PARIS, Jan 24 — Imane Ayissi is on a mission to put authentic African textiles in the spotlight but faces an uphill battle as a pioneer African couturier at Paris Fashion Week.

The bark of the Obom tree, kente cloth from Ghana, kapok fibres from Burkina Faso are some of the textiles — little-known in Europe — that the Cameroonian turned into bespoke dresses at his haute couture show in Paris on Monday.

"Often when we talk about African fashion, we think of colourful fabrics that Africans actually only started wearing relatively recently,” Ayissi told AFP at his workshop ahead of the show.

Ayissi, who in 2020 became the first designer from sub-Saharan Africa at haute couture week, seeks to resurrect more traditional fabrics like rafia, drawn from local trees and plants, that were used before the African market was flooded with imports during the colonial period.

"These (foreign) fabrics killed the economy of real African textiles and their history. It’s painful,” said the 55-year-old former dancer, whose father was a renowned boxer.

Before a crowd including footballer Mamadou Sakho, Ayissi showed how traditional textiles can be reworked — into colourful, statuesque pant suits, intricate floral tops and a flamingo-pink rafia dress.

Ayissi has been feted for his work, playing a lead role in a hit exhibition of African fashion at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and New York’s Brooklyn Museum last year.

But he admits it has been tough to keep going as an independent designer, especially since joining the fashion week line-up just as the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

"I don’t complain, I adapt, but it can be tiring,” said Ayissi.

"I don’t have an investor behind me. When you’re showing alongside Chanel and Dior and the big houses, you have to be up to the task, you have to have the means. It’s not easy. I have to rely on my savoir-faire.”

A key difficulty is sourcing quality materials from Africa, where Ayissi says the industry has failed to keep up with international standards.

"My challenge is to show that Africa is standing up, and to present these African fabrics that the world doesn’t know about—but Africans need to be aware, too,” he said.

"We have to train. African investors must believe in art and intellectuals. For a very long time, Africans have been buying other people’s luxuries. But the basis of luxury is pride in one’s identity.”

He works with embroiderers in Ghana and elsewhere but says the industry is still too small and piecemeal, and he often has to look outside Africa for good-quality cotton and other fabrics.

"Africans must wake up,” he said. "They need to understand that fashion is a real, noble profession and a big economic machine.” — ETX Studio