While the pandemic has been a blow to some entrepreneurs and brick-and-mortar stores, it has been an opportunity for others.
Witness Chokomode, a women”™s fashion boutique at The Westchester, which will celebrate its first anniversary Oct. 8 with a show of clothing designed by owner Marcelle Gakam. Although her designs have been online for five years, Gakam says she leapt at the chance to have a place of her own where women could browse and buy. It helped that the Simon Property Group-operated mall worked with her, she adds, making her the proverbial offer she couldn”™t refuse.
“I thought it would be a good opportunity for the brand,” says the Cameroon native, striking in one of her own creations ”“ fuchsia pants and a matching top with half-length puff sleeves. “A lot of people have come in saying they never heard of it.”
Those people include her target clientele, businesswomen from the tristate area who can”™t get enough of her versatile pantsuits and dress ensembles, which can take them from the office to an evening event to a weekend in the city or country. One lawyer couldn”™t resist a black jersey dress with a green, white and yellow-orange geometric pattern, a crew neck and half sleeves. Paired with a short gold jacket, it”™s perfect for the courtroom, says marketing consultant Maryann Martin, who joins Gakam for the interview. Pair the jacket with black slacks and you”™re ready for a more casual day. A Realtor loved a textured pantsuit in a subtle pink and navy pattern, appropriate for showing off condos, co-ops and houses, Martin adds. (Prices range from $129 to $800.)
For the Oct. 8 show outside the 1,200-square-foot store, Gakam will be including flowing dresses in prints and solids that both appeal to a clientele clamoring for forgiving dresses post-“pandemic pounds” and evoke kaba clothing, loose-fitting coverups derived from colonial Cameroon.
Gakam”™s is the classic immigrant entrepreneur”™s story. She was born, raised and educated in Cameroon, where the women in her family offered a particularly important influence. (The store is named for her maternal grandmother, Anne Choko, “a strong woman who instilled good values in us,” Gakam says.) She served as an assistant to her aunt Helene Ngako, a fashion designer. Nonetheless, Gakam set her sights on a career in the more practical field of health-care management, arriving in the United States in 2005 to pursue an associate”™s degree at San Jacinto College South in Houston and a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Houston. But she also chipped away at her fashion dreams ”“ making clothes by hand out of expensive fabrics that had friends requesting pieces and attending the MAGIC show in Las Vegas in 2014. The trade show”™s acronym stands for the Men’s Apparel Guild in California, which inaugurated it in 1933. Today, the show ”“ which moved to Las Vegas in 1989 and was acquired by Advanstar Communications in 1998 ”“ includes women”™s clothing and accessories and manufacturing services. After presenting her portfolio in Vegas, Gakam says, the verdict was in: Her future lay in fashion, not in health care.
Moving to Harlem in 2016, she worked for such hospitals as Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, The Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and Harlem Hospital Center.
“Just coming to New York was a challenge,” she says with a laugh. But she persevered with her fashion dreams ”“ taking classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and receiving a 2017 Emerging Designer Award during Harlem Fashion Week.
In 2019, her clothes were added to Flying Solo, a shop in Manhattan”™s SoHo that works with independent designers. The store in turns lends items to fashion shoots, so Gakam”™s creations have appeared in such high-style magazines as Flanelle, Harper”™s Bazaar Serbia, Harper”™s Bazaar Thailand, Marie Claire, L”™Officiel and Photo Vogue Festival.
Now she would like to expand her inventory with coordinated accessories and comfortable shoes. She wants all kinds of women but especially her professional clientele to benefit from her offerings.
“I think,” she says, “this is the space for that.”
Chokomode”™s Oct. 8 fashion show takes place from 5 to 7 p.m. on Level One of The Westchester, 125 Westchester Ave. RSVP here.
For more, visit chokomode.com.
