CULT SHOP
The Marylebone boutique and gallery collaborates with international artists to create culturally rich homeware collections
THOSE VISITING THE PICTURESQUE STREETS of Marylebone have an exciting cultural hub to explore. Set in a five-storey Georgian townhouse, the SoShiro Space is a shop, gallery and event venue founded by the interior architect and designer Shiro Muchiri to nurture craftspeople from around the globe.
‘I’m from Kenya and I trained in Italy, so I’ve always been the foreigner,’ says Muchiri, who moved to London in 2000 to establish her interior-architecture practice, redesigning residential houses and small businesses, before she opened SoShiro in 2019. ‘I felt that there could be better representation of diverse cultures in high-end interiors and, through SoShiro, I could share the narratives of emerging artists.’
Muchiri oversees the production of SoShiro’s biannual collections, collaborating with community-oriented creatives to design exclusive furniture and tabletop items. For one series, she worked with the Japanese artist Toru Kaizawa, who drew from his indigenous Ainu heritage to craft a graphic of a Blakiston’s fish owl – asymbol of protection – that was used on a cabinet, a trolley and a traditional tea-set. For another, she teamed up with the Cuban artist Alexandre Arrechea to create homeware that captures a sense of Havana. ‘We made a rum decanter that has a cigar holder and a pool ball at the top, so that culture of playing games, drinking and taking it easy comes together in one item,’ says Mu
