From November 10th to 12th, 2022, Tunis Fashion Week took place, connecting the creative minds of the French, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Hungarian and of course the Tunisian fashion scene. This thirteenth edition of the event took place in Chott el-Jérid, 45 minutes from the city of Tozeur, on the edge of the desert. Reminiscent of the catwalks of some prestigious brands – Saint Laurent’s show in the Agafay desert, Jacquemus in the Salin-de-Giraud salt flats, Dior soon in Luxor – the desert seems to be trendy.
Tunis Fashion Week 2022 and the call of the desert
Chott el-Jérid is a 5,000 square kilometer salt flat. It offers a pristine 360 degree horizon. The founder and producer of this event is Anis Montacer. Every year he changes the format. After the ruins and Roman amphitheater of Carthage and the Hotel Anantara, his promise for 2022 is a dream: the dream of designers – coming from across the Mediterranean, mostly from urban environments – to parade in a ‘magical’ place, “outside the world” which, in her own words, conveys “a sense of freedom”.
This magic was experienced by two French women: Frederique Ducos, designer of metal costume jewelery and Maud Beneteau, who has her own atelier in Paris. They’re barely visible in the capital’s crowded fashion scene, but had what Warhol called a “fifteen of fame” that could inspire envy from big-name brands – one of Anis Montacer’s stated goals.
A highlight was fashion by Ukrainian designer Kristina Laptso, who fled Kyiv from the horrors of war to show her collection to those in attendance and wave the Ukrainian flag on neutral ground.
Perhaps the most significant approach, however, is to Moda Lisboa, the organizer of Lisbon Fashion Week. Its director, Eduarda Abbondanza, came personally to accompany the renowned designer Luis Carvalho. At sunset, he presented a collection of garments in fluorescent colors that were made to glow in the moon-like and fantastical location of Chott el-Jerid. In addition to the European presence, the Indian Sana Ghai, the Lybian Ibrahim Shebani for his brand Born in Exile and the Hungarians Kata Szegedi and Daniel Benuus were also represented. All together they gave this fashion event an international dimension that made Tunisia shine beyond its borders.
Creatives in Tunisia or the way through the desert
The up-and-coming talents of the Agence Tunisienne de Formation Professionnelle, the Collège LaSalle and New Medina offered a style lesson on the theme of safari, which fitted perfectly into the dreamlike setting. Paradoxically, most young Tunisian designers only dream of one thing: to prove their talent in front of a European backdrop. Unfortunately, their wishes are blown away like a sandstorm, because getting a visa is almost impossible. In order to broaden her knowledge and, if possible, to help her fate, Anis Montacer organized for her a master class on fashion films, led by Pascal Mourier, journalist, professor at the University of Fashion in Lyon and initiator of the Fashion Film Festival became. The virtual is what remains for those who cannot physically move to where they want to go.
This year, only a few of the Tunisian-based and well-known brands were able to present at Tunis Fashion Week (TNFW). It must be said that the energy crisis and inflation have also hit the North African country hard. The designers who usually attend the event had a hard time producing a collection. The road is difficult for those seeking an international perspective that goes beyond the needs of local tailoring – demand is mainly limited to occasionwear.
Yes, and this is the main point of this foray into the world of Tunisian fashion, the country holds some trump cards. On the one hand, a craft based on an ancestral culture and know-how in jewellery, embroidery and traditional fabric processing – as the creatives Rayhana, Sondes Ben Moussa and Yosra Sen prove. On the other hand, the national fashion industry is still strong, although it has been overtaken by Asia in the field of fast fashion and has failed to catch up with the new needs of fashion, such as capsule collections. Small collections are a work process that is difficult to understand for the Tunisian industry, which is oriented towards volume due to the organization of assembly line production. But their proximity to Europe – and thus shorter delivery routes – make them a popular candidate for nearshoring.
Tunisian fashion, the need for funding and a social program
The connection between Tunisian industrialists and designers took place under the auspices of the association ‘Créateurs & Industriels associés aux métiers d’art’, a platform for encounters between these two worlds, created in 2014 and also directed by Anis Montacer. The Tunisian industry, which invested heavily in denim in the 1970s, has a knowledge advantage in this area. Proof of that is the only industrial company to walk the runway this year: Sartex. Based in southern Tunisia, the company specializes in denim washes and the manufacture of finished parts. Le Temps des Cerises (France), Hugo Boss, Marco Polo, Brax, Diesel, Fat Face (Europe), Guess and Seven For All Mankind (Europe and USA), among others, rely on his services. Over five million pieces are manufactured each year and the aim is to grow to six million pieces, particularly with French customers.
To achieve this, Sartex uses high-end technology based on digital printing, which reduces the use of dyes and water consumption, and 3D, which allows to avoid the back and forth between creating a prototype and approving it . At the last Kingpins Denim Show in Amsterdam, Sartex demonstrated the benefits of this process, based on augmented reality with a helmet that allows designers to examine their product immersively. The next step? The sensory glove that simulates the touch of the fabric.
So that Tunisian fashion doesn’t grope in the dark, it probably needs the support of structuring bodies such as the European Union with Europe Creative, in order to give the young designers international visibility. This is done by helping the most talented among them to launch a ready-to-wear brand, exhibit at trade shows or in a context that is not limited to ‘Arab’ fashion events (a stereotypical term many have outgrown) . The support is necessary because the young fashion designers can no longer preach alone in the desert… as magical and hip as it may be.
This article was similarly published on FashionUnited.fr. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ