AGNIEUP
Can beauty save the world? Agnieup means beauty in the Ewondo language of Cameroon, the beauty of a person, of an object, of nature, of love. In these troubled times, I felt the need to return to a certain kind of simplicity in fashion, which is to make beautiful clothes and make those who wear them beautiful.
In most African societies, even in times of hardship and scarcity, giving the best of oneself, “making oneself beautiful”, remains very important, even with very modest means. In this collection I’ve blended the tradition of French Haute Couture with the use of silk taffeta, duchesse satin, embroidery, sequins and sequins with materials that might be considered more modest from the African continent: raffia, recycled vinyl beads, obom, tie & dye cotton, cotton canvas scraps and precious hand-woven African fabrics such as Kenté from Ghana, to create the silhouettes of mixed-race beauty in this collection. Raffia, one of my favorite materials, with its link to dance and traditional African religious ceremonies, is also used in make-up, with false eyelashes made from raffia fibers by Marcello Costa.
Imane Ayissi