Erin Kate Duininck is feeling the collaborative spirit this spring.
The owner of the Golden Rule shop in Excelsior has recently announced new partnerships between her store and two other local businesses: BANGbang Salon in south Minneapolis and her Excelsior neighbor, GRAY Home + Lifestyle.
Since opening in 2015, Golden Rule has become known for its unique selection of some of the best new makers from Minnesota and across the U.S. spanning watercolor paintings and letterpress cards to leather goods, women’s clothing, accessories, and home goods. Last week, the store debuted a permanent pop-up shop within BANGbang Salon. It came about through Duininck’s friendship with the new owners, a pair of hairstylists who recently purchased the salon from its founder. “We’ve always wanted to collaborate on something, and this opportunity came about,” she says. “There’s such a strength in numbers, and I love that they are bosses in their own right.”
The pop-up is stocked with items Duininck considers Golden Rule essentials and items that define the brand, and includes a tightly curated, ever-rotating selection of artwork, prints, cards, candles, jewelry, leather goods, and bags. “It’s honestly everything Golden Rule is about, just down to a very small batch,” she says.
The BANGbang x Golden Rule pop-up is now open for shopping during salon hours at 11 West 38th Street in Minneapolis, and will officially launch with a party on June 8 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
In other collaboration news, Golden Rule has partnered with GRAY Home + Lifestyle, a modern home goods and lifestyle store that opened a year after Golden Rule, on pip & pal, a children’s shop with a similarly modern aesthetic. The idea came out of a conversation between Duininck and GRAY’s mother-daughter owners, Dee Dee and Chloe Lappen, about how Excelsior had retail dedicated to just about everything—from home goods and gifts to women’s and men’s clothing—but lacked shopping for kids. So they decided to do something about it.
“We’re both passionate about Excelsior and elevating everything about it, and taking it in our own hands was the fastest way to go,” Duininck explains.
The collective is currently piloting the collaboration under a veranda on the front porch of GRAY’s storefront, and the brand’s in-house baby and kids’ clothing line is currently available online at pipandpal.com. They hope to find a storefront in Excelsior for the concept in time for the holidays or by next spring. Offerings will eventually include wooden toys, decorative banners, and other kids’ clothing, toys, and home goods from some of Duininck’s favorite small children’s brands.
It’s not Duininck’s first experience with baby and kids’ wear—in 2010, she had a kids’ line called Tibbin with her sister-in-law. With pip + pal, she says, “We’re going for updated classics, made with really beautiful materials—a lot of linen and muslin, and more muted tones. I don’t believe in dumbing anything down for children.”
Check out some looks from the debut pip & pal collection:
all images COURTESY PIP & PAL
