2023-06-16 22:05:30
Having become one of the obligatory passages at Pitti Uomo, the section S Style, which highlights the new generation of eco-responsible designers, was an opportunity to discover deeply committed young talents, leaders of truly sustainable projects. This season, the reference show for men’s fashion has selected ten labels, including the interesting work of Olooh Concept, from the Ivorian Kader Diaby.
The stylist, originally from Abidjan, lived abroad for a long time before returning to his native country, particularly in Europe and in Rabat, Morocco, where he graduated in management control and audit, before following photography training with the Klaym organization, in partnership with the Zurich University of the Arts. Passionate about photography, he collaborates with fashion magazines and the Number 8 Gallery in Brussels.
“I have always had a need for expression and, by dint of making outfits for my photo shoots, fashion has taken more place in my heart”, slips Kader Diaby, who gave up his job as a financial consultant with from Ernst & Young to found his own house, called Olooh, which means “our” in Senufo.
Created in 2018, put on hiatus during confinement, the brand was relaunched in 2021 around a workshop-showroom-boutique, located in the expat district of Abidjan, where four people now work with Kader Diaby. “Basically, I wanted to make clothes that suited me, comfortable, easy to wear and to put together with a touch of originality and that were at the same time adapted to the tropical climate”, explains this 32-year-old autodidact, who learned on the job by “documenting” herself and with the help of her seamstress mother.
Kader Diaby favors natural materials, such as linen, and organic dyes such as indigo. He wants to show “the chic and the Ivorian classic”, through timeless pieces with a minimalist design punctuated with certain details. His wardrobe, initially masculine – unisex, has since integrated women with the first models of dresses. Jackets, pants, shirts and other monochromatic garments show off beautiful cuts. They are cut from white cottons and linens, which are then dyed in a neutral palette. Everything is made in Côte d’Ivoire using local techniques. The ample and fluid pieces are sold between 180 and 435 euros, and designed to be able to continue to be associated with each other from one season to the next.
They are sometimes enhanced with decorations, such as this pigment which draws a bird in silkscreen on a shirt or these fabric leaves applied to a top. The brass and bronze buttons and jewels are hand chiseled from pieces of piping salvaged from the dump. For example, they come to rest on a blue coat, like swallows hovering in the sky. “I like clean clothes. I use clothing as a canvas, with details that tell a story,” says the designer, whose brand is also distributed through four e-commerce sites and the Aby Concept store in Abidjan. . A local business model of quality and respectful of the environment, which in a few years has reached financial equilibrium.
Were also present in the section S Style, the French Jeanne Friot and Steven Passaro, alongside the Italians Cavia and Dalpaos, the Indian Dhruv Kapoor, as well as the Danish labels Isnurh, Ukrainian Ksenia Schnaider, English Permu and South Korean Young n Sang. They all benefited from the support of the luxury group Kering, for the first time associated with Pitti Uomo which, through its Materials Innovation Lab (MIL) library of sustainable textiles, provided them with fabrics and materials to create certain pieces of their collection.
“We organized a workshop in April, where we explained to them the group’s strategy in terms of materials and sustainable development. We have associated each of them with eco-responsible materials or a particular manufacturing process”, tells us Caterina Tonda, manager in charge of sustainable development for ready-to-wear at Kering. “We were thus able to put together two emerging realities with, on the one hand, innovations that are not yet ready for the market and, on the other, the creativity of these young designers, who have been able to test these emerging technologies”.
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