Feeling, as he said on a call, that “the word is kind of sick,” Lamine Badian Kouyaté—a man who has never been afraid to take a stand for what he believes in—staged his fall 2024 show in respectful silence. The show took place at Le Sentier, a neighborhood that was once the heart of the garment district, where typically people from all around the globe gather. It also lives in the designer’s mind as the birthplace of much loved Parisian brands of the ’80s and ’90s like “Dorothée Bis, Marithé + François Girbaud, Infinitif, Chevignon, Naf Naf, Sapon, City, La Soie de Paris, Morgan, Kokai, Sinequanone,” which he mentioned in the show notes. His own brand is part of that storied group (it was founded in 1991), and the cast included many second generation members of his chosen family.
In this collection Kouyaté revisited some of his label’s core elements, namely, “the prints, the color, and the recycling (note the spiced soccer jerseys and the Hôtel du Sentier workwear).” The designer works with a silk-screener to make the prints that cover stretch dresses with their signature red-stitched seams. This lettering looked freshest on denim—especially notable was the “stealth” version, which was black ink printed on dark blue denim—and the matching maxi-skirt and top sets. Kouyaté associates this skirt length with memories of his older brothers and their interest in the American Civil Rights and Anti-War movements of the late ’60s and ’70s (where protest signs were notably printed with large text, too.) Accordingly, the designer titled the collection “Make Love Not War.”
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