In December of last year, Chanel — perhaps the eminent French luxury house — made fashion history. It’s of course not the first time it’s done that, but this time it was for radically expanding fashion’s global remit by staging its most recent Métiers D’Art show in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Marking the first time that a major brand from the Global North had presented a collection in sub-Saharan Africa, it was naturally prefaced by concerns around the potential for the sort of exploitative practices that have characterised the fashion establishment’s relationship with the continent. Would this be yet another ‘Africa collection’, shown in Senegal for the convenience of being able to cut back on the set design budget? Would Chanel fail to engage local creative communities, flying in a coterie of global A-listers for a blockbuster spectacle and backing out the next day?
The answer to these questions, though, was a resounding no. Rather, what took place was a forum of meaningful exchange that unravelled over the course of several days. As well as the show itself, which unveiled a collection that respectfully brought quintessentially Senegalese hues and sartorial motifs to Chanel’s time-honoured codes, Dakar’s Palais de Justice also played host to a series of talks, salons and workshops. Perhaps more significantly, the week also saw Chanel’s President Bruno Pavlovsky announce a series of longer-term commitments between the house’s le19M — its sprawling complex of ateliers — and Dakar’s IFAN Museum of African Arts that will see exchanges of artisanal expertise.
It’s the kind of thing you wish you were there for. Well, luckily for you, we were, and while we out there, we also took it upon ourselves to meet some of the movers and shakers of Dakar’s bustling creative scene. From rising photography star Malick Bodian to Diarra Bousso, the designer behind DIARRABLU; Orange Culture’s Adebayo Oke-Lawal to Adama Paris, the founder of Dakar Fashion Week — oh, and Pharrell Williams! — get to know the people driving one of Africa’s most exciting cities forward in our new video.