Pokit power

Pokit designers Claire and Bayode

Pokit bag

Slip-on brogues

Claire Pringle and Bayode Oduwole are Pokit, one of the UK's most innovative designer labels. Fuk talks to them as they celebrate opening the first Pokit shop.

Thursday night at the summer's end in an unassuming street in west London. The kebab shop, Lebanese cafe and offy are busy as usual, but tonight the street's focus is number 67. Inside the shop, grannies, kids, friends and neighbours are squashed against fashion editors and a capsule collection of Japanese buyers. There are even a few fans who've travelled from Japan to witness the launch of their favourite label's new home.

Pokit was a design company specialising in mobile phone accessories when pharmaceutical scientist Bayode Oduwole (30) and Japanese art specialist Claire Pringle (25) joined forces in 1999. Together, the couple created a collection of bags inspired by Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes. Three years later, Pokit has expanded its remit to include clothes, shoes and other accessories, it has over 50 outlets in Japan and is stocked in Liberty, Selfridges and Harrods in the UK. "We were one of the first people to come out with the idea of accessorising mobile phones, we tried to marry together the functional side with the decorative side" explains Bayode.

Pokit products include modernist bags in ovoid shapes offering maximum space with minimum fuss, fate laces for trainers, scarves and a clothing range now in its second season which features smocks, knitted tops, skirts and jackets. The feel is traditional English (tweeds, wool, slip-on brogues) meets modern and each label bears the simple message "Styled by Pokit" because "We see ourselves more as a design company than a fashion company... we like to improve design, develop it so that things can function well, we're perhaps stylists more than designers." All Pokit products are manufactured in the UK and neither Claire or Bayode have ever had any formal design training.

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