Blue Patch’s travelling store has a mission to help tackle two issues, climate change and the economy. Firstly, carbon-saving ideas shared within a desirable setting could encourage even more people towards behaviour change, helping to amplify the good things already happening. Secondly, the social disconnect caused by online shopping, rising business costs and brexit is cascading through high streets and local businesses are under extreme pressure. Tackling these issues head on, Blue Patch’s aim is to create high profile opportunities for their collective of SMEs and get them directly to local shoppers, increasing their chance of a stable customer base and finding other retailers to work with. More and more shoppers are demanding stores and manufacturers that are conscious of how and where they make their products. Shopping ethically in the UK has surged with a market value of £81.3bn (Ethical Consumer Markets report 2017). According to Ethical Consumer this is a growth of £40bn since 2008 and it’s the younger generation who are leading the trend. A YouGov survey demonstrated that almost a quarter 24% or respondents said they had bought products in 2017 specifically because of their ethical reputation.   The store will provide all you could wish for in terms of unique designer-makers, so if you are in the area, why not pop in and browse the best in UK design.