Chanel Goes to Africa

It could have gone badly wrong. The optics of Chanel, one of the most haute of all European haute luxury brands, parachuting into Africa, a continent where they have no stores and no meaningful business, with a bells and whistles one-off fashion show, could have smacked, loudly, of colonialism.

Especially because it was the first such show ever in sub-Saharan Africa, not to mention in Dakar, Senegal, once part of the French empire, now a country with its own thriving fashion culture and heritage, especially given Chanel has no particular individual history with the area (“I cannot say Madame Chanel dreamed to come to Dakar,” said Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel’s president of fashion).

Especially coming in the wake of fashion’s mea culpas when it comes to diversity and inclusivity, and recognition of its own multiple missteps with cultural appropriation.

That the Chanel Métiers d’Art show, held at the Palais de Justice in Dakar earlier this week, went off with only a touch of blowback on Twitter is a testament to the effort the house made to reframe the exercise.