Hedonist Meets Bayode Oduwole and Claire Pringle of Pokit

Pokit is not a brand which should actually exist, it’s the sort of thing that gets imagined in the minds of people trying to conceptualize the sort of brand that they would like to shop. The first time I ever came across Pokit was wandering by their now closed Wardour street shop, it was at a time when Soho was still in late Paul Raymond era. The red lit staircases were starting to disappear and the sex shop neons were slowly giving way to ones designed by Tracy Emin. In an area were there weren’t shops Pokit was there like a crash landed retro-futuristic spaceship. With secret 3-d mirrors and perspective distorting geometric vanishing shelves contrasted against very English looking fabrics and sculptural rounded bags dotted around on plinths like alien pods. It was a complete, considered and coherent style in a fashion landscape where to be edgy and conceptual meant to look trashy. You couldn't easily tell that their bags were of the highest craftsmanship and of saddle leather, the seriousness of an equestrian heritage was masked by its contemporary design. It was a puzzle, seemingly too full of contradictions to be an actual shop that actually sold things.

But Pokit had always been thus, from their first shop tucked away near the Harrow Road in West London, via Lamb’s Conduit Street, before the road’s influx of semi-independent menswear, Pokit has cut a different path. Working in relative obscurity and privacy Pokit has amassed a significant and sizeable body of work, for almost 20 years now their founders and designers: Bayode and Claire, have been quietly pushing and shaping their vision. Everything about Pokit design is still about understatement, not saying too much and to let people discover for themselves whether it's the brand or the performance of their products. They are deadly serious about changing the narrative that perhaps designers don't take bags seriously enough.

Claire and Bayode are disarmingly down to earth, I first met them casually working in their own shop actually serving customers. They both speak with encyclopedic knowledge of clothing and suddenly the seeming multitude of contradictions in the brand start to make complete sense. Although suggesting the brand has a philosophy could easily get you a cold shoulder from Bayode there is a very consistent principle to the brand, modernist design, traditional manufacture, why should a sculptural suit not be made out of tweed? Why would a chest rig not be made out of bridle leather?

Nicolas: You’re still properly independent, still just the two of you, has that been difficult?

Bayode: "it was inevitable that we would choose the toughest path - solo. Being independent back then when we started and today is completely different, to us, it still means not giving a damn, staying focused, true and unaffected by all the bullshit around you."

N: I think you once asked me to leave the store when I suggested the brand had a philosophy, do you still feel as strongly about it?

B: We are told that today's customers need an emotional connection with a brand. The emphasis is on brand to tell stories to create community and Kulture' on social media, but how necessary is it if you already have a good product? Pokit's low key existence is deliberate. Almost like an essay of our times…. "We're only interested in making good products, of course we want them to look good and they do!  I suppose we're purists, a little militant perhaps but it's how we grew up. To live it  and to experience it (culture) in a way that can't be done today ...That's why we say that Style must come from within, informed by the very real way we interact with and experience place. That's what gives a sense of culture.  We see emotional connection with a product as being the designer's mental investment made when creating beyond the customers' looking at it and liking it in the shop. Their emotional stuff comes truly after you've used, experienced and possibly loved a product. We design with longevity in mind because what's left after the story or vibe fades?

N: The focus today seems to have shifted a lot towards technical fabrics, sportswear brands being almost ad much about tech than as about clothing, are you keeping faith in your traditional materials, do you see them as more sustainable?

B: Listen, technical fabrics are cool if they’re fit for purpose, that’s what our materials have always been about. Making a rounded, darted bag lid out of hard bridle leather is not an easy thing to do but it’s a traditionally waterproof material which will last for years, maybe deacdes.  Sustainability starts in the mind, a quality crafted product which lasts and can be used over and over, enjoyed by many people, passed on for years and making memories and having experiences is the most important for our bags.…we're not here to sell you an empty dream. We're here to sell you the best tools to build your own dreams. Style comes from within

N: You guys have a surprisingly large archive of products and concepts but your focus is still on bags, is that not a difficult product to have front and center?

B: It might come as a surprise but the Alyx 'chest rig' bag was not the first time that clothes have been upstaged by a bag. It's not the only time a bag was integrated into a look where it actually defines it and becomes the style. The Vexed Generation rucksack was arguably the first but bags are being seen again as important fashion pieces in a significant way. But what's unique to Pokit is that we’ve made the idea of making bags viably cool our mission from the start. Mainstream fashion is now just catching up. Pokit exists on the fringes in the original spirit which defined London brands, low key independent with a strong sense of identity. When you think of designer bags one imagines old houses, the LVs, fashion brands like MCM or countless new and quirky novelty brands. Bags and bag designers, like trainer designers don't get the attention considering how bag sales have risen and surpassed clothing sales ..... We can all name fashion designers, jewellery designers, shoe designer whether Rick Owens or Manolo and we know what they look like. But asked to name a bag designer in the same way we all draw blanks even if we recognise their work or know whatever silly name it's given like the 'Susan' bag… This isn't altogether a bad thing.  Perhaps anonymity and space to grow are important in the process.

N: Do you think fashion is catching up on the importance of bags then?

Well that’s a hard one to call but bags within fashion are usually additional extensions to clothing lines, novelties, and are boring and never worn seriously. We think that Pokit shows the level which can be reached when bags are taken seriously and with commitment by designers. To create something functional that has the power to define a look or transform a style, to give a deeper personality and meaning somehow… . That's what we wanted to create, we don’t actually mind if no one else wants to!

Pokit bags are now available exclusively online from www.pokit.co.uk.