Photographer Toby Coulson collaborated with renowned Senegalese fashion designer Oumou Sy in Dakar to capture her most distinctive garments. They selected various locations and timed the sunlight to complement Sy’s theatrical couture pieces.
The resulting series showcases Sy’s unorthodox designs against Dakar’s beige architecture and sandy streets. One photograph features a woven accessory enveloping a model in circular sculptural forms, while another presents a patchwork-style jacket so large that the wearer appears to be balancing on stilts, towering above rooftops.
Sy draws inspiration from her surroundings, working with materials such as plants, herbs, barks, and natural dyes, using both traditional and modern techniques. She describes herself as a “hunter and gatherer of things,” highlighting materials to express her creativity. In Senegalese culture, style and clothing are modes of expression, beauty, and power, and Coulson’s photographs document these traditions and values.
I take what I can and make it my own. I enjoy working with different materials, things that surround me, that I come across in my everyday life. I’m a self-proclaimed hunter and gatherer of things; I look for natural elements to work with [such] as plants, herbs, barks, and natural dyes, using either traditional or modern techniques. I choose a material and look for a way to highlight it. I’ve never learned to read and write, and so my fashion is the most important vessel for the expression of my creativity, she explains in an interview.
More info: Website, Instagram.
