Imane Ayissi

Imane Ayissi was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon and has worked for years as a model, a dancer, an actor with film and stage credits and a designer.

Imane Ayissi creates refined collections with a delightful mixture of materials and accessories. He presented his eighth collection Vogue Afrique at the Buren Cirque in Paris in September 2002.

"I started to design very early. I used to cut rags and join cloths. My auntie offered me a sewing machine and I started to make dresses for my mother and my sister. I learnt from nothing, I didn't follow any course of design. When I create, I like to tell a story, to mix movement and dance. I like theatricality. In my collection Eternity, I told the evolution of clothes and men."

His inspiration comes from

"women, daily life, and Africa. Africa is a spring of wealth for me, but I don't want to impose my culture. I chose to live here in France because people understand my creations better than in Africa, but one cannot impose its own culture. That is what African creators generally do not understand. They overburden their dresses. Thus, they have this label of African fashion. People think that's nice, but for an African woman only. I want anybody to be able to wear my dresses, without the impression being disguised. One must keep one's own culture, but one must also adapt, and realise that we cannot live here the same way we do in Cameroon".

Imane prefers subtlety. He mixes very European models and dresses, and African jewels. Women who wear his dresses are "rather chic, smart, but both African and European. And they want unique models. I never make copies."