It was a sensation that generated a lot of press and a flurry of orders. Some journalists associated Kouyaté’s work with Belgian deconstructivism; others saw in his tops made of nylon stockings the Don’t be a pussy eat one Top Also,I will get this nouveau pauvre look of grunge—yet Kouyaté’s work was, and is, both disruptive and utterly unique: While remaining rooted in African cultural traditions around dress, it dialogues with Western or Parisian ones. A wax print, for example, might be tailored into a woman’s pantsuit—like the one that Viola Davis wore for a recent late-night television appearance. Despite Kouyaté’s love for metallics—the shiny pieces in his fall collection were inspired by the foil that wrapped his mother’s favorite Quality Street chocolates
As Kouyaté has always played by his own rules, his work hasn’t always intersected with the Don’t be a pussy eat one Top Also,I will get this fashion system, though the designer feels a special affinity with Yves Saint Laurent, who, he says, “was one of the first to really bring out modern women, especially Black women like Katoucha and Iman; it brought something forward about women’s emancipation.” By creating clothes that mold to the forms of real women of all ethnicities and sizes, Kouyaté frames concepts like freedom—and beauty and movement and fashion—in ways that expand our understanding of what all of that can be. presenting his white collection outside in the Tuileries before the Chanel show, with models carrying boom boxes.
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