After launching The Queer Library in 2021, Aesop has continued to expand the initiative across different cities helping to spotlight and provide a space for LGBTQIA+ authors and the wider community.
Aesop is championing values of inclusion through its Queer Library as well as paying attention to circular principles in the design of its stores such as its most recent opening in Knightsbridge. Photography: Joe Pickard
Words by Roddy Clarke
While Pride has often become convoluted with the corporate pink-washing that has arisen over the years, it’s presence and the need for genuine representation is more critical than ever. Without using it as a marketing strategy or a route to gain followers and recognition, businesses can play an important role in helping to amplify awareness and visibility. Aesop’s Queer Library, a pop-up literary event that takes place during Pride events across different cities, is doing exactly that. For the duration of the Pride events, Aesop removes its products from a store before replacing it on shelves and tables with queer literature with one complimentary copy available for visitors to take away.
Starting in 2021, Aesop embarked on a mission to create temporary spaces which could be utilised to showcase books by LGBTQIA+ authors that offered a glimpse into diverse and cross-sectional narratives. In doing so it has allowed the transformative power of queer storytelling to shine, while displaying its ability to unite communities together. This year’s edition, created under the theme ‘Multiple Margins’, focuses on the intersection of queer and racial identities and was curated in partnership with the black-owned creative agency A Vibe Called Tech. Taking residence in both its Soho and Brighton stores for London and Brighton Pride, this weekend sees the library pop up for the first time at Bath Pride.
Making such literature easily accessible to the public not only allows a wide audience to become acquainted with such rich, diverse and important narratives and voices, it also gives hope to younger audiences in creating a space where they can feel represented and valued. The Queer Library has also been carried out in partnership with other organisations such as the independent queer bookstore Gay’s The Word while hosting panel talks and conversations to further discuss critical topics centred on the queer community. Speaking of the initiative, writer Jason Okundaye says, “It’s important for spaces like Aesop Queer Library to exist because it helps increase visibility for queer authors where that might otherwise be difficult. The texts included in the library range from bigger commercial hits to lesser known rare texts, which I think has helped to expand the canon of queer literature and bring it to audiences who might not have considered it.” Being part of this year’s event, Okundaye continues, “Working with Aesop Queer Library was a dream, it was wonderful to see so many people selecting my book for their read this year, and the support for a debut queer author was invaluable.”
Alongside this year’s exciting edition of the Queer Library, Aesop has also welcomed new additions to its roster of global stores with its most recent addition being its Knightsbridge location. With the design of each store being executed with meticulous attention to detail, this again reiterates how the immersive experiences of each retail venue really echo the brand’s ethos and values. This store takes inspiration from Aesop’s installation at Milan Design Week earlier this year which was conceived and curated by Nicolas Schuybroek. Referencing the Arte Povera movement of the late 1960s and 70s, Schuybroek utilised bars of soap to create a grid-like sculpture with the aim of disassembling it and reusing it elsewhere. As the Knightsbridge location became available soon after the show, it presented an immediate opportunity to reapply the materials. Working to the spatial layout of the long and narrow venue, the store is lined with partitioned walls created from the bars of soap assembled into a freestanding grid frame.
Walls constructed from individual bars of soap line Aesop’s recently opened Knightsbridge store offering a tactile and sensory experience. Photography: Joe Pickard
While this unique application of materials not only creates a tactile and sensory experience, it alludes to the company’s sustainability efforts, with the set designed to be repurposed as and when is needed. Aligning with the company’s 2030 goal of becoming net zero, it showcases how brands don’t have to compromise on visual aesthetics in creating stores that marry with both brand identity and a circular ethos. So, as we look at Aesop’s journey from its beginnings in Melbourne in 1987 to becoming a globally acclaimed store resident in countries all over the world, it is heartwarming to see how it is paving a way towards a greener, and more inclusive, future. And, in addition, is allowing this mindset to positively impact the wider communities it inhabits – a tangible ripple effect we need to see more of.
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