After doing preliminary design with Martha in Ghana, the
next step was starting production in Senegal with our tailor, Diogomaye. On a Saturday
afternoon I was invited over to Diogo’s family’s house in Parcelles – the
Northern suburbs of Dakar, right next to the beach – super beautiful!
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| Diogo and I going over measurements |
The first step was going over the first designs with Diogo,
and seeing how these could be translated to the fabric we had purchased at
Sandaga earlier in the week with Diogo’s cousin and Aunty. After reworking a
few of the measurements, Diogo got to work in his atelier to produce the first lot
of samples we would use to finalise the pieces we’d make for Madame Tay’s first
production lot.
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| Diogo hard at work on our first pieces |
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| Cutting table |
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| Diogo at work at his atelier |
After Diogo had completed 15 samples, I gathered a few of my
friends to have a casual clothes fitting to see how the pieces worked and if we
needed to do any adjustments. The clothes fitting turned into an impromptu
photoshoot, here are a few shots:
It was really useful to see what the pieces looked like on a
range of different sized women, and made me realise just how difficult correct
sizing and fit could be. My friends were really helpful, and made plenty of
suggestions to Diogo and me as to what should be changed. After taking lots of
notes, and working out what pieces needed some work, Diogo and I set to making
a few more samples, just to make sure we were on the right track.
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