Dakar, Senegal -Wearing a stylish red dress
and a beaming smile, celebrated fashion designer Adama Paris sits
comfortably inside her spacious living room in Dakar, the vibrant
seaside capital of Senegal, as we discuss her inspirations.
"My designing process
starts always with me," explains Paris. "With what I want to wear; with
what is in my closet -- my style is multi-cultural, it's eclectic, it's
the mix of my travels, it's bold, it's rocky," she adds. "It's African."
Indeed, for more than a
decade the Senegalese designer has been putting African fashion to
global runways and clothing stores -- from New York and London to Paris
and Tokyo.
But besides spreading her
stylish vision around the world, Paris is also bringing attention
closer to home -- 12 years ago she founded Dakar Fashion Week,
a popular event allowing designers from all over West Africa and beyond
to showcase their colorful creations to fashion lovers and
international media.
"The fashion scene in
Senegal is so bold," says Paris, whose real name is Adama Amanda Ndiaye.
"I have seen it grow like a baby and I am so proud to be a part of
this."
Black Fashion Week
Following the initial
success of the Dakar Fashion week, Paris began receiving invitations to
attend big designers' shows in fashion capitals like London and New
York. But whilst there, she quickly started feeling like an outsider.
"I was really
frustrated," she says. "When I looked around there were so few black
models and I felt like I wasn't belonging there."
That frustration was
behind Paris' decision to start Black Fashion Week in 2010 to help
promote the talented black designers and models that she felt were being
ignored by the industry. Paris held the inaugural event in the Czech
Republic, followed by editions in Paris, Montreal, Geneva and Bahia.
"I thought it was right
... to try to do something to help my own people and to get more
exposure," she says. "It was not saying them they were wrong, it was
saying, 'OK, we are here,'" adds Paris.
"It was also a statement
[to] the fashion industry, 'stop this discrimination, black is
beautiful.' I am sick and tired of seeing only skinny blonde girls and
not black women in the runway."
The designer's latest venture is the launch of a new fashion TV channel
From the runway to the TV screen
The daughter of
diplomats, Paris spent much of her childhood traveling and soaking up
other cultures before finally settling in France where she attended
college. She first made a name for herself in the French capital but
decided to bring her fashion home to Senegal in 2001.
Now, with a thriving
label and flourishing annual events under her belt, the fashion
entrepreneur is taking on her next business venture -- TV.
A two-year project in
the making, Paris has had her heart set on creating a new avenue to
promote local fashion talent. Starting with a reality show she describes
as the "equivalent of America's Next Top Model," Paris wants to provide
new opportunities for aspiring young models from the continent.
"We wanted really young
girls and give them [an] opportunity to go outside Senegal to model in
Africa -- South Africa, Angola [and] also in Europe. This is going to be
a big deal because it is probably going to start their career."
Her other goal is to
introduce viewers to alternative fashion designers. While there are
currently channels devoted to fashion, Paris explains that they don't
show enough African inspiration and when they do, coverage tends to
focus on designers from South Africa.
"I want them to see us in Nigeria, Ghana, Dakar. That was the purpose of this channel," she says.
"I want people to see we
have great designers. And that's what I'm going to show -- Africans
wearing African clothes," adds Paris. Fashion made in Africa by
Africans."
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