Originally from France, Arnault Castel settled in Hong Kong where he founded the very first Kapok store. Its sharply curated range of art + design goods quickly gained a large following among a specific demographic and today he successfully runs five stores and shop-in-shops in the city. Retail operations later on expanded to Singapore where currently two outlets supply design-obsessed shoppers. But Castel has even bigger plans for the lion city and plans to open a flagship store + café – it’s going to be the biggest store ever – at the prestigious National Design Centre.
But leading up to this milestone is the timely launch of a pop-up store on the very same premises, coinciding with this year’s edition of Singapore Design Week. For this Kapok pop-up store Castel has collaborated with Singapore-based design collective Grafunkt – they will also design the flagship store – while The U Factory has stocked the temporary store with local design products and will run their popular U Café during Design Week. Kapok will introduce a selection of fav brands from the city state and abroad, and presents its first collection of shirts.
http://superfuture.com/supernews/singapore-kapok-pop-up-store