African fashion Archives

@DS Automobiles; Team Models: Olivia Valin @ Women360 – Justine Nicolas @ Premium Models; Photos: Laurent Nivalle; Videos: Emmanuel Rouyer; Production: Astuce Production Styling: Christophe Beltrame; Dressing, make-up, hair-dressing: Simon Stromboni & Gwen Ryu.

Paris Fashion Week Ready-to-Wear Women’s Fashion Spring/Summer 2021 runs from 28 September to 6 October, in partnership with DS Automobiles. 84 fashion houses have signed up to the official calendar with physical and digital events. Guests will travel to the venues for 19 shows and 20 presentations in DS 7 Crossback eTense 4×4 300, a plug-in hybrid model that symbolises French automotive luxury. With 75 kilometres of zero emissions range (WLTP City standard), DS7 CrossBack eTense 4×4 300 opens the way to a new kind of mobility that’s more enjoyable, more efficient and safer.

DS Automobiles, the high-end automobile marque founded and developed as a spin off of the French marque Citroën, is adding a new element to “Un Autre Regard” with an editorial fashion photo shoot dedicated to Paris Fashion Week Women’s Spring/Summer 2021, following a first edition launched last July.

“Un Autre Regard” links the concept car collection designed by DS Automobiles to the world of fashion from emerging brands identified by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode.

This second edition of Un Autre Regard came to life around the remains of Château Royal de Montceaux-Lès-Meaux. Built at the start of the 15th Century, it had been bought by Henri II as a gift for his wife, Catherine de Médicis, the Queen of France. The castle was destroyed after the Revolution and today the area is classified as a Historic Monument.

Decidedly avant-garde in its time, the castle is today made up of ruins and remnants, in the middle of columns and a restored lodge. It’s in this setting that all the concept cars revealed since the creation of the brand,DS AERO SPORT LOUNGE,DS X E-TENSE,DS E-TENSE and DS DIVINE, posed with two models, Justine Nicolas and Olivia Valin, and the looks from three emerging international fashion brands: Boyarovskaya, Thebe Magugu et Mossi.

Un Autre Regard = A Different Perspective Designers:

Boyarovskaya

Boyarovskaya is a women’s clothing brand based in Paris and founded in 2016 by Maria Boyarovskaya and Artem Kononenko. Deconstructing the codes of couture, their clothes are minimalist and often decomposable. Their designs are characterized by efficient cuts with a modern elegance. Boyarovskaya is mentored by FHCM since 2018. The brand has also been selected as Super Talent of Pitti Immagine / Vogue Italia Talents. In March 2020, it joined the official calendar of presentations of the PFW Womenswear.

Mossi

Designer Mossi Traore is purposed and leads two projects at the same time. The first one is a social and solidarity project oriented towards training and integration, a sewing school allowing to learn, to cultivate a know-how and to exercise it. The second is a fashion brand offering clothes with pure lines and a timeless aesthetic. Those two projects combine in his collections, designed and produced in workshops in the Parisian suburbs. MOSSI won the Pierre Bergé Andam 2020 award and has integrated the PFW Official calendar of presentations this September.

Thebe Magugu

Thebe Magugu studied design, fashion and photography at the prestigious LISOF School of fashion design in Johannesburg. He launched his brand in 2015 after several experiences with brands and designers. Proudly African, Thebe Magugu has the strong desire to elevate the view of African fashion. He creates modern clothes with an African twist, employing local resources from fabric weaving to manufacturing while using local crafters and artisans. Thebe Magugu is the winner of the LVMH Prize 2019. The brand joined the Presentations Official Schedule of PFW Womenswear and is part of SPHÈRE – Paris Fashion Week showroom since February 2020.

Dior 2020 Cruise at El Badi Palace - a dialogue between the Dior wardrobe and African fashion — Dior 2020 Cruise at El Badi Palace – a dialogue between the Dior wardrobe and African fashion; @dior

Wax, a fabric emblematic of Africa was in the spotlight of the Dior 2020 Cruise collection presented in the setting of the El Badi Palace in Morocco as a dialogue between the Dior wardrobe and African fashion.

With traditional Moroccan ceramics and fabrics, El Badi Palace in Marrakesh, was rich in meaning. Long a meeting place for imagined realms of Europe and Africa, Marrakech also evokes the first successor to Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent.

On the occasion of the Dior Cruise 2020 collection, Maria Grazia Chiuri collaborated with Uniwax factory and studio (in Ivory Coast) to create pieces from Wax print fabrics, a highly complex, noble cloth whose roots wind between Europe, Asia and Africa. A unifying symbol of multifaceted fashion, the prints came in a multitude of motifs and colors. Dior codes including ‘toile de Jouy’ and ‘tarot’ cards were revisited in the fabrics’ motifs.

“Maria Grazia Chiuri has always had her heart set on establishing creative exchanges with African cultures. With this collection, she sought to dialogue with the real and imagined landscape of Morocco, at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, Europe, and Africa, like a dream destination for artists, poets, writers and eternal adventurers,” commented the LVMH-owned luxury fashion house.

Uniwax, one of the few remaining manufacturers of the fabric using traditional methods, is actively supporting African fashion. Maria Grazia Chiuri collaborated as well with African designer Pathé Ouédraogo, known as Pathé’O, who contributed a shirt designed exclusively for the show in tribute to Nelson Mandela.

For the Dior Cruise 2020 collection, Maria Grazia Chiuri invited two creative talents, LVMH Prize winner Grace Wales Bonner and New York-based artist Mickalene Thomas, to reinterpret the Maison’s iconic ‘New Look’ silhouette, the ‘Bar’ jacket and skirt. The Bar suit, like all the other pieces, exalts the power of fashion as an inclusive, transnational language.

The Dior archives attest to this fascination by Morocco, in Marc Bohan’s Jungle silhouette or a scarf printed with an African lion that gave life to a savannah bestiary. Landscapes that inspired authors such as Albert Camus, Paul Bowles, Alberto Moravia, and Bernardo Bertolucci unfurl across warp prints, jacquards, and fils coupés. Maria Grazia Chiuri underscores the power of Nature with ecru silk, silk gauze, and shantung that, in shades of sand, indigo or burned red ocher, enhance coats and suits, pleated skirts and trousers.