Photo: Geoffroy Van der Hasselt / AFPSource: AFPImane Ayissi is on a mission to put authentic African textiles in the spotlight but faces an uphill battle as a pioneer African couturier at Paris Fashion Week. "These (foreign) fabrics killed the economy of real African textiles and their history. "African fashion is a very dynamic sector with a bustling creative ecosystem," UNESCO's Toussaint Tiendrebeogo told AFP. Ayissi was the first sub-Saharan African to join the Paris Fashion Week line-up in 2020. But he admits it is tough to survive as an independent designer, especially since he joined Paris Fashion Week just as the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
