Imane Ayissi had several lives before becoming a fashion designer, but the body has always been at the heart of her activities. Model cabin for Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Cardin, dancer of the National Ballet of Cameroon then collaborator of Patrick Dupond, but also amateur boxer, the couturier places freedom of movement at the heart of his creations. “Body expression is a central element in the construction of a garment. I try all my prototypes on mannequins rather than on Stockman, I drape the fabrics over the person, I like to witness the birth of new forms, to see them come to life. ”
Born in Cameroon in 1968 to a boxer father and a flight attendant mother, the first post-independence Miss Cameroon in 1960, Imane Ayissi has always had a weakness for clothes. As a child, he draws figures on the floor and dresses sisters and cousins with what he finds. “I have incredible memories of my mother, every weekend in Yaoundé, people flocked to the airport hoping to see her pass. We came to admire her figure perched on high heels and her very sixties bun, it was the attraction. I said to myself: she’s not my mom, she’s a fairy that has been placed in my house. “
Africa far from clichés
In the early 1990s, he moved to Paris. “I created amateur fashion for several years, in my maid’s room with my sewing machine, doing odd jobs alongside. Then I presented my first collection in 1992, I had bought fabrics at the Saint-Pierre market, all with polka dots. I presented 120 polka dot dresses! Since then, I have never missed a date, I have always presented one collection per year. I think that perseverance, seriousness, consistency, that matters. ”
In January 2020, Imane Ayissi becomes the first creator of sub-Saharan Africa registered on the official haute couture calendar, always striving with the same accuracy to offer his vision of fashion, far from clichés. “Too many Europeans think that African fashion comes down to wax, I aspire to show the plurality and the richness of African textile know-how, while crediting their origin, in a process of sharing. The great misfortune of Africa is that we sell off its heritage. “
Here, we see a “Save the Planet” embroidery, inspired by the tapestries of Abomey, in Benin, and the Asafo flags of Ghana. There, couture dresses draped in faso dan fani from Burkina Faso, kenté from Ghana, ndop Bamiléké… And, when he is not indulging in fashion, Imane Ayissi writes tales inspired by his native continent.