The 19th edition of the Darkar fashion week, which opened on Friday, and ended on Sunday, is one of the continent’s longest-running fashion exhibitions. The current edition focused on the inclusion of sustainability. The event’s organizer, Senegalese stylist Adama Ndiaye, better known as Adama Paris, said this year’s edition was easier to organize because of the ease with Covid-19 protocols, which saw nearly all public gatherings suspended last year.
Textile production generates 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon emissions annually. If current levels continue, the industry could account for more than a quarter of global emissions by 2050, according to a 2015 study from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Therefore, there is a strong need to introduce sustainable materials in the fashion world. The organizers of the Darkar Fashion Week chose to return to the baobab forest to remind participants of the responsibility of the fashion world to operate sustainably.
Adama Paris said, “This is the gathering of our African fashion family, and besides, right now, with the pandemic, we do not have everyone. We create our ecosystem, and we live it, we live it freely, we live it with passion, and we live it without restraint.”
Born with cerebral palsy, Samuel, 20, was the first of two dozen models of all shapes and sizes to take the runway at Dakar’s 19th annual Fashion Week event, held at the weekend with the dual themes of inclusiveness and sustainability. “I want to prove to other disabled kids that you are not your disability – you are just you,” Samuel said, wearing an orange and blue dress by Fashion Week founder Adama Ndiaye. “You have to come out and show people who you are.”
