Jackets are hung on one wall of Bada Seck\u2019s single-room atelier in the Ngor arrondissement of Dakar in Senegal, dresses are arranged along another. Half-made garments lie on top of an unused sewing machine and bags of fabric cover the floor.<\/p>\n
Seck\u2019s workshop, in this former fishing village on the westernmost edge of the Senegalese capital might be modest, but his clients come from as far away as France.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there are the means, I make European styles with African fabrics,\u201d he says, as he takes a brightly patterned suit jacket off the wall to look over. Festivals are a particularly busy time for him. \u201cWith Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr there\u2019s a lot of work \u2013 a lot, a lot. More than we can keep up with. Even if we work all night, till 5am. It\u2019s tough, because everybody dresses up, and our work isn\u2019t fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seck creates mostly made-to-measure fashion. Clients bring fabric bought on market stalls to tailors like him to turn into anything from kaftans, flowing boubous and dresses to western-style suits and bomber jackets.<\/p>\n
Seck is one of many tailors who make up Senegal\u2019s domestic fashion industry, which has helped attract big names to the country \u2013 Tommy Hilfiger and Levi\u2019s recently opened stores in the capital. While Seck cuts and sews in his atelier along one of the village\u2019s sandy alleyways, across the capital organisers anxiously prepared for the 20th Dakar fashion week in the first weekend of December. On Tuesday, Chanel hosted its M\u00e9tiers d\u2019Art show \u2013 which highlights the work of specialist artisans \u2013 for the first time in Africa.<\/p>\n
Dakar fashion week\u2019s founder, Adama Ndiaye \u2013 along with designers Karim Tassi from Morocco; the Nigerian brand Emmy Kasbit; and Mimi Plange from Ghana \u2013 showed their collections along runways on the island of Gor\u00e9e. Despite being \u201ccharged with such a sad history\u201d, Gor\u00e9e, once a hub for the international slave trade, is a place where a \u201ccultural mix\u201d can be seen, Ndiaye said at a press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cSenegal \u2013 and Dakar in particular \u2013 it\u2019s a country with a strong cultural presence,\u201d says Rom\u00e9o Moukagny, a Gabonese designer working in Dakar\u2019s Libert\u00e9 6 neighbourhood. \u201cEven in something modern, there\u2019s a traditional touch that stays there. Every 10 metres you have an atelier. Even if you\u2019re a foreigner, you have your chance like everybody \u2026 If you want to apply for a competition, you don\u2019t have to be a [Senegalese] national. You can apply. You can open a business. There is really an accessibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Busy in Moukagny\u2019s workshop is Aton Tsiba, a fashion designer from the Republic of the Congo who presented his collection at a fashion week show for up-and-coming designers.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy [collection] celebrates everybody who has contributed to the advancement of culture,\u201d says Tsiba, as a tailor in the next room makes final touches to the outfits about to be modelled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s more accessibility [in Dakar],\u201d he says. \u201cThe material, the fabrics are more accessible. There\u2019s also the diversity that you can see in the number of designers. It\u2019s a bit more advanced in terms of fashion. It\u2019s an environment that suits me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Senegalese designer Selly Raby Kane, who presented a capsule collection showcasing her looks from the past decade, says Senegalese \u2013 and west African \u2013 style is a force to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n
\u201cSenegal has a very, very serious culture of fashion, textiles, embroidery \u2013 hand embroidery \u2013 savoir faire. It\u2019s precious for us,\u201d she says. \u201cNigeria has a strong fashion scene as well \u2026 Senegal is having a bit of an imprint [from] Lagos in terms of traditional attire, mainly. So there is a dialogue that is happening in west Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, every day is a fashion show in Dakar. Anseme Ren\u00e9 Carvalho sips tea at a lunch stand across the street from a mosque as worshippers shuffle inside. He\u2019s wearing a mustard-yellow kaftan nearly reaching his feet. But he isn\u2019t there to pray. \u201cI\u2019m not Muslim,\u201d says Carvalho, part of the country\u2019s tiny Christian minority. But \u201con Fridays, we dress like this. It\u2019s the traditional dress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of Senegal\u2019s domestic fashion industry exists independently of designer shops or events such as Dakar fashion week. \u201cI create with my head,\u201d says Seck, who says he hadn\u2019t heard of fashion week. Tickets for shows cost about 50,000 CFA (\u00a365), outside most budgets in a country where GDP per capita is about \u00a31,300.<\/p>\n
The Ngor market stallholder Mamadieng Diallo says he goes to his tailor every three months for a new outfit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I see some material and it\u2019s nice to me, I buy it and take it to the tailor,\u201d he says. \u201cEven if it\u2019s not [Eid], in three months I\u2019ll buy something \u2013 sometimes two months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mame Diary Diouf, who runs an atelier down the street from Moukagny\u2019s workshop, says Dakar has a rich environment for tailoring.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have all types of clients. Every month, we try to create new designs to propose to our clients. At the same time, clients can bring fabric directly,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe embroidery is made by hand. It\u2019s our style. It\u2019s tradi-modern,\u201d Diouf adds. \u201cOur style can be worn by everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Senegal\u2019s capital has a labyrinth of backstreet workshops where makers cut and sew, and its annual fashion week attracts design talent from across Africa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":23897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,36],"tags":[7,37,38],"class_list":{"0":"post-23900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fashion","8":"category-lifestyle","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-fashion","11":"tag-lifestyle"},"yoast_head":"\n