Paris holds first 'Black Fashion Week' to showcase African talent
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A model presents a creation by Adama during the Black Fashion Week show, on Oct 5, 2012 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Models, wearing Adama Paris creation, wait in the backstage before the Black Fashion Week show, on Oct 5, 2012 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
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A model presents a creation by Adama during the Black Fashion Week show, on Oct 5, 2012 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
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A model presents a creation by Adama during the Black Fashion Week show, on Oct 5, 2012 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Models, wearing Adama Paris creation, wait in the backstage before the Black Fashion Week show, on Oct 5, 2012 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Models, wearing Adama Paris creation, wait in the backstage before the Black Fashion Week show, on Oct 5, 2012 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
A model presents a creation by Adama during the Black Fashion Week show, on Oct 5, 2012 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
Models, wearing Adama Paris creation, wait in the backstage before the Black Fashion Week show, on Oct 5, 2012 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
A model presents a creation by Adama during the Black Fashion Week show, on Oct 5, 2012 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
A model presents a creation by Adama during the Black Fashion Week show, on Oct 5, 2012 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
Models, wearing Adama Paris creation, wait in the backstage before the Black Fashion Week show, on Oct 5, 2012 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
Models, wearing Adama Paris creation, wait in the backstage before the Black Fashion Week show, on Oct 5, 2012 in Paris. -- PHOTO: AFP
PARIS (AFP) - A Senegalese-born French fashion designer realised a long-held ambition when she staged the first 'Black Fashion Week' in Paris aimed at bringing African talent to a global audience.
Adama Ndiaye launched the event to showcase the best the continent has to offer but dismissed criticism that it excluded others who were not black.
"'Why not a White Fashion Week?' some have asked. But Paris Fashion Week is already white!" said Ndiaye, who is behind the show's Adama Paris label and has organised Senegal's Dakar Fashion Week for the past decade.
"We wanted to simply promote beyond African borders designers who are well-known in Africa or in their country but who don't have access to the global market," she said, explaining that in Africa fashion was not yet seen as an industry in its own right.
