NYFW AW18

Xuly Bet

Verve Fashion Shows

              Malian born, Paris-based, Lamine Badian Kouyaté has designed Xuly Bet (“Keep in Open Mind” in Wolof) since 1989. Like all of the designers in Kelly Cutrone’s Vodoun Ceremony show, Xuly Bet is iconic in the fashion world. Cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary designers, each brings a different perspective to their work and Kouyaté is no different. His background of architecture, and West African awareness gives his choice of prints and colors, a range of bold, tribal, distinctive and celebratory emotions. The design structure of silhouettes and shape combinations reflect his architectural understanding of form.

              When we see a Xuly Bet print, we wonder at how vibrant it is, even in the cacophony of a city street, and then he shows us how it can be worn. Beautiful in a modern setting. far removed from an African farm.

            Often, designers find something that they latch onto, a color, a fabric, a technique, trying to shoehorn that something, into a trend or a style . . . but the discipline of architecture encourages not only form, perspective and beauty, but how it interacts with the human inhabitant. Xuly Bet reminds me of Franco Moschino perception of  how a bold statement can be integrated and  celebrated as part of our lives. 

– Phillip Wong –