Luxury House Inspiration | Selly Raby Kane
Selly Raby Kane is inimitable. From her seminal work, to her perspective to her designs, which is a mix of her Senegalese heritage, a present modernity and a pop African futurism. The woman is incomparable. She has been received greatly internationally with the Queen of Neo Soul Erykah Badu wearing one of Kane’s design.
As far as she can remember she always wanted to be a fashion designer. Tailors would give her remnants of fabric which she would use to sew garments for her dolls. Her parents also supported and encouraged her passion by buying her a sewing machine. It should be stated that she comes from a very creative family (into the arts, jazz and culture).
However till 2007 she didn’t do anything fashion related and rather was studying something else in Paris. At the end of that term there was a delay of a month in getting home to Dakar, Senegal and during this time she felt a strong urge to draw designs. By the end of that month she had sketched a full collection.On her return to Dakar she had the collection made. She found someone to help finance, launch and support the line. In 2008 a talent show showed her she needed to be part of a collective. It was important that the archives of her mind was not separate from collections. Being a part of the collection was about the energy you push through a vehicle that allowed what needed to be done to get done. She became part of a collective called ‘Les Petites Pierres’ from 2008 (however it was not till 2012 when she met Anna Toure PR who did a great job getting her press like Vogue due to her work ethic and they’ve worked together since then) till 2014.
Twelve years later she has an inspiring collection archive and has had one of her designs on Erykah Badu. This was very special moment for Kane because she had always been a Badu fan. She is now part of the ‘Mus Du Tux’ collective. She believes collectives are good because it is a matter of putting forces together to form the creative. Her aim is to contribute to building brands. In terms of bringing forces together for creative purpose,
Selly Raby Kane was one of a handful of creatives from the continent of Africa to be choosen as part of the Design Indaba with Ikea. This Collaboration was centered on the rituals in our lives daily. She had used braiding heavily in her work before. So she took the art of braiding, which is a physical ritual in Africa to braid your hair (should you want to) and applied the braiding for her design with Ikea. Her design was a basket that looked like the cord structure were plaited hair braids. Ingeious
On asking her about how her designs feel modern, culturally African and futurustic all at the same time (case in point the ‘Baidy’ dress), Kane revealed that she is young African woman integrated into the world and that the mix of culture, the futurism and culture occurs because she is not at conflict with herself, nor does she feel any clashes between culture and fashion.
Her boutique is a feast for the eyes (see images above). First and foremost it has black text bedecking the whole space. She gave Painter and Plastician Alioune Badara Samb ( aka Lunelalame) free reign over whatever words he wanted to paint on the walls and floor. She wanted clients to feel immersed in her store by the automatical writing. Through the writing painted on the walls and floors, her choice of seating, and decoratove pieces we see the mix of pop culture, her heritage and a future modernism. With regards to her space (above the shop is her atelier) Kane says that when people come in, she wants them to have a space of irreverence, a space of humor, she wants them to feel that this is a space of community that was built and belongs to the community. People come in to discuss their designs, they sometimes use the upstairs atelier and show their designs.
Kane’s genius is realising that working within a community provides creative community which then in turn inspires her designs and then her customer.
Many thanks to Fashion Designer Selly Raby and Anna Toure PR.