The sneakers r injected with African-inspired design.Got yours?
Youssouf and Mamadou Fofana command the Paris-based brand Maison Chateau Rouge, which bridges influences from Senegal & France. In this collab w/ Nike, they r part of the 'Fearless Ones' collection. This is Youssouf.
This AJ1 model silhouette includes hand-stitched details to honor its founder’s roots, alongside red stitching on the heels and tongues. Besides, it takes the designer Youssouf Fofana signatures, incorporating his cultural roots through a nod to basketry nd folk art.
Besides, it takes the designer Youssouf Fofana signatures, incorporating his cultural roots through a nod to basketry nd folk art.
Here, Youssouf tells their story and talks about MCR’s new Air Jordan I collab. Check his interview for air.jordan.com. 👇
Why did you want to start Maison Château Rouge?
Maison Château Rouge started with the aim of funding an organization called Les Oiseaux Migrateurs, which I established in 2014 with my brother, Mamadou. The project aims to collaboratively address Africa’s new challenges and foster the development of local production and exportation of finished products. In a globalized world, our final objective is to enable African businesses to compete in the international market. In a broader sense, this means showing the world a new image of Africa, while remaining authentic. We wanted to take action in three areas, in particular: food, fashion and crafts. Understanding a culture doesn’t only involve learning about traditional dress and customs. It’s also about taking an interest in culinary traditions! In a globalized world, our final objective is to enable African businesses to compete in the international market. In a broader sense, this means showing the world a new image of Africa, while remaining authentic. We wanted to take action in three areas, in particular: food, fashion and crafts. Understanding a culture doesn’t only involve learning about traditional dress and customs. It’s also about taking an interest in culinary traditions!
Can you explain how you got the name, Maison Château Rouge?
Château-Rouge is the African neighborhood of Paris. For many years, it didn’t have a positive image in the media, amongst Parisians and in France, as a whole. Maison Château Rouge is driven by a desire to display the evolution of our culture, enabled by a new generation of people who, like us, are re-envisioning it. The idea is to help reinvent African culture by sharing it with the rest of the world. We also want to pay tribute to the Château-Rouge’s historic traders, who sold African fabrics long before it became trendy. That’s why we chose them as our direct suppliers. They have been keen to join us in our goal of developing local businesses and enhancing the neighborhood. We started by producing 100 tops and sold them on the Internet to finance Les Oiseaux Migrateurs’s first project, a bissap juice produced in Senegal.
Why is it important for you to incorporate African heritage into your designs?
Maison Château Rouge was born from a desire to share African culture, open it up and make it accessible through fashion. We design clothing that symbolizes the meeting of African and European cultures. You have to travel to promote and discover a country or continent, but in Paris, Africa is Château-Rouge! So we wanted to pay tribute to this famous district in the 18th arrondissement that best illustrates the meeting point of these two cultures.
Why is the Made In Africa movement so important, and how does your brand, and this collaboration in particular, help promote it?
A quick survey of the economic relationships between African countries and the rest of the world outlines a major problem. It is a simple equation. On one hand, the export rate for raw materials is high, and on the other, the industrial processing rate of products is not well-developed. We are convinced that exporting your natural resources without processing them actually amounts to exporting your wealth and jobs. Our objective with the Les Oiseaux Migrateurs association is to foster the development of local economic actors and support them in processing their raw products. Like our first project, BANA-BANA, we want to bring our expertise to the areas of logistics and marketing that make a final product “ready to consume” in the countries to which it is exported.
What do you like about the Air Jordan I, in terms of its design and history?
First, we like the AJI for its design. It’s a legendary pair worn by the greatest players! For many collectors, it’s the first pair they had — or at least the pair that sparked their addiction to sneakers! I was initially focused on the design because, like a lot of young people, we had hardly ever seen Michael Jordan play. But once you delve deeper and find out more about the history of this pair, it becomes even more powerful. It’s not just an ordinary shoe. It’s a statement, a message, a commitment, a symbol. That’s what makes it legendary. I like it when there is substance as well as form. That’s what I try to do when I create a piece with Maison Château Rouge.
How did the collaboration with Jordan Brand officially start?
We first met the Parisian team two years ago. They liked the brand, our project and our values. During the Quai 54 event in 2017, they came to our shop with Victor Oladipo, and we dressed him for a shoot. It was our first experience with Jordan Brand, and we soon decided that we wanted to tell a story together. We then met the global teams several times, but we didn’t imagine that they would one day ask us to design an Air Jordan I. Can you imagine? Air Jordan is an institution for all young people who share our history.
Can you explain why you chose the five different patchwork color designs on your Air Jordan I collaboration? What do they symbolize?
For me, patchwork represents the brand’s first mission, which is to symbolize the meeting of various cultures. That’s why I wanted to create a mixture of colors and patterns that represent the richness and cultural diversity found in the Château Rouge neighborhood. Though colors represent a lot of different moments and distinctions across African culture, these shoes are not based on colors with any particular meaning in African culture. Rather, I wanted to tell a new story and connect heritage with modernity. I wanted to reinterpret the famous Air Jordan I Retro OG “UNC” and give it warmer colors. So I kept the blue and added some brown, which represents Africa for me. I then added touches of yellow, which is the color of the Maison Château Rouge brand. Finally, I replaced white with ecru for an element of softness. There are also small red details and visible seams. These are a way for me to pay tribute to the expertise of both African artisans and Parisian couturiers.
Outside of color, which other special design elements on the shoe are important to you?
We created inlaid and embossed designs for the AJI, because I wanted to add a modern touch, rather than simply applying prints. The inlaid designs reference scarification. In Africa, scarification is a way of expressing identity, belonging to a community, passing into adulthood or connecting to a spiritual group. On the AJI, they are purely aesthetic, though anyone is free to give them any meaning they choose.
Full interview content by air.jordan.com.