Wrapping oneself in a cloth is a primordial gesture, common to a very large part of humanity, from the peplum to the sari, from South America to Asia. But even today, for many women in West and Central Africa, it’s still an everyday way of dressing. They prefer to wrap themselves in a rectangle of fabric to form a loincloth, sometimes superimposing them to give the effect of a double skirt. This is the starting point and main inspiration for this collection: Abeung Sanda Iyé means “the beautiful loincloth” or “the pretty draped garment”. So I explored different ways of wrapping, draping and layering fabrics, to create garments that sometimes complement traditional Western wardrobe pieces, but at other times result in dresses sculpted directly on the mannequin, held together by a few pleats and one or two seams. I also sought to create garments by draping, without assembling them, traditional fabrics from Ghana, Gambia or Burkina Faso in cotton or kapok, hand-woven in small strips 9 to 12 cm wide.
Alongside silks such as crêpes drap, crêpes envers satin, organza, tafffetas, faille and satin duchesse, this collection includes several versions of one of my favorite fabrics, Kenté, hand-woven in Ghana. You’ll also find a few “Yoyo flowers”, made from fabric scraps, as a “sequel” to my previous collection.