Boombox: Party's over?

When London's only mega-luxury brand (Burberry) throws a launch party, invites the city's model-du-jour (Agyness Deyn), and recruits East-End club kids from the city's hippest club night (Boombox) to add to its street cred and sell its new fragance (Burberry Beat), it is definitely a formula for fashion marketing success.  Analysts and journalists have been commenting on the brand's new found hipness and pictures have appeared in all the right places, despite the extra-Zone 1 location and late start.

For Boombox, however, it's likely to be a sign that the party's over. That's not to say that Boombox hasn't had a great run. From the start, it was an ultra-cool hangout for the East End fashion and music scenesters (and a great excuse to dress up in wacky clothes). Then, almost as quickly as it emerged on the scene, websites appeared with party photos, pop-up Boombox parties were held in Paris and Milan, a book by the club's promoter Richad Mortimer was published, and most recently the "rent-a-Boombox-crowd" party was held for Burberry.

A few weeks ago, we heard from people close to the heart of the Boombox scene that its days were numbered, and that it might shut down by the end of the year. The Burberry party, all of its fabulous marketing mpact aside, is the writing on the wall.

Boombox, RIP. 

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Here are some familiar faces from the Burberry party courtesy of DirtyDirtyDancing.

(Clockwise from top left - Susie Bubble, Henry Holland and Agyness Deyn, Roksanda Illincic, and Gareth Pugh.

 

 

Comments

[Randall]

Well said. Such is the ages old riddle of cool, isn't it? (actually decades old if cool is only a 20th century invention as claimed). The tempo and weight of a Burberry vs. the fleeting flicker of this Boombox is like the Ladyhawke fable rewritten for a May-December Vampire and Tinkerbell romance. Yet, it's as if it was meant to be. A gig like Boombox has legs for only so long anyway, and selling out isn't what it used to be, unless they surprise us and thrive. You sometimes still hear people describe that scenario as 'pulling a Burberry'.