South Africa’s Merchants on Long to open pop-up in Paris

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Sep 9, 2016

South African concept store Merchants on Long will be taking a curated mix of African-made fashion and design to Paris this autumn.

The pop-up showcase, brought together by Merchants on Long and hotel brand Amastan Paris, will present a treasure trove of ethically made and sourced products from the African continent, including luxury handbag brand Okapi and collections from designers Franzur Parum, Halsted, Maxhosa by Laduma, Henriette Botha, Laurence Airline, Bantu, Lalesso and Ioza maleombho. Each brand will be present with a capsule collection.

The pop-up installation will be hosted in Paris' first space fully dedicated to hosting pop-ups, Pop-In. It host an array of talks, events and surprising performances during the residency from September 14 until October 6.

Merchants on Long has hosted similar pop-up shops in London in 2012 at the Blue Bird Shop on King’s Road and in 2016 at Okapi’s store on Eaton Terrace.

Hanneli Rupert, the founder and creator of Merchants on Long says the Paris successor to the Merchants pop-ups in London aims to bring the best of what Africa has to offer to Paris. The ethos behind Merchants is to curate and showcase beautifully, ethically made and sourced products from the African continent. All the brands stocked at Merchants are vetted for their quality, design and sustainable and ethical practices.

The temporal Paris shop in Pop-In will be situated adjacent to the hotel Amastan Paris between rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré and the Avenue des Champs-Elysées, in Paris’s 8th arrondissement. 

Pop-In is Amastan's platform for artistic expression with a running schedule of residencies including art exhibitions, installations, screenings, window displays, showrooms and launches amongst others.