Nigeria has one, Ghana has one, other west african nations have one, and now Sierra-Leone is having one or so they say. What I do know is that, I am continually meeting a collective of people who are culturally and visually hungry, how and where do we start, always the 1million dollar questions.
Style Market is an initiative put together by two non-Sierra-Leonean women with an appreciation for Sierra-Leone and the immense talent scattered in this land we love. Its starting off small, the group of vendors/designers are ones that cater to a certain clientele, more expat and upper middle-class group of Sierra-leoneans. Present amongst the mix of vendors that were present at Style Market were: Madame Wokie, Vivid Emporium, Salone Style (a new accessory line created by Style Market organizers), Amaani, some local vendors i don't quite know, and a couple of expats who work with local tailors to make African clothing that land on forums like vogue.
To be fair, we usually have 'fairs' at the National Stadium where local and more common arts and crafts, conventional africana styles, materials, artists gather to show case and sell their products. We also have Ghanian fairs, Pakistan Fairs among others, usually the promo's for those fairs always get to me after the fact, but they are in bigger public spaces and often spread over a couple of days. This further reiterates the point that, Style Market, from the advertising to the selection of vendors caters to a niche market, its not a bad thing, its just a thing that has peaked my interest. The basis is, every vendor works with local materials and tailors, some vendors are 'building capacity' and sell their pieces based on developmental principles (usually by expats), and other designers are young, educated fairly privileged Sierra-Leoneans who seek to reach a more diverse international market both at home and abroad.
Some of the pieces have me interested, like the Salone Style collection (see blow). They are well designed, from the actual products to the tags, i like it all. The template for the designs are apparently done by a Danish woman and the actual constructing of the pieces by Prison Women in freetown. The belts you see below are made with Africana materials and rope, very hippster, very neo-liberal Americana. My favorite is the rhetoric, "capacity building" and the credit goes to the Capacity builder who happens to be white and non-Sierra-leonean. Exposure is everything and its quite cliche that its always the westerner that will more than often receive the acclaim in their quest to build capacity and provide local african artists with the 'proper' skills that highlights their 'creativity'. -
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I am definitely purchasing some pieces the second time around, and i look forward to seeing how this intiative builds itself. The lesson here is this: believe in the beauty and purity of your own story to want to be able to tell it yourself, on your on terms.
fambul dem this is how we do...
