Southern Africa... this season [2011 spring/summer] Vilebrequin takes us into the thick of a thrilling safari. Amidst bird calls you see landscapes saturated with a rich palette of endless colors and lights that range from the paleness of dawn over the still savanna to the incandescence of the sun setting on the Okavango delta. It is a journey ripe with sensations.Do you know the legend of little guinea fowl? Little guinea fowl was a painter whose gray-black plumage studded with tiny white sparkles was a source of pride that caused envy among all the animals of the savanna. One day a leopard came to find him: “little guinea fowl, could you paint me a coat as handsome as yours?”
In exchange for a few worms from an antelope that had been hunted down by the leopard and buried not far from his workshop, little guinea fowl created the leopard’s sumptuous spotted fur. Next the hyena came calling. But the devious hyena did not hold up her end of the deal. Little guinea fowl, furious to have been cheated, tossed his bucket of paint on the hyena’s head, which is why today’s hyenas are so ugly...
Just like the talented little Guinea fowl of Namibia, Vilebrequin has designed next summer’s swimsuits: Cape town’s fur seals, the elephants of the Namibia desert, giraffes from the Tanzanian plains, majestic hundred year old baobab trees, and of course, the Namibian guinea fowl.
Around the bend of a trail we head for the villages of Ndebele, famed for their pictorial art, to hear even more legends whispered around a campfire. We gather inspiration not only from the wall paintings that decorate their huts which only woman are allowed to create, but also from their pagnes, a textile crafted from “wax” fabric which dates to the arrival of the first Europeans in western Africa.
Vilebrequin: a collection designed like a voyage of discovery through the African bush...
Enjoy the image gallery here.
Photos & text Copyright Vilebrequin.
