Get yourself in the festive spirit with the TOMS Give shop at the Old Truman Brewery

The Dray Walk Gallery in the Old Truman Brewery, just off Brick Lane, opened its doors on Thursday night to the TOMS Give shop, in true festive style. TOMS, who are known for their benevolent nature towards fashion, have put together a pop-up shop in the east of the capital for all of us to “give” this December. 

The gallery itself has been transformed into a TOMS winter wonderland, with different “giving” areas scattered all over the room. Guests were able to indulge themselves in various sections from Give Craft, where you could wrap up a family gift or make your own Christmas card, to Give Smiles, where you were able to have fun with friends in a festive photo booth. Each of the five areas laid out in the space are unique and quirky, but also give you a gentle reminder of the work that TOMS is trying to achieve. 

The TOMS One-For-One campaign is the idea behind it all. The campaign focuses on giving something from every purchase of TOMS. If it is a pair of TOMS’ glasses or a pair of shoes that you buy, the brand will give something to someone in another country that needs our support. Purchasing a pair of glasses can result in one of the 285 million people in the world gaining some of their sight through TOMS giving a pair of prescription glasses, sight-saving surgery or medical treatment. Such inspirational work puts TOMS in a different league to other fashionable footwear and eyewear brands, and it is something that we completely admire them for. 

The Give Creativity area of the shop gave guests the opportunity to enjoy live music performances throughout the night. Liz Lawrence was one of our favourites and was a true example of how great British music currently is. Her beautiful acoustic songs graced the gallery with a peaceful, humble sense of fun, and guests were able to enjoy her solo performance in atmospheric spotlighting.  

Jaguar Shoes Collective hosted the Give Joy section of the event, which allowed us to learn more about the TOMS campaign. Glasses that, when worn, resembled the same vision of having cataracts and huge visual boxes highlighting how things could look without your sight, reminded guests of the importance of the shop. Deckchairs displaying the words “one day without shoes” continued to reinforce the significance of the simple things we take for granted. Alongside buying TOMS products, Jaguar Shoes also presented a range of gifts ideas from brands they have given a creative platform to in East London. This included delightful sweet treats from Bee’s Bakery, as well as work from East London Furniture.  

Free tea from Joe’s Tea Co was one of the tipples of choice for the evening, served from a quaint wooden shack outside the gallery. Bottles of Peroni in large buckets also surrounded a kitchen area, with chefs cooking in the freezing cold and still managing to serve truly magnificent canapés. Kimchi and Mushroom Quesadillas were made fresh in front of us, along with Millionaires Clams and Confit Turkey Tacos that left our taste buds simply amazed.

The work that TOMS do is simply excellent and allows you to only respect the philanthropic efforts they go to in order to help others.

Kellie Griffiths

We definitely recommend taking part in the TOMS Giving campaign, by visiting the shop between 14^th and 16^th December at Dray Walk Gallery, Brick Lane or click here for more details.