Cocoa catwalk: sacks are sweet for Ivorian designer

Tag : Sports Waistcoats

It was her father, a tailor-turned-cocoa planter, who gave herfirst sewing machine, a model dating back to 1952.
And for the last five years, this sewing-school graduate has beenturning out eye-catching outfits made from the jute sacks used toship Ivory Coast's top export - cocoa.
From her humble shop in the popular Treichville suburb of theeconomic capital Abidjan , Mai designs, cuts and fits clothes for men and women that use thenatural beige colours and coarse fibre of cocoa and coffee sacks.
Normally stuffed to bursting with the cocoa beans that make Ivory Coast the world's No. 1 grower of the source of chocolate, Mai'screations are worn by a growing clientele of celebrities, artistsand musicians, some even from abroad.
"Ivory Coast's economy is based on agriculture, especiallycocoa and coffee. So I decided to promote these crops by creatingthese fashion designs," said Mai, whose real name is MaimounaCamara Gomet.
"For me, it's a way of drawing the whole world's attention tococoa and coffee," she said.
Proud to wear her own designs, she sports a beige cut-off top witha frayed fringe, made from a jute sack, over blue jeans, a tapemeasure draped around her neck.
Her creations -- for both men and women -- include skirts, tops,trousers, shirts, waistcoats as well as caps, bags and accessories,mostly in the natural beige of the washed jute sackcloth, butsometimes also dyed darker brown or blue.
"PRODUCT OF IVORY COAST"
Her models say the "sack clothes" look good withtraditional jewellery and ornaments, such as the cowrie shells thatwere the common currency of the West African coast during pastcenturies of the Atlantic slave trade .
Mai buys the sacks -- some stamped with the words "Product ofIvory Coast, Cocoa" -- from warehouses at Abidjan's bustlingport. The jute material is washed and cut at her Treichvilleworkshop, where a wax mannequin is used to help with fittings.
"I had this idea from when I was still at sewing school in1987. Then I opened my own workshop in 1996 and I first launchedthese kind of designs in 2003 during a fashion contest at Divo (inthe south of Ivory Coast)" said Mai, who has severalassistants at her shop.
"My father was a tailor and he made jackets for the colonialsettlers," she said, referring to Ivory Coast's former Frenchcolonial masters.
"Then he became a coffee and cocoa planter," she added.
Mai hopes that her sack fashion designs can serve as an attractive,enduring advertisement for her country's best known products --cocoa and coffee.
"That was the livelihood of our parents," she said.
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(Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Clar Ni Chonghaile)