I was invited by Anne Fogg to the launch of a new store in Crawshawbooth, just North of Rawtenstall in the Rossendale Valley. On the invitation OLOX was described as a new ‘Concept Store’ which she was opening with her partner Bob. I had no idea what a ‘Concept Store’ was and so I had, of course, to go along and find out. But the launch was more than crowded, meaning that other than a glass of wine and a brief chat with one or two people there I didn’t really find out, so I went back the next week to learn more. 

 

“The store,” Anne told me, “is a place where people can bring their designer clothes, designer objects, designer furniture, designer ceramics…if fact anything with some design integrity and interest to it. We display it and of course take a commission on everything sold. There’s no commitment to anything from our contributors. It’s a place where they can divest treasures that they no longer want to hold on to, but can make a little money by selling them here. A bit of an antidote to selling online I suppose.”

 

Now I wandered around and the concept store is hugely eclectic. “It’s early days,” Anne told me. “Just an idea that we had and there’s also a studio space for Bob to work in. To rekindle his love for painting that he has not touched for maybe twenty years.” Chatting to Bob and his life story is, in itself, eclectic, with a passion for everything arts related. In his youth he was a dedicated Punk. Bob still works weekdays as a bricklayer, still working with a Punk and bricklaying partner enduringly and endearingly named ‘Slash.’ I’d hazard a guess that Bob’s individual dress style has evolved through the decades; what we see is Punk/New Romantic/French Couture and more. Though I doubt that his trademark beret is worn on site whilst laying those bricks. 

 

Anne makes no bones about some of the designer label clothes for sale being her own historical surplus. Just a look at the labels and the individual style – often very quirky – and a glimpse into her fashion world is there to see.

 

But another story emerged very quickly from my visit to OLOX. On display and for sale are works by an artist who lived and worked in the neighbouring village of Haslingden until his death in 2008. Dave Pearson wasn’t exactly secretive, he exhibited extensively during his lifetime but was, as someone described him, “Oblivious to the wider world of art.” Over decades in his three storey mill town house he worked incessantly and feverishly, often following a theme obsessively to produce a huge body of work on one subject after another. One was, for example,  Van Gogh.  Another was the W B Yeats poem ‘Sailing to Byzantium.’ 

 

These few words are inadequate to cover the life and work of Dave Pearson and maybe I’ll return to him in another more in depth piece. Suffice it to say that after his death, friends began to catalogue his work – drawings, paintings, sculpture, collages – and worked their way through around 20,000 pieces. Subseqently the Dave Pearson Trust was established to immortalise his work. 

 

And so, some of his work has found its way to the OLOX concept store in Crawshawbooth. It all adds to the intrigue. After this longer visit, good chat and good coffee, I made my way out with one question remaining. “Why is the store called OLOX Anne?” “Bolox,” she replied with a smile. Maybe the name is a nostalgic Punk nod from Bob to The Sex Pistols.