Among the 10 designers selected for the Accessories Price of the 33rd International Fashion, Accessories and Photo festival of Hyères, Villa Noailles.
Credits: Inès Bressand - Set design by ODD Matter
The AKAMAE collection of baskets resides upon the traditional skills of artisan weavers found in the north of Ghana where the designer lived for three months. She has combined them with her experience as an object and textile designer in order to create new forms and develop bags to be carried by hand, over the shoulder, or on the back. These accessories are principally made from straw which locally is called “elephant grass”. Its modesty offers a golden touch and a suppleness which allows it to be reworked once it has been woven, according to techniques borrowed from millinery, such as soaking and shaping. The shapes are formed by assembling simple geometrical bases (cone, cross, parallelepiped, semi-circle) which sometimes take on a wavy depth. The bag is then completed with large straps in black leather whose simplicity contrast with the delicate refinement and the craftsmanship. As graphical elements, these matte straps structure the bags as well as offering them a decorative dimension. The designer takes pleasure in confusing things by garnishing some of the bags with a black rabbit fur pocket which cannot be attributed to their region of production. Through this rich experience, she has managed to transpose a model of local production into a form of contemporary collective creation.
- Text by the Hyères Festival -