Designer
© Photo: Djanie Eloi-Barbe, Dakar
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© Photo: Djanie Eloi-Barbe, Dakar
Oumou Sy 1952
born in Podor
lives and works in Dakar Oumou Sy designs and makes Haute Couture and Prêt-à-Porter fashion, jewellery and accessories. She is an accomplished dyer, weaver and embroiderer, uses all kinds of materials-from wicker-work and calabash to metal and vinyl-and combines traditional African patterns, fabrics and shapes with Western elements and motives to create original, sometimes elegant, sometimes spirited ironic outfits. Oumou Sy is a self-taught designer. She teaches at the École des Beaux Arts and is the head of 'Leydi', of the 'Ateliers de Stylisme et de Formation aux Arts et Techniques Traditionelles et Modernes du Costume et de la Parure en Afrique et en Occident' (which she founded herself) and of 'Métissacana', the first Internet Café in Dakar. In 1997 she founded the fashion week, 'Semaine Internationale de la Mode de Dakar', held every year in Dakar, and in 1998 she initiated, designed and organized the first 'Carnival of Dakar' which she continues to arrange every year. She has designed costumes and scenery for the theatre and many African films by directors Djibril Diop-Mambéty, Ousmane Sembène and Idrissa Ouédraogo. Since 1982, Oumou Sy has presented her creations in Africa and Europe. She had her first individual fashion show in New York in 1999, and introduced her designs for the first time in Germany at the EXPO 2000 show, 'Kings and Queens of Africa', where she mixed traditional tribal royal gowns with her own designs. In Amsterdam in 1998, Oumou Sy was awarded 1st Prize by the Prince Claus Foundation for her outstanding contribution to African fashion design and her commitment to building up local, national and international infrastructures for promoting African fashion design. Oumou Sy
30 rue de Thiong, Plateau, BP 6491, Dakar
www.metissacana.sn
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