Dubai, UAE, July 26, 2016: Looking at Seydou Keita's photos of 1950's/60's Mali, the Sportmax team muses about the birth of modern life in Africa surrounded by a dying tribal era. The images show stylish men looking smart in their pin striped suits with polished shiny shoes, flanked by proud tribes women dressed in feminine bold checks and stripes. Such beautiful images show so clearly two eras intertwined before the wave of consumerism took over. In these times, when technology advances daily and life races forward the team pauses to think about a time when both artisan workmanship and technological advancements intermingled. AFRICA IS FOR:
Raw Texture: Woven and interlaced leathers. Crinkled and crushed fabrics: cotton, hemp, linen, and uneven hems. Tribal mark making: Torn paper prints, reminiscent of naive leopard markings on a crisp cotton trench coat. Simplistic thumb prints create a playful dot pattern on light silks. Hand drawn crayon stripes follow the form. DECONSTRUCTION IS FOR:
Utilitarian decoration: externalised construction, silk bindings on a soft hand stitched doubles, hand and machine contrast, zigzag and blanket stitching. Raw seams. Reusing: patching, mending. WORKWEAR IS FOR:
Authentic details: buckled tabs ties on an inky blue suede coat. Chunky metal zippers and button down plackets.
Functional beauty: utilitarian indigo blues, bold ticking stripes and woven chambray and denim effects.
Conformity: buckles and the laces on a flat woven Oxford. FEMININITY IS FOR:
Form: the corseting seaming on a cotton drill hour glass shaped jacket, the rounded shirt tail splits to expose thigh, the graphically cut high heel to a thinly strapped sling back.
Fluidity: movement and drape, the ties that's knot softly around the neck and shoulders. ACCESSORIES:
Shoes mostly monochrome, have a 1970's "smart" feeling. Masculine with their broad buckled straps, yet feminine with graphically cut sculptural heels. Some intricately hand woven to create a cross hatched effects, others with boldly contrasting straps and toe caps. COLOURS:
Work-wear blues and crisp whites are softened by powdery peaches and sweet apricots.
Raffia black and calico cream are a graphic backdrop, to this fresh Spring palette.
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