From an online store to a gallery boutique
It’s after a trip to Accra, in Ghana with her future associate and photographer, Orphée Noubissi that Nelly Wandji realized the potential in terms of fashion, crafts and design of the African continent. She wants the European and African clientele to benefit quality products by promoting the young talents of the African continent.
A platform dedicated to the continent
MoonLook.com was born in 2014. The platform is dedicated to two types of creators: the more or less known who already have their loyal clientele but do not have the tools or do not know how to put in place an aggressive commercial strategy for international markets, and young shoots with a real signature but in need of support to break through. With their MoonLab, the MoonLook team offers a creative studio to accompany creators who wish to design and develop their collections.
MoonLook highlights some twenty young designers from all over the continent, from South Africa to Kenya, Senegal, Ethiopia and Benin. There are original creations mixing the clothing and cultural codes of Africa and essence of European fashion. Bogolan, batik, khanga, or the well-known wax, rub shoulders with cotton, jeans and silk, on clothes, accessories and other elements of interior decoration.
A concept store online, but also physical
Nelly Wandji wants to offer more than a concept store online. In 2015 MoonLook met with great success with the European customers with the opening of a pop up store in the heart of the Marais, on Boulevard Beaumarchais in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. This short-lived shop allowed customers to discover, for a month, the creations and meet some designers, to try the products, but also to participate in various workshops. Behind this initiative is the desire to open real permanent shops in Europe but especially in Africa where demand is high.
This desire has become reality since Nelly Wandji recently opened in Paris a high-end concept store highlighting African designers, artists and stylists. A 75-square-meter boutique gallery, like a "cabinet de curiosité", located at 93 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, in the VIIIth arrondissement of the French capital.
The space, staged by the architect and designer Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut, aims to welcome, in the vein of his neighbor Colette, ephemeral exhibitions of designers, artists and enthusiasts of Africa. There will be invited or distributed clutches and artists like Lisa Folawiyo, Maxhosa or Sophie Zinga.
