It’s been 30 years since Lamine Badian Kouyaté founded Xuly.Bët. Like the proverbial flower that grows through the crack of a city sidewalk, the brand and its founder remain resourceful, indefatigable, and hopeful, qualities that are manifest in the fall collection through the palette, prints, and one-off upcycled pieces. “First of all, we’re trying to bring some light in the dark moment,” said Kouyaté on a call.
The designer, who once had a studio in a disused building in the 18th arrondissement, now works from a neglected brutalist structure in the banlieue of Ivry-sur-Seine, which he describes in the collection film as a forgotten periphery of Paris with youthful residents. The designer can be counted among them; after all these years Kouyaté maintains a sense of wonder and discovery.
As the new collection came together it became an homage to his late mother, a doctor, who collected Russian dolls and enjoyed Quality Street chocolates at the end of a long and tiring day. Pieced leggings in metallic pink speak to the gleaming perfection of candy wrappers; the nesting dolls are there in layering (the pink raincoat is a shell) and volume (the faux-fur chubbies). Kouyaté didn’t break new ground with this uplifting collection, but this might work in the designer’s favor. Not only is his brand being introduced to millennials and Gen Z, it’s also being exposed to retailers that are looking to highlight Black talent but might not be familiar with the label’s signature red-stitched stretch pieces, looks made from upcycled sports jerseys, or Kouyaté’s way of using African wax prints on sporty silhouettes. (Xuly.Bët is one of the labels represented in Nordstrom’s Black_Space program.)
The look book opens and closes with body-con pieces. Kouyaté’s interest in stretch and comfort is longstanding: He’s been playing with the second-skin look for decades, both as a form of protest against conservatism, and as a way of being “more joyful, to express something lively—the body is something that we can celebrate, not hide,” he says. Kouyaté’ remains a rebel with a cause: The reflective material in the fall collection is upcycled from those potent symbols of opposition, gilets jaunes.
