OCC to Host Local Brands in Collaborative Pop-Up Retail Space

Orange Coast College’s Fashion department is unveiling its first on-campus pop-up retail shop, located in a shipping container and aptly named “The Box,” starting Monday, March 19.

Located between the College’s Math, Business and Computing Center and Writer’s Row, The Box will host a total of five brands during OCC’s Spring 2018 semester, including popular local brands like Volcam, Sister LB, and RVCA

“Our hope is that The Box will be a place for students to shop, hang out, and most importantly learn from,” explains OCC Fashion instructor Michelle Craner. “Each company is going speak at least once on the grass area near the shop — the topics will be broad and we hope that different departments on campus will bring their classes to hear from these speakers.”

Many students from OCC’s Fashion department were involved in the development of The Box; everything from designing the logo to booking local brands was undertaken by fashion students as part of a laboratory type class.

The Box project is part of a Statewide grant titled “Doing What Matters for Jobs and the Economy” that challenges community colleges to come up with innovative ways to give students hands-on, real world learning experiences.

The Box is a one-year project that will be open through the rest of the spring semester and will return with new brands during the Fall 2018 semester. Each brand will be given free rein over the empty shipping container and will bring in their own look with unique furniture and artwork.

The first brand will be Tavik with a Spring Break-themed pop-up that will sell swimsuits from March 19-22. Future pop-up shops include RVCA on April 2-19, Publish on April 23-26, Sister LB on April 20 until May 3, and Volcom on May 7-17.

Hours are 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The public is welcome to attend and more information about guest lectures and other events will be announced in the coming weeks.