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A look from Imane Ayissi’s fall/winter 2023/2024 collection PHOTO COURTESY OF IMANE AYISSI

Imane Ayissi, a Paris-based Cameroonian fashion designer, is renowned for introducing African textiles and techniques to the global luxury market. Now, his designs are being celebrated in Atlanta at SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film’s exhibit Imane Ayissi: From Africa to the World (on display through Feb. 23, 2025).

“We are honored to spotlight Imane Ayissi at SCAD FASH in his first solo museum exhibition. This exhibition is a celebration of Ayissi’s contribution to fashion and his elevation of traditional African textiles to the global luxury markets," Rafael Gomes, curator and creative director of SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film, tells EDITION. "It is incredible what he has accomplished on a global level, highlighting the culturally rich textile and sartorial heritage of Africa to the international stage, and we are thrilled to share his artistic mastery with SCAD students and the community."

When did your passion for design originally spark?

I was actually interested in fashion from a very early age, perhaps influenced by my mother, who was and still is a very elegant woman and all the women around her. Very early on, I tried to understand how clothes were made by cutting up clothes, sometimes old clothes, but sometimes pieces from my mother’s wardrobe. Later, I started working for a fashion label in Yaoundé (the capital of Cameroon); I must have been 18.

What is your brand’s mantra?

For me, fashion is a way of telling stories, and I think my role is to tell stories, especially African stories, through fashion. I want to show that Africa is not a continent apart; I want to show the richness and diversity of African cultures, the beauty of African know-how that can measure up to the cultures and know-how of other parts of the world and then create dialogue, mixing, blending and innovation.

Can you discuss the importance of showcasing the beauty of African materials in the luxury fashion industry?

It’s really important to me and represents a large part of my work. First of all, Africa’s textile heritage is very diverse, rich and deeply linked to the continent’s various cultures, but it is very little known in the rest of the world, and also in Africa because all these textiles were rendered invisible from the 19th century onward by the colonial trade in printed cotton. I think it’s important to safeguard these textiles and, above all, the craft skills associated with them, in the same way that France safeguards its lace-making skills and England its tweed-making skills. Secondly, it’s very important to change the way we generally look at Africa. Although the continent’s creativity is recognized today, there is still a problem in the collective unconscious worldwide, including in Africa, of linking Africa with sophistication and refinement, in a word, linking Africa with luxury. But when we look at these traditional textiles, it becomes obvious that their cultural, historical and craft dimensions—but, above all, their sophistication, refinement and beauty, and the multiple creative resources they offer—make them truly luxury products. By using them in my collections, which are then shown during Paris Haute Couture Week (i.e., at the pinnacle of luxury), I am showing that these textiles belong to the world of luxury and luxury of today, and that African cultures are as refined and sophisticated as any other cultures in the world.

What does this solo exhibit mean to you?

First of all, it’s a great honor, and I’d like to thank the university, SCAD FASH and creative director Rafael Gomes for giving me this opportunity. I see it as recognition of my work, too, but also as a way of amplifying what I say. It’s also a very interesting exercise, getting away from the frenzy of creating one collection after another and looking back at your most essential work.

A look from Imane Ayissi’s fall/winter 2023/2024 collection PHOTO COURTESY OF IMANE AYISSI

What do you hope visitors take away from this exhibition?

I hope that SCAD students and visitors will remember it as a moment of beauty because fashion is also an expression of beauty. I hope that visitors will also discover fabrics and materials with which they are not familiar. This will help to change the way they consider luxury today and enhance their global perspective on contemporary Africa and what it can produce.

PHOTO BY STÉPHANE DE BOURGIES

“I AM SHOWING THAT THESE TEXTILES BELONG TO THE WORLD OF LUXURY AND LUXURY OF TODAY, AND THAT AFRICAN CULTURES ARE AS REFINED AND SOPHISTICATED AS ANY OTHER CULTURES IN THE WORLD.” –IMANE AYISSI