Decked in pieces made from organic faso dan fani, a cotton material from Burkina Faso, and, silk dresses adorned with obom- fabric made from the bark of a tree, models sashayed on the haute-couture stage in Paris, closing the edition’s show to the soundtrack of African music.
The designer is 51-year old Imane Ayissi, the first African from the sub-Saharan part of the continent to feature in the Paris Haute-Couture Fashion week, the first edition of which took place from the 20th to the 23rd of January, 2020. Speaking backstage before his collection’s debut on the prestigious stage, Ayissi had told reporters “It’s an honour” that was 28 years in the making.
Born in Cameroon, Ayissi’s first foray into the world of art was as a dancer with the National Ballet of Cameroon. But he had always loved fashion, a passion that was ignited when, as a child, he helped his mother make pieces for the Miss Cameroon pageant which she won, making her the first national beauty queen of the country post-independence. Finally, in the early ’90s, he moved to Paris where he worked as a model and soon after dedicated himself to designing clothes.
His ready-to-wear luxury pieces were first made for private clients before he started making collections for fashion shows. His collections have appeared on the Arise Magazine fashion week and the GT bank fashion week, both in Lagos, and his pieces have been worn by celebrities including Angela Basset and Zendaya.
His muse is the human body and its movement, an inspiration his dancing years bestowed upon him. He is particular about incorporating organically-sourced African materials in his work. As he himself says, “I do what I can – to show real African fabrics, tell stories.”
His Fall-Winter20/21 collection, titled Amal-Si will be on display today at the digitized Haute-Couture Fashion Week holding from the 6th to 8th of July, and as before, he would be closing the day’s show as a guest member.