BEST RETAIL THERAPY

On 3 January 1993, British artists Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas opened The Shop in a former doctor's surgery in London’s Bethnal Green.

- JACK MOSS

Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas opened The Shop in a former doctor's surgery in London's Bethnal Green. The pair - who had recently graduated from Goldsmith's University-played shopkeepers, selling T-shirts daubed with slogans like 'Complete Arsehole' and 'She's Kebab' alongside their own works. Prices were often chosen to be the exact price of a packet of cigarettes, and stock would sell out daily. Six months later, on 3 July (Emin's 30th birthday), it closed its doors. 'Politically, The Shop was a reflection of the times,' Emin later told The Guardian.

'Everyone was so anally retentive - me and Sarah were the antithesis of that.' British fashion designer Jake Burt, one half of London-based label Stefan Cooke, remembers coming across The Shop in his parents' newspaper while he was growing up in Somerset. 'I read about it and got completely obsessed,' he recalls, citing it as the starting point for his own shop Jake's, which takes a similarly irreverent approach to retail.