Models stepped on to a Paris runway last week wearing sculptural gowns in African textiles by Imane Ayissi – the first and still the only designer from sub-Saharan Africa to take part in Paris's haute couture shows.
Ayissi's Autumn/Winter 2026-2027 collection "fused sculptural elegance, artisanal mastery and cultural storytelling into a personal vision of contemporary couture", wrote Jeanne-Marie Cilento, editor-in-chief of Design Art magazine. "His work has always existed at the intersection of cultures: not as a contrast between African heritage and European technique, but as a sophisticated dialogue between two creative worlds." Such recognition didn't come easy. "I have been fighting for 28 years," Ayissi told news agency Reuters in 2020 when, aged 52, he first broke into the closed circle of Paris couture houses, after repeated rejections from the governing Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. "This time, it worked." He insists this fight wasn't just about personal ambition, but helping promote black culture. "I am African. I wear the jersey, I am black," he told RFI. "It's a great source of pride for me, for the whole of Africa, for Africa's friends and for all black people. It was time."
