To Have & To Hold #4 Dept Stores

To Have And To Hold is a beautifully produced publication that presents the reader with selections of that most ephemeral of objects, the paper bag. 

The fourth issue of To have & To Hold takes us back to the days of the rapidly disappearing department store. As editor Tim Summer mentions in the blurb, this was a time of the logotype rather than the ubiquitous brand, and of a more innocent design era.

More innocent it may have been, but some of these logos are iconic and have outlasted the building fronts' they adorned - Miss Selfridge (now online at ASOS), Habitat (@Argos), Debenhams (now owned by BooHoo) - each one is etched into our consumer subconscious. Spanning over 100 years, representing the department store in all of it forms (from Harrod's to Lea's of Leicester), and introduced by cultural historian Annabel Pollen, this collection is, for us, the best yet.