MONTREAL, CANADA HOSTING SECOND EDITION OF BLACK FASHION WEEK IN MAY

After a successful first edition of Black Fashion Week in Paris, organizer Adama Ndiaye, founder of Adama Paris Fashion Events, decided to spread her vision of revealing “the cultural richness of the black diaspora” in Montreal.
There was a time when black fashion was not associated with “high fashion,” but rather only considered as “urban wear.” Now, with the success of names such as Eki Orleans, Ozwald Boateng and iconic textiles from Vlisco, African-American designers have truly found a voice on international runways.
From May 15 to 17, the largest city in Canadian province, Montreal city will host Canada’s first Black Fashion Week. Montreal’s Saint Jean-Baptiste Church will be transformed into a runway, showcasing creations by 15 prominent African designers such as Patrick Asante (Ghana), Gilles Touré (Ivory Coast), Jedda Kahn (U.S.) and Canada’s very own Joseph Helmer.
While celebrities such as Solange Knowles and Gwen Stefani are known for their love of “Afro-pop” garments, Ndiaye said the black fashion industry can benefit from a little more star power, since famous personalities have the ability to “launch a career with just one appearance.”
Unlike in the West, where designers such as Yves Saint Laurent and Isabel Marant receive financial support from their communities, Ndiaye said in Africa, creative minds suffer from a lack of high-level education for designers as well as subsidies and scholarships.
“We need investors to allow us to participate in the fashion events that count,” she says. “Without the means, no designers can compete in this jungle that is the fashion world, even if they are very talented.”
So to change this, she invited the “Chambre syndicale de la haute couture,” which is “the regulating commission that determines which fashion houses are eligible to be true haute couture houses” to the Paris shows.
‘We clearly have this problem of representation in the major institutions of global fashion’
“While talking to the director, he told me that there’s never been a black or African student in the school — that’s the very school that had Yves Saint Laurent and other big names in fashion as their students,” she says. “So we clearly have this problem of representation in the major institutions of global fashion.”
Ndiaye says her pan-African shows will introduce the audience to an array of talented and influential designers and models from Mozambique, Cameroon, Angola and the U.K. The pieces will reflect the influence of African trends by combining bold and colourful traditional fabrics such as Kente cloth with softer fabrics such as cotton, satin and lace for dresses, skirts and suits. The shows will also include ready to wear brands for men and women, as well as limited edition high fashion pieces.
 “His warehouse is very mixed between African traditions and also more European modernism,” he says. “It is very colourful and quite elegant at the same time and it is also very novelty in terms of the shapes and the silhouette.”