Estelle Yomeda – Kente Project

Kente Project Art Lab mixes shapes, transgenerational memories, and ancestral techniques, transforming furniture into contemporary relics.

Estelle Yomeda is an artist-designer of Franco-Togolese origin, who began her career in Yves Saint-Laurent’s Shoe Studio after studying fine arts at the University of Strasbourg, and arts and crafts at the Ateliers de Costumes de l’Opéra du Rhin.

She founded Kente Project Art Lab, a nomadic design studio that she sees as a real laboratory. Its name derives from her discovery of Kente, a traditional weaving technique that has survived the centuries to become the identifying and symbolic fabric of Togo and Ghana.

Estelle Yomeda set out to meet the artisans of Lomé in search of answers, merging personal and universal history to give rise to solid wood pieces. The association of Melina, Neem and Cassia varieties – chosen for their benefits in terms of environmental sustainability – gives the design a natural polychrome, underlining the shapes of her Ekkö Totem stool series.

The Sokodé coffee tables, also presented at Private Choice 2023, are real sculptures. Their sensual form is amplified by their tactile dimension: the velvety wood is also engraved with a wood knife on its reverse.