Thinking of fool puppies from Playart, I guess their white asses’ blood must have been literally boiling on their chair at school. At only 24 years old, the guys have hardly a t-shirt brand, a concept store and a digital textile printing company. Meeting with one of the incorporators, Hoel.

 

 Hi Hoel! Well, everybody knows you here in Nantes, but could you still make for me a quick introduction of yourself?

I’m not good at introduction; I prefer when others do it for me, especially when they do it in such a laudatory way, like you just did it.

In short, we’re two guys from Nantes by adoption but originating from Cholet, who’ve known each other since we were at school together  or rather since we were at the tiny road next our high school between classes together .

We quickly decided to work together and especially to do in our life what we love. Encounters got us to where we are today and let us still speed up!

 

You’ve just opened the Playart select store, in the city center, what’s exactly the idea?

The idea is easy, we try to mix up our attracting worlds, that is to say tattooing, artists’ expositions, garment, through the concept store, and our making-money job, or the digital textile printing in single piece, small, medium or large series; and necessarily a Playart corner! From September onwards, people will be able to come to our place to have a tattoo done, to print their own visual design on a t-shirt, to find brands that they can’t find elsewhere in Nantes (Olow, Sixpack, Playart, Waiting for the Sun, Prim I am, Blotter, Armistice and Humur or Rutme as well) or just to pass by to see the exposition of the day.

 

There are very few shops in France mixing all this; how did you hit the idea of doing it?

We had the idea the further we met up with people. For example, Tom, the tattooer, is a friend since something like ten years so it came very easily… As we’re concerned, we felt like having a well-established shop since the digital printing business has started up.

 

How does a typical week at Playart look like? 

Working starts on Tuesday! We work at the shop from 12 a.m. to 20 p.m., which means that in the morning we can sleep or receive parcels which cannot be stored in the shop. Usually after closing, it’s time to have an aperitif with casual friends or go boating on the Erdre when it’s nice weather. Then whether we work a bit at home on the computer to settle the work we couldn’t finish off by day or whether we work with our partners from Paris on the Playart brand and our future projects.

The weekend starts on Saturday at 7 p.m., that means leaving to Yeu the same evening or partying hard with the boys to get shattered on Monday and take up again on Tuesday.

 

Speaking of brands you distribute, how do you choose them?

The choice is easy to make. It’s all about the brand we love and wear everyday and whose manager or marketing people we know. I take advantage of the interview to thank them, by the way!

 

Let’s talk about your brand now; I think it has a real identity and your t-shirts are very bright and colorful. Who makes the visuals?

Visuals, video and communication are managed by the industry’s artistic team, composed of Pierre-Antoine Menard and Paul Lombard. Their head-quarters is in Paris, where we meet regularly.

 

 We know for a fact that your brains are in constant activity, what are your next projects?

Well, now we’re working on two next Playart collections, new visuals, an exposition at the shop linked to the collections and probably some new textile products, starting with sweat.

As a long-range forecast, we’re thinking of appointing a manager for our first shop to be able to focus more on large series printing production and the opening of a second new shop.

 

Right, the interview comes to an end, a last line to drop?

Thank you very much for the interview. We’re delighted to bring Olow to Nantes’ people who don’t know much about the brand yet but they love it already.

 

http://www.play-art.fr/

 

Playart Select Store

4 rue de l’hôtel de ville

44000 Nantes

FRANCE