09/02/2015
Gambia Fashion Night 2013
by Joy S. Buchanan
Gambia Fashion Night 2013 took off on 30th November at The Kairaba Beach Hotel, The Gambia, West Africa, on an outdoor runway in the landscaped grounds of this splendid hotel. This first class event aimed to be bigger and bolder than the 2011 show at the Sheraton Hotel setting the pace for the future. Arriving guests were welcomed by a cultural group.
The sensational evening was graced by the presence of the beautifully dressed and much loved Madam Isatou Njie-Saidy, Vice-President of The Republic of The Gambia as well as Cabinet Ministers, the Nigerian High Commissioner with delegation, Ambassadors and other dignitaries. This was an occasion that drew international personalities, complimenting the many attractions of The Gambia as a tourist destination and giving potential investors an opportunity to familiarize themselves with a conducive environment favouring trade and commerce.
The leading designers showing their collections were the legendary Agatha Ruiz de la Prada from Madrid, Spain, the avante garde Filip Roth from Cracow, Poland, and the trend-setting Adama Paris from Paris, France. The evening was enhanced and enlivened throughout by musical entertainment in the form of the Senegalese Tabou live band, racy backing tracks, Gambia’s gifted and promising artists, and the talented, multicultural solo artist, David Jay from Denmark. The tailor’s competition added suspense and spice by introducing a mix of designs from fantastic to traditional costumes and a lucky winner of the Emporium Creative Award. The event was brightened up by an art exhibition by MJ Saloon and rounded off with an enjoyable and relaxing VIP After Party at the Coconut Residence.
The initiator and executive producers Joachim Zielesch and Rebecca Riley Bensouda have organized another dazzlingly successful international event, giving great pleasure to the participants and their audience and, hopefully, a taste of many more to come.
Agatha Ruiz de la Prada needs no introduction. From Madrid, Spain, she has influenced fashion and design worldwide and established her own internationally renowned brand. She was delighted by her invitation to The Gambia, accepted immediately and was amazed and enamoured by her encounters and the beauty of the models. She works with natural materials such as 100% cotton and silk, loves hearts and stars and choreographs them into a multiplicity of patterns in the primary colors and her favorite fuchsia. The outfits shown in The Gambia were made from hand-painted cloth produced by a variety of techniques and represented a flashback to the way she started out in her early career. This colorful display offered fashion for everyone with simple costumes that were attractive and very wearable. The scene conjured up a holiday mood, a feeling of summer time and carefree city girls. Timeless fashion awakening happy memories of ice cream cones, warm weather, warm water and rubber rings. A demonstration of Madam de la Prada’s wealth of experience, the boldness of simplicity and the masterful use of colours and patterns, evoking a fantasy of peace and harmony and leaving the onlooker greatly enriched. (www.agatharuizdelaprada.com)
Filip Roth is a talented designer on the rise. Based in Cracow, Poland, he saw the Gambia Fashion Night as a challenge and an opportunity and so he arrived to present a collection of unisex outfits that allow maximum space for individual interpretation. He presented an earlier collection of experimental fashion in a movie at the Arts & Fashion week 2011 in Toronto, another collection at the Heineken Open Air Festival 2012, again at FashionPhilosophy Fashion week 2013 in Poland and also at the Warsaw Fashion Film Festival 2013. His creations are fashioned from microfiber, leather, wool, jacquard and cotton. He captivated his audience in The Gambia with a fast moving, dynamic presentation of street style and avant-garde outfits in black, orange, dark red and gold, some with wooden or metallic decorations, worn by bare-foot models with white chalked feet and faces moving swiftly and vibrantly to create a futuristic all-round experience. (www.filiproth.com)
Adama Paris showed a wonderful collection at the 2011 Gambia Fashion Night and was once again a welcome guest. She has more than a decade of experience and works from her studio in Dakar in neighbouring Senegal. She was nominated one of the best African designers in 2013 by Forbes Africa and is the founder and producer of 11 editions of Dakar fashion and two editions of Black Fashion Week Paris, Montréal and Prague. The collection shown at the Gambia Fashion Night was inspired by young, contemporary African women as “fashion made by Africans in Africa”. The fabrics were “pagne tissé Sénégalais” and the outfits boldly colorful, bright, joyful and elegant and an inspiration to women worldwide. With panache and vivid imagination she created different cuts, lines and designs from the same material using contrast to generate a casual street style focused on simplicity, contrasting prints, a little glitter but no jewellery. Fashion for young, busy people enjoying life. Adama Paris would be delighted to welcome new, talented designers to her shows in Dakar or Paris. (www.adamaparis.com)
Tailors Competition
The tailors competition gave 11 Gambian and Senegalese tailors an opportunity to showcase two outfits each, one African and one free style. The aim was to motivate, encourage and promote young designers. The outfits ranged from traditional dress with fanciful decorations for festivals and ceremonies through simple and pretty to really exotic. Overall the display was colourful, creative, imaginative and unique. The competition was judged by Agatha Ruiz de la Prada. All the outfits were fantastic but it was Ousainou Fatty who went home with the Emporium Creative Award.
Acknowledgements:
Poster by Andre Both,
fashion, creation on the poster by Agatha. Ruiz. de la Prada
Producers Amer Atwi, Eduardo Romero, Andrzej Wyszynski and specialist teams.
Presented by Comium and Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS) with live transmission by GRTS.
Main sponsors: Comium, GRTS, Gambia Bird Airlines, Coconut Residence.
Partner: The Kairaba Beach Hotel
Photographers: Alhagie Manka, Jessica Kallon
Musical Highlight
David Jay came all the way from Denmark to perform at Gambia Fashion Night 2013. He is a passionate and dedicated artist with a mission and no newcomer to the Gambian scene. He was up on the runway at the 2011 GFN as one stage on his Africa tour. He is a Danish-born Gambian who feels at home on the Smiling Coast and senses an affinity with its peaceful and natural environment. He has already released a number of original tracks (collaboration with Trackmansion and Warner Music) and is at ease working with other artists. He is developing his career at a steady pace and has created a musical sound that appeals to a large audience at home and abroad.
David sings most of his material in English, writes his own lyrics, chooses his own style, and is proud to be an internationalist. His message is in his lyrics and his belief is that Africa is the future. He feels that he has a duty to Gambia as his second homeland and that all artists are ambassadors for their countries.
David’s declared mission is to close the gap between Europe and Africa and to enhance a right understanding between the two continents. He wants to untwist the twisted and inform the misinformed. Europeans should strive for a proper understanding of Africa and its level of development, and appreciate that it is woken up, emerged to be vibrant, dynamic, exciting and explosive. Likewise, let Africans interpret the European scene more globally and with discernment.
At the Gambia Fashion Night 2013 he performed with DJ Easy Boy, a Gambian DJ based in Sweden who does scratching, bit mixing and blending. They performed together for the first time at GFN here in The Gambia.
What’s going to happen next? The answer is new music and new videos, hopefully taking the opportunity to shoot them in The Gambia.
Sure-fire - Africa’s the Future
