Maison de Choup is a unique name, could you tell us what it means and how the brand came about?
The 'Choup' doesn't actually translate to anything in French. Choup was a nickname for my sister, Charlotte when I was younger. She has always been there for me even when I was severely ill with my mental health. It's a dedication of how close we are. The brand was born out of my severe anxiety episode of 3 years, it was so bad I couldn't actually leave my bedroom. I wasn't at college and had no job, so it was during this time I used my anxiety drawings and thoughts from black notebooks I use to use and put them on T-Shirts, from there it sort of grew into something incredible!
George David Hodgson and Charlotte Hodgson
If you had to describe your brand in 3 words what would they be?
Empathetic Minimalistic Empowering.
Words Fail Me
What do you think makes Maison de Choup stand out from other fashion brands?
Maison de Choup has a message, a very strong one at that. Helping young mental health sufferers get the help they need through fashion and getting people to talk about mental health openly. Vanity Fair simply put it 'The Fashion Brand with a Mental Health Cause at its Heart'. We stand out because we stand for something.
Warrior Not Worrier
What’s your favourite piece from Maison de Choup and why?
I absolutely LOVE all the pieces from the latest Warrior Collection. So I can't really pick one, but if I must... It would have to be either the Warrior T-Shirt or the Red Embroidered Maison de Choup Logo T-Shirt. Two very different but beautiful T-Shirts.
Being a socially conscious fashion brand in this day and age must have its difficulties, What’s the biggest challenge (if any) that you’ve faced so far within the industry?
Hmm. Good question! Funnily enough, I haven't so much experienced difficulties within the industry (yet!) But one of the biggest challenges is getting the brand known. I attended London Fashion Week 2 weeks ago and wore the brand everyday with a few other people and Maison de Choup was received incredibly well, which was great to see! Getting photographed was amazing exposure for the products. I need to be seen wearing the product everywhere, as does everyone else and that's when people start talking the clothes more seriously, when EVERYONE is wearing it. Because it's a great brand and has an amazing story behind it, people just need to know about it and that's the most difficult part.
What's the one piece of advice you would give to your younger self or young people wanting to be where you are now?
Keep going, even through the hardest of times just keep going. All the hard work and soul destroying days will be absolutely worth it in the end! Winston Churchill put it better than I could myself "If you're going through hell, keep going."
What can we expect to see from you in the future?
We are currently working on our Warrior Autumn/Winter Collection, which will hopefully be out soon! Also continuing to work closely with YoungMinds as a charity and spreading more and more awareness surrounding Mental Health getting even more people to open up.
Cognoscenti Tee
Where can we go to find all things Maison de Choup (website/social media?
The official Maison de Choup website is www.maisondechoup.co.uk - You can buy everything on there and find out more about the brand. We are also ALL OVER social media so you can catch us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Pinterest. On my personal Instagram @georgedavidhodgson you can follow my journey almost everyday because I love Instagram Stories, haha!
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