Depending who you ask, being unexpectedly caught in the nude is either mildly embarrassing or the stuff of nightmares. But for model and fashion muse Kat Qiu, it’s a little more theatrically curious. Something to play with, laugh at, maybe even reclaim.
At Voyeur Voyeur, her provocative fashion concept store on Bethnal Green Road in Shoreditch, uninhibited shoppers, and perhaps a few unwitting visitors can bare all in one fitting room and watch themselves in another. Though, thankfully, it’s all smoke and mirrors.
“Something about being completely naked, exposed yet concealed inside the changing room … makes me giggle,” Qiu tells Broadsheet.
Central to Voyeur Voyeur’s architectural DNA, the top floor change room features two-way mirrors along its exterior walls, creating the illusion of a peeping window. Dressers can see without, well, being seen. A second fitting area, tenderly dubbed the “wine rot changing room”, offers a 360-degree mirrored space drenched in blood-red carpeting, providing uninterrupted views of either self-worship or self-scrutiny.
“At the very beginning, I thought, what more is there to a shop that sells clothes than to look and to be looked at? We have a lot of fun with what’s concealed and what’s revealed,” Qiu says of the store’s conceptual identity. It was designed in collaboration with London’s Crab Studio, known for unconventional cultural buildings including Arts University Bournemouth’s bright blue drawing studio and whimsical “sound cloud” capsules in a Vienna university.
But for its playfulness and whimsy, Voyeur Voyeur is by no means a vanity project for the model once used to all eyes – and cameras – on her. Having previously commanded the attention of Rick Owens, Balenciaga and even Karl Lagerfeld as a personal muse, Qiu’s decision to swap the runway for an entirely self-funded, bricks-and-mortar venture in Shoreditch feels less like a fling and more cathartic. It reflects a desire for autonomy – and for something more tactile and human.
“Creatively, I was tired of being someone else’s vessel,” Qiu says. “I don’t think I was ever a traditional model where I look good in anything you put on me. You can see in some of my old runway pictures I’m a foot shorter than everyone else, so I really wanted to gain control over how my image is being depicted. Moving on to Voyeur Voyeur, I’m now able to articulate my narrative entirely.”
This manifests as a thoughtful edit of Qiu’s current fashion preoccupations – an ever-evolving mix of old favourites and newer obsessions. There are hard-edged mavericks like Rick Owens, lustrous veterans such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Mugler, alongside cult contemporary favourites like KNWLS and Willy Chavarria. There’s even a cheeky nod to her favourite designer growing up, and later career collaborator, Acronym who, as Qiu put it, “really is your favourite designer’s favourite designer”.
Right now, though, Qiu is particularly drawn to the store’s Belgian roster, namely the bohemianism of Ann Demeulemeester and Dries Van Noten. Her clientele, it seems, are under a similar gothic spell.
“I’m seeing the continued rise in popularity of any label with the visual language of a ‘fallen angel.’ People seem to really like the look of ruined innocence, ballerina-with-smoky-eyes kind of look.”
Since opening in November 2025, “a few of the objectively sexiest people on the planet” have already snaked through the 1130-square-foot space, Qiu teases. As for who remains to be seen – perhaps we’ll catch a glimpse of the organised chaos in a future messy-chic Instagram dump.
“The amazing thing about our architecture is some of the elements are impossible to translate with a camera, so even if you have mirror selfies to remember us by, you’ll still want to come back and experience those things your camera couldn’t document.”
Voyeur Voyeur
70–72 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6GQ
Hours:
Mon to Sat 11am–7pm
Sun 11am–6pm
