Alphadi, fashion as a source of creativity, culture and development
Audio 03:00
Alphadi, fashion designer and president-founder of FIMA and Maria Afonso © Nicolas Doreau
By: Maria Afonso
3 min
Alphadi, fashion designer and founding president of the International Festival of African Fashion, FIMA, is our guest in 100% creation.
In 23 years of existence, FIMA has launched young designers, top models as well as craftsmen in jewelry and leather goods.
According to its founding president, Africa is full of young talents and fashion makes it possible to develop large-scale opportunities on this continent.
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When I travel I create, when I am at home I create. I am inspired a lot by everything that surrounds me, by what I had the chance to be: a crossbreeding, a mix between Tuareg, Arab, Bamana, Hausa, Zarma.
“
When I started my collection in 1982, I gave the name Alphadi as a tribute to my mother.
Alphadi which means lord, marabout, to sublimate beauty.
Alphadi sounds great.
It is in homage to my mother that I created the Alphadi brand ”,
declares
Alphadi, fashion designer and founding president of the International Festival of African Fashion, FIMA.
Seidnaly Sidhamed says ALPHADI has always known fashion.
His parents were in the textile industry.
For this artist at heart, this area, which he liked a lot, was not his family's priority.
After having obtained his Bac, he comes to France.
And it is in Paris where he studies tourism that he can finally love fashion, he meets celebrities like Paco Rabanne or Yves Saint-Laurent.
During the day he studies tourism and in the evening he devotes himself to fashion.
“Giving African fabrics its true values”
Back in Niger, he had a post at the Ministry of Tourism but it was only after the death of his parents that he allowed himself to develop his vocation as a designer, artist and fashion designer.
“
Since I really started to make fashion I started to travel to make big catwalks, I went everywhere to try to develop the culture, fashion or tourism of my product where I was going. .
I started to settle down to have studios, shops in countries like France, the United States, Ivory Coast, Morocco.
Work pays, it is true when we try to give African textiles its true values.
We want to show that Africa is capable and also a creative continent.
"
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Africa has incredible know-how
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Alphadi, nicknamed the “Magician of the Desert”, has always highlighted Africa in its plurality in its collections.
“
In each African country, there are about fifty ways of speaking, of eating, of dressing, of a hundred ways of creating, of tying the scarf, of putting on make-up, of showing this dimension of beauty, therefore, inspiration, work, creation is in me, every day.
My inspiration will never end because I am inspired by the continent where there are fifty-four countries.
Africa has incredible know-how.
African motifs are the genius that Europe uses today.
Africa must also be inspired by this to grow and earn money, ”
concludes Alphadi.
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