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Glittering Fashion Show In Niamey After Muslim Protests
by Dominique Ageorges
NIAMEY (AFP) - Police were out in force this weekend in the Niger capital of Niamey for a glittering African fashion festival violently opposed by Islamists who have called it satanic.
Amid a heavy police presence, some 2,000 people sat out on the sand near Niamey late Saturday to watch the highlight of the show, a fashion parade on a specially prepared site on the banks of the River Niger.
The International Festival of African Fashion (FIMA) has provoked the wrath of Islamists in this deeply religious country, who say it is satanic and will cause debauchery.
At least three people were seriously injured in two towns in clashes between protestors and police Thursday and Friday, but there were no reports of incidents Saturday.
The prime minister of Niger said that the fact there had been no problems at the festival "proved the government's determination to create the conditions to combat obscurantism."
Saturday's fashion parade was opened by the man behind the show, Niger-born Paris-based designer Alphadi, in the presence of the wife of Mamadou Tandja, the president of Niger.
On display were the creations of some 30 designers, including big international names like Yves Saint-Laurent and Jean-Paul Gaultier. Models paraded to the sound of traditional African music and even rap.
While nearly all the women in the audience sported traditional boubou dresses, those on the catwalk were testament to the vast and resolutely modern savoir-faire of African designers.
Senegalese designer Oumou Sy celebrated her native basketwork, attaching calabashes to costumes recalling women in rice fields.
Malian Fatim Mad‘in Bamako went for bright yellow flowers on a black dress topped with matching parasol and hat, and hairpieces worthy of creators like Jean-Paul Goude and Philippe Decouffle.
Amongst designers from outside of Africa, Paul Herve Elisabeth from Martinique made a strong impression with his preference for white dresses with tall matching hairpieces.
Bangladeshi designer Bibi Russel opted for simple silk designs in the brightest of colors.
Russian designers Seredin and Vassilyev were true to their iconoclastic image with Prussian jackets decorated with leopard skin and multicolored cocked hats.
Yves Saint-Laurent, who along with Gaultier sent his pieces to the show, closed the event in typical elegance - his models dressed in black and blue stepped out to the sound of the opera, while his last model sported a starry cape, echoing the stars in the African sky.
A radiant Alphadi, who joined in with a group of traditional African dancers, closed the three-hour show.
The show, which opened Friday, ends Tuesday.
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