Imane Ayissi Spring/Summer 2026 at Paris Couture Week

Imane Ayissi Spring/Summer 2026 / SS26 at Paris Couture Week entitled BISSAKARAK

“In Ewondo, one of the languages spoken in Cameroon and the mother tongue of Imane AYISSI, BISSAKARAK means scribble, first draft, that suspended moment when the hand tries something. It is in this exquisite sketch that a collection is born. On a sheet of paper, then on a mannequin, Imane AYISSI lovesnothing more than this fragile yet exhilarating in-between stage of the creative process. The search for a silhouette, then volumes, discovering how fabrics move and come alive on the body.

For Imane AYISSI, this process of research echoes a familiar practice: the way in Africa of wrapping oneself in fabric, not seeking the perfect finish, but rather the effect produced. The garment – the loincloth – is always in motion, evolving, never static. Every day, it offers the wearer the possibility of re-creation. It is this gesture that Imane AYISSI celebrates in Imane Ayissi SS26 / Spring/Summer 2026 collection.

Continuing a theme that is dear to her, draping, pleating and different tying techniques become the quintessence of this idea. Imane AYISSI explores the multiple possibilities – evoking Ancient Greece as well as African chiefdoms,without omitting a few subtle nods to those she has always admired -Madeleine Vionnet and Madame Grès. The kente cloth of Ghana, the raffia of Madagascar, the woven loincloths of Nigeria, in their pas de deux with silk faille and Gazar, tell the same story: the possibility of becoming again after having been. Textiles, like colours, offer ever-renewed metamorphoses.

In 2024, at the MOMA in New York, standing in front of some of Rothko’s paintings, which he is seeing for the first time, Imane AYISSI is struck. The soft edges of the painter’s coloured rectangles seem to let the colours escape. Some of the silhouettes are inspired by the energy and depth of these colours, which also defy limiting norms. Imane AYISSI affirms here a way of creating that is always alive, always in motion.”

Words by Emmanuelle Courrèges & Imane Ayissi