Part of the Project
Aïssa Dione’s textiles seamlessly blend a traditional hand woven Senegalese technique with a technological edge.
Traditionally, Senegalese weavers produce a fabric of 15 to 20cm in width, which can often be an obstacle for the furniture industry. To adress this issue, Dione convinced traditional weavers to make the technological leap and move to the minimum width of 90cm. This then allowed them to develop the business of furnishing fabric.
To broaden the textile product range in Senegal, I recovered looms from France, which allows for an industrialised and diverse production, offering up to 140cm wide textiles today, says Dione.
The quality of African cotton fibers associated with raffia, abaca fiber or other authorities, the use of natural dyes and hand weaving, the wealth of patterns created by changing traditional patterns, tailor- made and the level of finish can produce a very high end product sought by leading brands such as Hermès.
Dione's Mandjaque hand woven textile was showcased as part of Design Indaba Expo’s Africa is Now exhibition under the theme “Africa is Tradition Reinvented”, which looked at how African designers interpret ancient vocabularies of form, material and craft into a new visual language, creating African icons anew.
