Dakar Fashion Week Targets City's Working Class

Law student Aminata Kande stepped out in a $25 blue wax print dress to watch lanky models storm a makeshift runway wearing pieces that cost ten times that amount.

Dakar Fashion Week, an 11-year-old institution birthed in the posh hotels of this West African culture hub, took its act to Guediawaye, one of the most downtrodden neighborhoods of this sea facing capital. While organizer Adama Ndiaye affectionately described the area as "the 'hood," the northern suburb has repeatedly been the scene of violent riots over problems ranging from power cuts to seasonal flooding in this nation that consistently ranks in the bottom tier on global development reports.

The show was part of a six-day event featuring 18 designers, seven from Senegal and others from as far away as Germany and Brazil. Shows were scheduled to be held in three different locations throughout Dakar.

Ndiaye said she hoped staging a show in a working-class suburb would make high fashion as accessible to students like Kande as it is for the wealthy.

Culled from OMG

 Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @simplysamad for more exciting gist, photos, interviews, reviews, jokes, quotes and other entertaining content | BB pin: 267F2633