Valérie Ka (Fashion): “Creativity, making beautiful things is good, but you have to know how to sell them”

RFI : Valérie Ka, Hello. So what are the materials and textiles that your designers work on?

Valerie Ka : So, there’s a little bit of everything. You have designers who will work on fabrics, for example cotton. We had an Egyptian designer last year, who had worked on fabrics with embroidery, with red beads that we find in the Masai region. For example, we have a young designer called Sow, who is from Congo Brazzaville, who has reused, for example, bags that are often found in Africa. These are colored bags that we use, you know, for traveling, African mothers, they have that!

Multicolored?

Exactly, it’s plastic. But he managed to make a magnificent collection which was very successful during the fashion show. And then, we had a designer from Nigeria who worked with women who have a cooperative in Nigeria. And apparently, these women come from a family that survived the Biafran War. So, these are cotton fields which are cultivated, which are woven, dyed. And he made a wonderful collection too. So, it’s actually quite a story that is told in the fabrics that are made by these young designers.

I believe you also have a Moroccan designer who worked on Berber fabrics. Tell me.

Exactly, it’s Mina Binebine who is the 2022 winner. She’s a young 25-year-old stylist who does magnificent things. She had worked with recycled furnishing fabrics like velvet, so she made a whole collection with her recycled fabrics, buttons. And it’s just incredible, the result of what they do with the materials they collect.

Do you have designers who work on silk?

Yes, we have Éric Résina, a very great creator who does magnificent things, who is from Madagascar. So silk is fabric that he makes himself. Which is very rare, so it has high texture.

So he raises silkworms?

No ! But he also works with cooperatives that do it. And his particularity is that he makes the fabrics, so we have the material from the start, transformed into thread, then transformed by little hands who will do embroidery and who will make crochets.

And that creates a lot of jobs?

Exactly. All these women are cooperatives in Nigeria, they are women in workshops in Madagascar, or they are young people in Congo. We will recover the fabrics, we will also recover the bags from the waste so that we can transform them. So it’s a whole parallel economy that young creators create every year.

Valérie Ka, you are an Ivorian top model, you started with Alphadi

Exactly.

But you are also a businesswoman today, since you created your ready-to-wear brand and, since you want to make your 5 winners every year future African business leaders, how do you do that? do you take?

I hope in fact, it’s my dream. In fact, creativity is good, making beautiful things is good, but you have to know how to sell them. And I said to myself, how can I bring this knowledge to young African creators? So that’s how we contacted HEC, for the business-marketing-communication part.

The School of Advanced Business Studies in Paris?

Exactly. And when they have finished their course in Paris, the graduates also have online training with HEC for 6 months.

Is the world of fashion an easy world to enter?

I would say no, because when you try to do things a little more professionally, it’s quite complicated, because you have to have training.

Are there any codes to know?

Oh yes, it’s important. Because why don’t we become Agnès B, Chanel, Louis Vuitton and all that? Because there is a way of working, there are finishes, there is quantity, there are factories too. Because we don’t have the factories in Africa to be able to manufacture clothes. It’s starting, but all these infrastructures which are not put in place are slowing down the creativity of these young people a little.

Can fashion become an important economic sector on the continent?

Well, it’s about time. Because when we look at the richest man in the world, Bernard Arnault, as I often say, he sells bags and shoes. So at some point, we need to understand that it is important and that we need to support these young creators, that there is a structure, that there is training, that there is also the attention of governments, to be able to help them, these young creators.

So, should some countries give themselves the means to develop companies of the size of LVMH in Africa?

Exactly. Then, there is also the private sector, but if we already have this opportunity to learn and we train young people, as I often say, they have nothing to envy the West. These are young people who are completely uninhibited, these are colors, these are materials, these are things that you don’t find elsewhere, and that is a really very strong identity coming from Africa. So we must support them, we must help them.

Read alsoModeling: a profession of the future on the continent?

► Africa Fashion Up