Fashion Exhibition Connecting Afro Futures in Berlin: More than colorful clothing

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Ms. Paris, 17 years ago, you organized your first fashion week in Dakar. How did that happen?

Adama Paris: At that time I wanted to do something new, something African. My family is from Senegal. Much of what I learned came from the Western world because I went to school in France. There I learned to adapt and forgot my own culture. When I came to Senegal, I realized that I could not do what I wanted to do: tell the story of my own culture through fashion.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What was the problem?

Paris: The West is still setting the tone in fashion. From the West come the biggest fashion magazines, the biggest TV stations, the biggest fashion shows. That's why we still find it difficult to design our own African fashion and present it internationally. We have also spent the past 17 years rediscovering our culture and becoming more self-confident.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What did the Senegalese fashion scene look like back then?

Paris: We were among the first to make a fashion show in Senegal. At that time there was no publicity for fashion. We distributed billboards everywhere. We went to the outskirts, even the poorer areas, and held our shows there.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How did that happen to the audience?

Paris: That was a blast then. People had not seen anything like it. We soon had shows with 25,000 visitors.

photo gallery

14 pictures

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Today you also show in Paris, Geneva and Montréal. On television, you have your own fashion channel, which can be seen not only in Africa, but also in 13 European countries.

Paris: Actually, I wanted to be a designer. Today, many know me more as an activist. The fashion shows are something of an African dream to me. With that, I have become what I am.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: And that?

Paris: What we normally learn is: We all have to be the same. If you immigrate to a country, you have to integrate. A word I hate. Integrating always means disintegrating one's own culture. And I think that's wrong. What I have learned is: I can be black, African, different. And that's fine. I love France, I love Germany, I love to travel the world. But to love all that, I have to love myself first.

photo gallery

15 pictures

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Their fashion shows in Europe are called Black Fashion Week. Do not limit yourself with the label too much?

Paris: I do not think so, on the contrary. The Black Fashion Week has nothing to do with the skin color. This is a cultural movement. The Black Culture has been around since colonialism. For a long time we hid them, but some elements have long since arrived in the western world: jazz, blues, hip-hop or rhythm and blues, for example. At first, only black people did that. That was still a matter of skin color. Today there are singers like Justin Bieber or Eminem. The Black Culture has also spread as music in the West. Exactly the same I want to achieve with fashion.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How do you do it?

Paris: For my fashion, I work with textiles and weavers from Africa. My designs are international. I let myself be inspired by all the women I meet. I think about what they need for their lives. Because I want them to buy my things and land my clothes in their closet.

more on the subject

Visual Story Fashion in Africa

Design from AfricaThe dandies of Brazzaville

Fashion design from RwandaAfrica attracts

SPIEGEL ONLINE: That sounds more like a hard business than an African dream.

Paris: That's the way capitalism works. In this system, the fashion industry has developed in the West. We have to go there. Only then can we present ourselves to an international audience. I am a designer but also an entrepreneur. And if money and power are the means to get what we want - then I use them.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So you go with your shows in the fashion metropolis of Paris?

Paris: I also do my Black Fashion Weeks in Paris because I think we can be part of the Paris Fashion Week. Paris is tough. Even white fashion designers have a hard time accommodating there. But if you do not get something automatically, then you have to fight for it. I want to be admitted to the West. But I do not want to be like the West. The west is beautiful. But we are beautiful too.

"The West is beautiful, but so are we."

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How do you perceive beauty ideals in fashion today? If you go after your installation for the exhibition "Connecting Afro Futures", then hair plays a crucial role.

Paris: Beauty in the fashion world today usually means long, straight hair. So: European hair. In the big fashion magazines you hardly see any black people, at most one like Naomi Campbell. But even that has long, straight hair. As I grew up, I found my hair ugly. I remember a job interview in France. At that time, I was still a banker. "Could you comb your hair better for us?" they asked me. "Or at least even?" I could hardly believe that. I was a banker, had a doctorate. And they asked me for my hair? Therefore, I had portraits of myself made for the exhibition, with different hairstyles. Sometimes as a sexy girl, sometimes in Bollywood look. I want to show that we are not our hair. Our value is not measured by them.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What are the beauty criteria for your models?

Paris: For the past 17 years, I have never worked with agencies. We search on Facebook and Instagram. There we also look for Asian models, European models. When whites come to our shows for the first time, they often expect all the models to be black and wear Ankara clothes. But as proud as I am to be black, I reluctantly work only with blacks. We want the best of the best, no matter what skin color.