Emporium stands at the forefront of streetwear in Dublin today. After six years of events and pop-ups, the independent Dublin brand has launched their flagship store on Drury St. The opening event in early May saw hundreds visit the location over the course of the day, including UK drum and bass icon Nia Archives.
With pop-ups in Japan and collaborations with Hennessy and Kojaque’s Soft Boy Records, it’s clear that Emporium have established themselves within the Irish fashion industry. In an age where rent is high and online shopping is the norm, the decision to open a physical location in Dublin’s city centre is a daring one. We spoke to one of the founders, Robbie Fidgeon-Kavanagh, about the launch.
What’s the reception been like so far?
There were about 120 people in the line this morning and the first 25 got free tees. The first guy in the line showed up at eight, he came up from Limerick. He and the rest were here for two hours before we opened… pretty nuts.
What makes Drury Street a good location?
It’s just poppin’ man. All the good stores are opening up here at the moment, we’ve got stores like Loot right next to us, 35 around the corner on Fade Street, and cool food businesses. It’s just kind of all happening here.
Any other plans for the space?
We’ve got a barber shop opening in the basement with our friends from What? Barbers.
What’s working for you?
Most of it, I think, is what we mean to Dublin, on a cultural level. Streetwear as a thing can be very transactional, but to us it’s all about building a community around streetwear and having things for people to enjoy in the city. I think we’ve kind of always been about that.
We started off as an event for other brands. We just wanted to help foster a community in Dublin around streetwear. We were called Emporium, because that event was inviting ten other brands to pop up in a space, and that was going to be an emporium of Irish streetwear. That was the whole premise. We started making event merch at that and people who were coming to the events fucked with us so much that they were buying the event tees more than the other brands, and it just pushed forwards from there…
What do you think opening a physical location is going to bring to the brand?
It’s a place to make all those things I talked about actually happen. You can have events, people can come in and catch the vibe, feel what the brand’s actually about, see the clothes in person and meet us and other people who like ‘empo’.
And then also, a lot of it is legitimacy, y’know. You trust somebody who has a real establishment… When you go to every cool European city, like when you’re in Paris you walk into Le Marais and the streetwear and small indie stores, there’s all this shit going on, and when we were young that didn’t really exist here… and now it’s here.
We’re doing it now.
Emporium Dublin is located at 21 Drury St, D2, opens Wednesdays – Sundays.
Words: – Andy Peard
Photographs: Killian Broderick
