Pop Go The Sales

The Mulberry pop-up shop in East Hampton was ringing up high profile sales this weekend.

Lindsay Lohan picked up a Milton Hobo bag for $1,095 (shown here), her gal pal Samantha Ronson bought a Maxi Mabel bag for $1595 and Nicky Hilton was seen buying a Poppy bag for $1,195.

This is interesting on a couple of levels. First, there seems to be no price resistance for these bags that seem to be nice, but not worth a mortgage payment. Second, I'm impressed that these celebs bought the bags with no discount or special deals from the brand's publicist (I confirmed and reconfirmed this).

Finally, this is a pretty good haul for a temporary shop.

The concept of a pop-up shop is a win-win for all involved. The brand opening the shop gets a retail presence without spending a fortune and it gets sales, and data about the sales it can use when opening future shops. The landlord of the space gets rent for the duration the shop is open in what is usually a vacant storefront. And the consumer gets to shop for something that may not normally be available in their area.

Target has done it with Isaac Mizrahi, Cynthia Rowley and Proenza Schouler. JC Penney has done it with Chris Madden and Colin Cowie. Bluefly.com, Alice Roi, Nike, LaRok and Seven Jeans have done it. The list goes on and on.

By Lisa Marsh

Photo: Courtesy of Mulberry