His father was undefeated boxing champion of
\nAfrica, now Imane Ayissi is making history himself by becoming the first
\nsub-Saharan designer to show in the elite Paris haute couture week.\n<\/p>\n
Not only is he joining fashion’s creme de la creme, the Cameroonian
\ncouturier is shaking up the stereotype of what “African materials” are by
\nrefusing to use wax prints which he dismisses as “colonial”.\n<\/p>\n
Highly colourful wax cotton prints flooded West Africa after Dutch mills
\nbegan turning out millions of rolls of the material with patterns borrowed
\nfrom Indonesian batik in the 19th century.\n<\/p>\n
“Still when we talk about African fashion it’s always wax, which is a real
\npity, because its killing our own African heritage,” Ayissi told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
“We only started wearing wax during the colonial era. Africa has more to
\nshow for itself than that — and the whole world needs to know that,” he
\ninsisted.\n<\/p>\n
The 51-year-old former dancer dreams of “opening up a new path for Africa”
\nin an “alternative way of doing luxury fashion”.\n<\/p>\n
With his show called “Akouma” or “wealth”, Ayissi has tried to create a
\ndebut collection that nods both to the depth of indigenous African know-how
\nand the fact that haute couture is also preserve of the ultra rich.\n<\/p>\n
While every piece is painstakingly handmade, as haute couture demands, the
\ndesigner has had recourse to African materials and techniques rarely if ever
\nseen on the Paris catwalk.\n<\/p>\n
Strip fabric kente woven by the Akan people of Ghana and the Ivory Coast,
\nwhich was originally worn only by nobles, has been transformed into elegant
\nevening wear, with spectacular dresses decorated with obom, the bark of a
\ntropical tree.\n<\/p>\n
Ayissi has also played with African luxury tropes by using a Cameroonian
\ntie dye technique “which is expensive and slow to do” called “Mon mari est
\ncapable” (roughly translated as “My husband can handle it”), which is all
\nabout showing you how deep your pockets are.\n<\/p>\n
Like his late father, Jean-Baptiste Ayissi Ntsama — who founded his own
\npolitical party after quitting the boxing ring — Ayissi wants to become a
\nchampion for African talent.\n<\/p>\n
His childhood home was a crossroads of many worlds: politics and boxing
\nfrom his father and fashion from his mother, a former Miss Cameroon.\n<\/p>\n
“Within the family we had boxing and dancing clans, and a bit of modelling
\ntoo, and mother loved all that,” the designer said.\n<\/p>\n
“I did a bit of boxing — it was obligatory, it was the family tradition
\nafter all — then I started to dance.”\n<\/p>\n
His dance career mixed ballet, modern dance and pop, including dancing in
\nvideos for superstars Sting and Seal as well as touring with French tennis
\nstar-turned-singer Yannick Noah.\n<\/p>\n
But it was his parallel career as a striking Paris runway model that really
\nreignited his passion for fashion.\n<\/p>\n
That re-awoke childhood memories of cutting up and re-sewing his mother’s
\nand his aunt’s old dresses.\n<\/p>\n
Yet Ayissi — whose show closes haute couture week Friday — has been far
\nfrom an overnight success.\n<\/p>\n
He staged his first Paris fashion show in 1993 “for his friends” with some
\n200 dresses, of which “only one or two” really worked, he remembers with laugh.\n<\/p>\n
He has come a long way since, with his last collection, which helped get
\nhim in the door of the extremely select haute couture club, centred on
\necological concerns.\n<\/p>\n
It included dresses in black and mauve embroidered with plants and fish
\nusing an appliqued technique inspired by Abomey tapestries from Benin and the
\ncolonial era Asafo warrior flags from Ghana, then called the Gold Coast.\n<\/p>\n
One particularly striking dress called “The Black Sea” was embroidered with
\na blue whale and large-eyed fish.\n<\/p>\n
Ayissi said the dress was a reference to the “black tides (of pollution) on
\nthe one hand and sadness on the other.”\n<\/p>\n
But ironically his own insistence on trying to use only natural dyes and
\norganic cotton means that he has to buy a lot of material in France and then
\nsend it to Africa to be made.\n<\/p>\n
“If we buy there it will have come from Asia and probably won’t be organic.
\nIt’s costly, but it’s a choice I make,” he said.(AFP) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
His father was undefeated boxing champion of Africa, now Imane Ayissi is making history himself by becoming the first sub-Saharan designer to show in the elite Paris haute couture week. Not only is he joining fashion’s creme de la creme, the Cameroonian couturier is shaking up the stereotype of what “African materials” are by refusing … <\/p>\n