Imane Ayissi founded his eponymous label in Paris in 2004. He is known for his glamourous collections which mix beautiful indigenous African textiles with classic French couture techniques and silhouettes. Ayissi was born in Cameroon in 1969 to champion boxer Jean-Baptiste Ayissi Ntsama and Julienne Honorine Eyenga Ayissi, the first Miss Cameroon. Ayissi credits his mother’s elegance with sparking an interest in clothes from a young age. He moved to Paris in 1992 to work as a dancer and then as a model for several fashion houses including Dior, Givenchy and Lavin. His time as a model had a strong impact on his career, with Ayissi noting that it was during this period: ‘I understood that fashion would be my way to tell African stories and show another version of African cultures.’

This ensemble comes from Ayissi’s Spring/Summer 2017 collection, entitled Asseulenn, meaning ‘crossing’. Ayissi wanted to use the collection to create a dialogue between African, Asian, and European cultures, playing with common motifs such as squares. For the collection, Ayissi brought together many different materials, from vintage kimono fabrics from Japan, kitas from the Ivory Coast, kente cloths from Ghana, all sourced from collectors. The ensemble comprises a Ewe kente coat, red cotton blouse and trousers. This was Ayissi’s first use of kente in a collection, and the oversized kente coat has been repeated in subsequent collections.