Meet Me in Senegal

The electric streets and placid beaches of Dakar yield a poetic beauty and a vivid, textured wardrobe to match the mood

- DURO OLOWU

POETRY IN MOTION

In a city littered with tailoring ateliers and fabric and accessories shops, Dakar’s stylish locals are a sight for sore eyes. Whenever I visit from London, where I work as a designer, I always head downtown straight off the plane to experience the elevated gaze and the graceful posture of its boubou-clad women (and equally graceful men) of all ages—the scene on the street could almost be something from director Djibril Diop Mambéty’s iconic 1973 Senegalese film Touki Bouki.

It’s poetry in motion—whether the poets are outfitted in artistically embroidered and appliquéd guinea brocade robes and tunics or in sharply mismatched European fitted separates, their confidence is friendly and assured, never arrogant.