Oumou Sy

Oumou Sy (* 1952 in Podor , Senegal ) is a Senegalese fashion designer . She lives in Dakar today .

Oumou Sy is one of the most important personalities in the African fashion world and is sometimes referred to as " Africa's Lagerfeld " or Senegal's Queen of Couture . She first became known for founding a school for fashion design in Dakar in the early 1980s. Today the Oumou brand is a small empire with fashion, art, theater and film projects and a hot spot. Her collections have been shown at major fashion shows in Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA; it also has its own stores in Geneva and Paris . At several film festivals she won awards for her film costumes; she also designs the wardrobe for the Senegalese singers Baaba Maal and Youssou N'Dour . Oumou Sy is an avowed illiterate woman . In 1997 she founded the annual Semaine Internationale de la Mode de Dakar (SIMOD). In 1998 she and two other African fashion designers received the main prize of the Prince Claus Prize for The Art of African Fashion .

Exhibitions

• documenta 12 , Kassel, 2007
• Hamburg Museum for Arts and Crafts , 2005
• ifa galleries, Stuttgart / Berlin, 2001
• Expo 2000 , Hanover

Web links

• Oumou Sy in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Articles about Oumou Sy (Engl.)