XULY.Bët

XULY.Bët designer Lamine Kouyaté takes an unusual approach to fashion: he prefers distinctive, individually made garments to those that are more easily reproduced. “It isn’t the point to make a collection of clothes that are the same, because people are all different,” he asserts. Kouyaté is best known for creations that he reconstructs from clothing found at flea markets, thrift shops, and low-end department stores. His ever-changing supply of raw materials results in one-of-a-kind clothing that has been perceived as a modern form of “couture.”

Kouyaté was born in Bamako, Mali in 1962. Due to political unrest, his family moved to Paris when he was 14, then on to Dakar, Senegal. Kouyaté later returned to France to study architecture, but his interest in rock and funk music—and more specifically in making clothes for his musician friends—led him to rethink his career choice. He soon became a pioneer of high fashion made from recycled clothing, beginning with the first line under his XULY.Bët label in 1992. While Kouyaté’s uninhibited approach to design is sometimes attributed to his lack of training in fashion, his adeptness at reworking the structure of existing garments suggests an enduring architectural sensibility.

Although recycling clothing is not uncommon—especially in Kouyaté’s native Africa—the designer’s style is unique in that it often features more than just minor alterations to garments. Clothes are torn apart and put back together in unlikely ways that belie their original purpose. Pantyhose may become a cropped, form-fitting jacket, for example, while cut-up sweaters form the squares of a patchwork skirt. Embellishments include screen-printing and the use of thick, brightly colored thread that draws attention to seams. Kouyaté’s work has been lauded as an adept and modern blend of African and European influence. He remains one few African designers to have achieved international success.