Mossi Traore is the only
French designer in the official Paris fashion week line-up to operate outside
the chi-chi boulevards of the capital, staying faithful to the mixed suburb
where he grew up.
For more snobbish Parisians, the “banlieues” — including commuter towns
like Villiers-sur-Marne — conjure images of urban riots and drab tower
blocks, not the obvious setting for a luxury fashion label.
But Traore, who grew up here as one of seven children to Malian immigrants
— his father a rubbish collector and his mother a cleaner — is proud of his
“made in the banlieue” couture.
He was back on the catwalk on Tuesday for his latest Paris Fashion Week
show, another sophisticated collection of his trademark flowing drapes and
pleats.
A few days earlier, he gave AFP a tour of the “beautiful chaos” of his
atelier — located on the second floor of a nondescript building in
Villiers-sur-Marne, squeezed between a job centre and a youth club.
“I like to navigate between Paris and the suburbs,” he said.
“The inspiration is just as strong when I’m here, in the heart of my
neighbourhood as when I’m in Paris in the galleries and museums, or travelling
abroad.
“I want to restore the image of the banlieues and all my brothers here. I
love the cultural mix.”
Training academy
Traore’s dreams as a youngster were focused more on football than fashion,
until a moment of revelation at 18 when he saw an exhibition of Japanese
designer Yohji Yamamoto’s work.
After some tricky early years, he set up his own label in 2017. Three years
later, he won the top prize of the National Association for the Development of
the Fashion Arts, and joined the Paris Fashion Week line-up.
Traore wants other locals to follow in his footsteps, and has set up a
training school alongside his workshop, which he dreams could one day be the
fashion equivalent of Barcelona FC’s fabled football training academy, la
Masia.
“From the start, we took people who had never done any sewing, who had
applied just like that. But I had a blast and decided to make it a real
diploma course,” he said.
There were immediate successes, with one of his first students winning an
LVMH graduate prize, and others joining Chanel, Dior, Pierre Cardin and
others.
Busying over an organza bustier, one of the current crop, 26-year-old
Zouleha Mandzomana, is all praise for Traore.
“He really tries to push us to our limits and not stay in our little
suburbs settling for whatever,” said Mandzomana, who dreams of joining Chanel,
one of the houses that supports the school.
As for Traore, he dreams of the opposite, of one day bringing the fashion
world to him — of seeing President Emmanuel Macron and Vogue supremo Anna
Wintour on the front row of a show in his neighbourhood.
“With all these debates in France about immigration and blah blah blah… I
want to show that there’s also a positive side to immigration, that the
banlieue can be a laboratory for talent and creativity.”(AFP)
