Oxfam Dalston - East London

Oxfam Dalston, not just a place for picking up a bargain whilst helping others along the way. But a place that feels very much part of the community and somewhere that amongst other things facilitates gigs and gives people the opportunity to use the window space as a platform for ideas. Having seen a few of the window displays, I wanted to have a go at creating my own, in-line with What’s In Your Bedroom... So, armed with an idea loosely based around fairytale and dreams, I approached Kevin the Department Manager and the rest is history. With no budget, some begging, borrowing (less of the stealing) and a few weeks later, on Saturday 20th November, myself and my bed-heads, Suzanne Murray and Mark Jenkins, made a little bit of winter bedroom cosiness, happen at Oxfam Dalston.

I thought it apt to create a bedroom for the display. A bedroom that is built from existing Oxfam stock and from elements of the rooms I have previously photographed for the blog. I contacted a selection of the contributors and asked them if they’d like to make a donation for the window to be then sold on for Oxfam. Amazingly, people were very kind and I ended up with an eclectic mix of items.

When I have previously bought second hand stuff, I have sometimes wondered about the history. Who owned it? Where it came from? Of course there is an advantage to not knowing, but on this occasion I thought it would be nice to give the buyer the opportunity to trace the item back to the original owner, via the blog, by following the instructions on the tickets attached to each item.