A BIT OF BANGOU CULTURE POPS UP IN ARTY CAMDEN TOWN!

Pop Up shops have become a pop culture phenomenon in recent years with London alone having almost 7,000 empty shops according to the ‘London Councils’. Camden Unlimited and Camden Council worked together a few years ago to create the ‘Camden Collective‘, a project designed to respond to recession in the short term, giving a retail opportunity to small brands and enterprises as well as investigating how the high street is responding to regeneration.

For 4 days this week (2nd to 6th October), Julie Kouamo; a London based French Cameroonian native and former Central Saint Martins School of Art & Design student traded her own design studios in West Central London for the Collective. We heard about it, contacted her and decided we had to go support a sister! At ModeMaison PR, we support, we encourage, we advise!

Using this opportunity, Julie brought her products to the high street and to the community at large and it was the first time that the general public got to see her very well put together collection – from wallpaper to fabrics to interior design materials.

She also used this space to showcase her furniture such as the Nenta sofa and the Bami chair as well as her stationary and soft furnishings. Prices varied from £8 for notebooks to £1500 for furniture; something to suit every pocket!

This is what Julie had to say about the collection: “The Bangou collection is a print collection which reflects my Cameroonian roots and my European upbringing. I apply traditional codes and rules from centuries of textile and pattern designing in France and Great Britain but I want to bring a twist to interior fabrics using African print making techniques, West Cameroon symbols, African fauna and flora and eye-catching colours.” She also adds: “I use a range of techniques like photography, lino-printing, drawing, sketching and CAD to create a unique contemporary aesthetic; bright with a well balanced colour scheme and a vibrant, cultural and poetic story.”

Julie creates fabrics, wallpapers, cushions, stationery and lampshades but can work to a bespoke fabric design. She started trading under her own name in 2011 after freelancing for design studios and interior companies like Designers Guild. Bangou, launched at ICFF in New York in 2012, is her second print fabric collection. Since September 2012 she designs prints from her Holborn-based Cockpit Arts studio. Always conscious of producing locally, the collection is printed in Lancashire, cushions are made in London by a social enterprise called HEBA and the lampshades in Kent to support British manufacture.

Images from the Pop Up below…