A Senegalese designer could be taking legal action after French
brand YSL debuted a clutch bag she says ripped off her own.
Sarah Diouf said she spotted Yves Saint Laurent’s “perfect
replica” of her Tongoro label’s Mburu statement bag after perusing YSL’s
designs from Paris Fashion Week Thursday, March 2. A day later, she
tweeted about getting a lawyer, seeming to indicate she might take YSL to
court.
“This
is our bag. … our signature accessory,” Diof wrote of the cultural
appropriation on OkayAfrica Friday, March 3. “And
there is no chance they could have seen it elsewhere because where else have
you seen a 10×60-centimeter-long baguette bag before?”
Diof, who launched the African-made Tongoro brand in
2016 to generate textile business in the western region of the continent, said
she presented the template for the bag last year to colleagues, who dismissed
the idea that it would become the next en vogue item.
“We all know trends come and go, but when it comes to something
that never came from anywhere else but yourself, you feel robbed from inside,”
the originator wrote of YSL stealing the item inspired by the “hustling spirit”
of Dakar, Senegal. “And that’s a feeling I have never experienced before.”
Diof said the Mburu design, which means “bread” in the
Wolof language, came from the young Senegalese men who wake up every day
to earn a living however they can.
“Youth employment in Senegal is a real issue,” Diof wrote.
“Foreigners come here and see all these young guys on the streets trying to
sell them anything, and it’s not that they’re are not educated, but there
aren’t enough job positions to fill. Yet, you see them every morning, smiling,
running, fighting for their dollar, selling cashews, toys, fruits or phone
credit because to hustle is to keep going despite the events.”
“It is so necessary for me to claim and reclaim every piece of
culture and story I am fighting for the world to see,” she said. “My company is
small, but my vision is large and I am working way too hard to let this
go. Am I big enough to fight against a fashion institution like YSL? I may
not be, but my voice is, and I have to use what I have to make a statement that
won’t stay unnoticed.”
YSL has yet to comment on the matter.
Read more: http://atlantablackstar.com/
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