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The innovative brand Maison de Choup was created by Hampshire raised George Hodgson, aged 22, and positively utilises fashion to spread awareness for mental health. Without any experience in the fashion industry or any industry at all, apart from helping his Dad with his letterpress business, Hodgson took two firm steps into an entirely new realm. Creating a fashion brand, starting off with graphic tees and now expanding from minimalistic embroidered sweatshirts to printed boiler suits for both genders.

 

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In the spring of 2014, Maison de Choup was the flower that bloomed out of Hodgson’s dark battle with mental health. Struggling with anxiety and OCD throughout his teenage years after a bad experience with MDMA at a music festival. Stemming from studying creative subjects at school, such as photography and graphic design, Hodgson used illustrating in a note pad to express how he felt during his suffering. “The drawings were sometimes quite dark, but they were a way of expressing how I was feeling, like a creative outlet”. Soon realising “I could put this on a t-shirt” and that these drawings, such as abstract faces and words, like “don’t feed the fears”, could help others and spread awareness, Maison De Choup was born. .

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When launching the brand, Hodgson wanted to give back to a charity that helps young people who are not in the same fortunate position as he was in during his suffering. During Hodgson’s illness, he went to CAHMS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service), which is the NHS service for mental health problems. After being told he would have to wait an extensive 40 weeks before receiving help, his road to recovery began as his parents could ,fortunately, fund his health care privately. Whilst researching his symptoms online he stumbled across YoungMinds. 25% of all proceeds go to YoungMinds charity to help young people who are currently suffering from their mental health.

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Maison de Choup, named after the childhood nickname for Hodgson’s sister Charlotte, has evolved into a prosperous brand, with nearly 6000 loyal followers on Instagram. Aside from the vital message that the brand spreads, it is the precise attention to detail that keeps bringing loyal customers back. With aid from his family members, Hodgson handcrafts personal note cards that lay on top of a sleek black tissue paper, protecting the precious garments inside. “It’s one of the parts of the process that takes the longest and we try to keep up with them as much as we can because the moment you start losing the personal touch, the brand starts disappearing.” The products arrive through your letterbox in a brown paper ‘panic bag’ with graphic text reading “Breathing into this paper bag can ease a panic attack wearing its contents can help prevent it happening in the first place”.

 

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Hodgson’s positivity shone when discussing his brand; it was nearly impossible to picture him as the same adolescent who was once too afraid to be left alone. Creating Maison de Choup allowed him to express emotion and gain confidence whilst promoting a cause that was close to his heart and this has not gone unrecognised. In 2016, Hodgson won the British Fashion Start-up Award for FASHION basecamp. When asked about this achievement, Hodgson chuckled and explained that is “was a weird one, I was just at my computer and I got an email like ‘you’ve been nominated for this so and so award’ and I was like yeah, great another spam email”. At a party in Soho, after enjoying one too many free cocktails, Hodgson’s name was announced, meaning he would be accepting his award and doing a speech. Hodgson was up against some impressive brands “ones that Royal’s were wearing and I was just there with my t-shirts. I just had my story and that’s how it won because it touched their hearts and from there it grew.”

 

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Through spreading the brands’ message, Hodgson’s confidence in public speaking has flourished. After a sudden phone call, interrupting a relaxing bath, Hodgson was invited to speak on the BBC breakfast show in May of this year. “Everything with the BBC is so fast and so if you miss the call they immediately find someone else.” Being able to spread awareness on such a well-known media platform was described as a nerve-wracking but riveting experience.

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Maison de Choup is currently an online store but appears in stalls at Hodgson’s local market in Winchester, where it sells successfully. Hodgson aims to create a pop-up shop that migrates across the UK to “build up a community in that area and raised awareness for the brand and mental health and then you move on”. Additionally, the label has just released “two new colours for the embroidered t-shirt” and are “also working on a new sweatshirt and some new tote bags and also bringing back some old classics”.

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George Hodgson story of creating beautiful products out of his anxiety is motivating for many. The brand is building a fan base through social media that’s rapidly spreading awareness. “A fashion brand with a mental health cause at its heart”

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How did it feel to have people promoting your brand and your message around LFW this year?

That’s a weird feeling; it’s a cool feeling! There were so many people supporting it and getting involved in sharing awareness of mental health, especially in the fashion industry and especially at fashion week. Here’s the secret, I don’t really like it. It’s exciting, it’s fun and all the shows are fast-paced, but you go along and all the people are very insincere and I sit at the catwalk and think ‘what am I doing here?’ I don’t really want to be in the high-end fashion world, I’m there to make contacts for the brand and spread awareness for mental health and it’s a fantastic way of doing it. So, I enjoy it in that sense, I enjoy seeing my friends and meeting new people.

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Sustainable fashion is a massive topic, how do you incorporate this into MDC?

Everything in the brand is done with thought; from the way we send everything in the panic bag reminding people to breath, occasionally. The t-shirts are 100% organic, ethically sourced cotton, the brand follows the story of mental health and it’s important that the clothes represent that. If you’re story is about mental health and you’re printing on bad quality t-shirts that a poor young person in the Middle East has made, it doesn’t really hold up.

 

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Do you come up with all the designs yourself?

So, the designs originally started from me and they still are solely me. We work with a young girl, who also suffers, who helps contribute and it’s like throwing ideas back and fourth with each other, because obviously I’m not a fashion designer. So, I do drawings but she basically makes them able to print on t-shirts easier than my messy drawings.

 

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Do you ever feel pressure when designing due to the amount of competition in the industry?

No, not really. There obviously is in the back of my head that pressure, because the fashion industry is so fast paced and there’s so many other brands out there. But, by staying in my lane I know the purpose of the brand, which is so be a fashionable brand, that people love wearing, that anyone can wear and it shares that message. It’s not to be that next Supreme or the next coolest street wear brand, it’s a brand in it’s own lane that’s spreading awareness for mental health through lovely clothing. But in my head, yes, there’s always the competition, is everyone doing better than me? But, you always get that.

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If you could only pick one item from the brand, what would it be?

At the moment, it’s probably one of the latest t-shirts which is the ‘sometimes I’m
okay, sometimes I’m not’ t-shirt. Which is embroidered by a girl ( Alice Peta Quinn) and is so beautifully done, every stitch is done by hand and the story behind it is just so special. It’s really delicate and sometimes we are okay and sometimes we’re not and that’s okay.