A SHOW ROOTED IN CULTURE
Huguette Tchiapi Kameni at Scarlett Green
On Friday 10 April, we produced something a little different across the collection. Emerging designer Huguette Tchiapi Kameni presented her debut collection, Numéro 01, with Scarlett Green transforming into the setting for her first independent show.
Huguette’s path into fashion didn’t start with fashion at all. Growing up in London, she moved through different creative disciplines — painting, illustration, graphic design — before discovering the work of Hussein Chalayan. That shift changed how she saw the medium. Fashion, she realised, wasn’t just about image or glamour, but a way of carrying culture, identity and storytelling into something lived and worn.
That idea sits at the centre of Numéro 01. The collection explores traditional craft from the grasslands of Cameroon, drawing on Huguette’s own background and the contrast between two ways of living. London, fast-paced and individual. Cameroon, community-led and expressive. The work moves between the two.
The process behind it was as important as the outcome. Beginning with conversations at home, she traced her parents’ connection to Ndop fabric before travelling to Cameroon to explore it more deeply. Working alongside Christian Nana at the Blackitude Museum in Yaoundé, she studied archival textiles and traditional silhouettes, before continuing her research in Douala with local artisans, including Ndop weaver Constantin.
What emerges is a collection shaped by collaboration as much as design. Garments that carry not just aesthetic references, but the hands, histories and techniques behind them.
That balance between tradition and reinterpretation comes through most clearly in pieces like the Kribi Silk Top. Inspired by shells collected along the Cameroonian coastline, the top is hand-embellished with capiz shells in place of conventional sequins. As it moves, it creates a soft, rhythmic sound — something that feels closer to memory than decoration, echoing the ocean and the physical experience of place.
The show itself reflected that same sense of intimacy. Supported by a close network of collaborators — from casting director Jon Johnson to mentor Eden Loweth — it felt considered rather than over-produced. Friends, creatives and guests moved through the spaces as the collection unfolded around them, blurring the line between presentation and environment.
For us, it was a natural fit. Opening up our spaces to emerging creatives has always been part of what we do, and this felt like a genuine extension of that. Not just hosting a show, but creating room for new voices and perspectives to take shape.
Huguette plans to develop future collections in collaboration with more artisans and continuing to explore craft from different parts of the world.
A first collection, but one that already feels grounded in something deeper — thoughtful, personal, and built to last beyond the moment.
Photography by Melisa Coppola