Last Wednesday, myself and a group of peers travelled to trendy Shoreditch to visit the UK’s pop-up shop for singer Harry Styles’s brand titled “Pleasing”.
The shop located at 81 Redchurch Street could only be described as an ‘Instagrammable’ hotspot.
Boyband Brand
Pleasing is a skincare and makeup brand last year created by musician Harry Styles, famously known for being one of the five members of boyband One Direction.
The products were first released last November and the demand made the products sell out in a matter of hours.
The line-up included the Pleasing pen which consisted of two serums, one for under eyes and one for your lips, which was said to leave a refreshing feeling and to de-puff your face.
Also released was four coloured nail varnishes named Perfect Pearl, Granny’s Pink Pearls, Pearly Tops and Inky Pearl.
We arrived at around 3:00pm and the queue to get inside was already around the corner and up to the next road, full of Harry’s fans waiting to get inside and grab a look at what was on offer. Some had already been waiting for three hours, even in the pouring rain.
Dedicated Fans
After queuing for an hour in horrible weather conditions, we were finally able to go into the shop. When you first walk in you are greeted by bright lights and a feature wall in the corner which showed the Pleasing logo and branding that you could stand in front of and take pictures with.
One of the workers asked if we wanted our pictures taken and afterwards explained how he and his twin brother both work in the shop and were working until Friday.
The décor was like stepping back into the 1960’s with yellow walls with a white floral pattern all over, it was very Harry Styles-esque.
There was a yellow clothes rail in one of the corners, selling T-shirts with the logo and wording of the brand on, a frog holding onto a mushroom with the word pleasing on the bottom.
To me, they looked similar to t-shirts and sweatshirts you can buy on ASOS for half the price. Colours came in baby pink, light blue and yellow.
Money, Money, Money
I would say one thing, you needed a good amount of money to purchase anything from the store. T-shirts were priced at £57, sweatshirts were a hefty £100 and the nail varnishes and skincare ranging between £22 – £65. With every purchase, you received a tote bag with the brand’s logo on the front.
The skincare and nail varnishes were neatly presented on a shelf with the price list presented next to them. In total, there were eight products on display which all come with their own little floral box and a pack of mini stickers matching the décor inside.
All the products were bright coloured mixtures of red and green and had a marbled effect lid.
I got talking to one of the guys working at the store called Andy who is there all week. Fans were going mad as he looks like Harry, with many thinking the singer was at the store himself.
Andy’s job was to help people with anything they needed to know about the products and even told us that Harry Styles chose all the songs which were to be played at the venue.
His day-to-day job is as a content and video creator who is well known to Harry fans for being a lookalike. He even portrayed Harry in a Pizza Express advert back in February 2022.
Andy is now trending on Twitter with the #WeloveAndy as fans absolutely loved him, with many believing they had the chance to meet the mega-star.
All photos are credited to Ellissa Chiles.
