Скачать или смотреть Dakar Fashion Week makes the ocean its catwalk on Senegal’s coast

(7 Dec 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dakar, Senegal - 6 December 2025
1. Various models stand on a boat on the beach
2. Model walks by during fashion show
3. Various models stand on boats in the Atlantic Ocean during the final show of Dakar Fashion Week
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Ngorba Niang, Designer:
"(Fashion Week can offer) more visibility, let's say, because I think everyone in Senegal now knows what Fashion Week represents. It (Fashion Week) is everywhere, in fact, they organize it in France, Morocco, etc. So today, as Senegalese, we are very proud to show what our designers here can do."
5. People watching fashion show
6. Various models stand on boats in Atlantic Ocean during final show of Dakar Fashion Week
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Khaly Diagne, Spectator:
"I would have never thought this could have been done, but Dakar Fashion Week did it, Adama Paris and Almamy did it, it's incredible, it was truly a first."
8. Various models backstage at final show of Dakar Fashion Week
9. Various spectators watch final show from boats
STORYLINE:
Fashion shows almost universally conjure up images of a catwalk, but off the coast of Senegal’s capital Dakar Saturday, models were paraded in front of an audience on artisanal fishing boats, clinging onto ropes to keep them from falling over in the choppy waves.

This is the 23rd Dakar Fashion Week, founded by Senegalese designer Adama Ndiaye, better known as Adama Paris.

She launched the event in 2002 in an effort to bring attention to African fashion and culture, and it has since grown from a small gathering to a key fixture on the world’s fashion scene.

The 2025 edition was held under the theme “the ocean as a stage”, and lived up to the name - spectators were also able to view the show from fishing boats.

Though the stage was unconventional, Dakar has long been a leader in the African fashion scene, and Dakar Fashion Week is one of the oldest events of its kind on the continent. Senegal has a rich textile history dating back centuries.

The country has also been the springboard for many cultural movements that have taken root and spread across West Africa, from hip-hop to graffiti to streetwear.

Ngorba Niang, the founder of the Ngorbatchev Fashion House, said Fashion Week is well known by now in Senegal, and he believes it can offer more visibility for local designers. “Today, as Senegalese, we are very proud to show what our designers here can do,” he said.

Designers from around Africa took part in the larger Dakar Fashion Week programme, which included a show at the Turkish embassy and a show for young designers at Dakar’s Pullman Hotel.

Khaly Diagne is a fashion industry worker who spent many years living in Italy and came to watch the show on the beach.

"I would have never thought this could have been done, but Dakar Fashion Week did it, Adama Paris and Almamy did it,” he said, speaking of the fashion show held on fishing boats and referencing Adama Paris and one of her main collaborators, Almamy Lo. “It's incredible, it was truly a first."

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