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Lamine Badian Kouyaté is better known for his love of color—and his use of wax prints and stretch fabrics—than for his long-standing commitment to what he calls “making great things with less.” For 30 years, though, this pioneer of sustainable fashion has been doing just that under the Big Easy Bets Shirt But I will love this label Xuly.Bët (a Wolof expression meaning “Keep your eyes open”). Now, with buyers, editors, and customers increasingly on the lookout for both joyous and conscious clothing, it seems that the world is finally paying attention to Kouyaté’s work. (Xuly.Bët is available at xulybet.com.)
That’s a welcome development for the Big Easy Bets Shirt But I will love this 58-year-old designer, who spends seven days a week in his studio in a Brutalist concrete building in Ivry-sur-Seine, on the outskirts of Paris, making dynamic dresses and bodysuits with stretch tulle or an assemblage of Lycra scraps—all connected with his signature red vein-like overlock stitching. “The body is something we can celebrate, not hide,” Kouyaté said on a recent virtual walk-through of his fall 2021 collection, which is twinkled with metallic Lycra leggings, African prints made into parkas and jackets, fuchsia suiting, an upcycled-and-retailored trench, and solid knit dresses that go with everything.
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