An interview by Mariam Armisen. Photos by Vincent Mafaesa & Vuyani Makausa

Stéphane, your sense of humor and sharp tongue never fail to make me smile on Facebook. I wish I could meet you in person, and that we could sit around your sewing machine and have endless talks about style and fashion. Still, I feel like I do know you, maybe because of our similar backgrounds: we are originally from Côte d’Ivoire (I was born in Abidjan) but live outside the country, we both went to fashion school, we love quirky style…

Stéphane Aurore Koné: It’s so sweet of you, thanks! I’m quite honored, didn’t even know anyone noticed my whiny self on the Internet! Hehehe where did you study? That’s pretty awesome, fashion designers, FTW!

Mariam: Tell me about your first interest in fashion and how instrumental this was in shaping your sense of style

SAK: At first, I wasn’t interested in fashion at all. I had my sense of style of course, and it was a bit quirky and strange. I loved second hand clothes, and my favourite aunt was living in France where her and my mom traveled quite a bit when I was a kid, so I’d always get strange clothes from all over.

I was (still am, by the way) in love with numbers and books as a kid. The numbers side of me was satisfied with all the counting that is involved in crochet, and the books side of me wanted to sew princess dresses and Peter pan shirts. I was taught how to sew when I was a teenager, in school, but it wasn’t as fun as I expected. Lots of rules, but I’m not a rules kind of person. I just wanted to make stuff but we never got to.

With lunch money that I used to save instead of spending on random candy and snacks, I bought pattern-making books and started to make patterns during the holiday. I made a baby dress and stitched it by hand, but it wasn’t nice at all!!! My hand sewing sucked.

Then in senior high school, I started to make bikinis and other random things for schoolmates and get paid for it. I thought, “Hey, that’s a job you could do here!” But my stepfather had other plans, so there I was, at 16, being shipped to France to start University: law. It was awful, to the point where I got sick. All I wanted to do was stay home and read. I missed home, and I was very broke and isolated.

I met a couple of friends who were very much into African Consciousness; they were my first real entrance into the world of beauty in a way. They made me realize that I didn’t need to try and imitate stereotypical European beauty in order to be beautiful. I had the big Afro and all. I also started to make my own clothes, with my brand new sewing machine.

I wanted to teach myself more sewing stuff, so I rushed to the Internet, and one thing leading to another I stumbled upon feminist and queer blogs. They really shaped my identity, when it comes to my designing and my aesthetics. I found it so interesting how they seemed to understand the idea of intersection, of various personalities coming together to make you who you are: your identity as a person of colour, a migrant, a poor person, a sexual and/or gender minority… you can’t really pick one over the other as they all make you who you are. And also, a lot of these amazing people had a great sense of style. They were comfortable with all the complex layers of their beings, and they weren’t going to apologise for them. It was a world of fierce self-love and beautiful resistance that I didn’t know existed and I loved it to bits! So I started to blog!

Fast-forward a couple years, a break up and a few moves, one across continents, and now I’m studying fashion design in South Africa and loving it!

M: What is your relationship with fashion?

SAK: I have a love-hate relationship with fashion. I love the idea of creativity expressed through fabrics, hair, makeup, styling. There’s so much potential when working with such media! I love clothes, and I love making them for people. The hate side, or to be more correct, the cringe side, comes from how exclusive and discriminatory fashion can get. I hate that certain cultures, mainly those of minorities, get appropriated and turned into fashion statements, without people trying deeper to understand what the meaning is behind those symbols that they stole.

M: How would you define your style?

SAK: My style is a mix and combination of various things that I like: African prints, lace, handmade materials… I live on a student budget that doesn’t really allow for large shopping sprees, so I try to be thrifty. That really makes my style unique and quirky. I have some personal restrictions as to what I wear and don’t wear. There’s no clear reason behind it, it’s just that I have a certain idea of modesty and prettiness that I force myself to uphold, sort of. I don’t wear high heeled shoes (except for my “slutty shoes”, I named them after a very eventful night out, haha!) and I hate open toe shoes; I’m not very fond of tight fitting garments either, except mini-skirts; I don’t wear a lot of pants, the only ones that I will let myself wear are flared, or will not show too much of what I don’t want people to see (my bum and thighs). At the same time, I wear a lot of mini-skirts and shorts, which can be a paradox, but it makes sense to me and that’s what counts!

My style is very girly and femme some days, other days I look like a little boy and other days I’m a grunge kid. The one consistency in my style is that there must always be one thing that is handmade, artisanal, or second-hand in what I’m wearing that day. I like wearing what I make, and I like supporting my fellow artisans!

M: Do you have a style muse?

SAK: Not really… I dig my inspiration from a lot of places, and there are a lot of things that I like to wear that come from different styles, and eras of my life that I can’t necessarily “blame” on one person! One of my favorite people is Yokoo Gibran, she’s a well known crafter. I like her quirky farm girl style, and she’s a great inspiration when it comes to her work. Everything she makes seems perfect! I can’t wait to be able to afford one of her jumpers!

I also like Harvest Girl’s style. She’s also a designer, she has an etsy shop that I fell in love with at first glance. Her style is very bohemian and African inspired, I love her shapes and fabrics, and she’s an amazing being! I’m also a big fan of all things punk and grunge, even though I don’t wear them very much… My favorite style subculture, that I eventually aspire to be a part of (both in my designs and in the way I dress) is Mori Kei. It’s a Japanese style subculture that is very inspired by nature… It makes me feel like a beautiful autumn day, and autumn is my favorite season! Plus it combines my favorite items of clothing: dresses, vests, and flowing skirts and tops! It’s very delicate, soft and girly, love it!

M: On your personal style, what piece in your closet can you not do without?

SAK: My boots. I have grey canvas boots that are slowly dying, but I will never spend a week without wearing them twice! I’m currently looking for a similar pair that will allow them to rest a bit. I cannot separate myself from my ankh crosses, they are a huge symbol for me, and I always find a way to sneak them in my outfit somewhere.

When it comes to my actual clothes, I’d say all of my skirts. I made most of them, found some of them in thrift stores, so they are very unique. Plus, I’m in a skirt most of the week! They are very practical and cute little things to wear!

M: What are your go to pieces on days you are not feeling too inspired?

SAK: Tee shirt and pants. My only true pair of pants are green H&M pants that are now sagging as I’ve lost about 15 kg since I bought them, but strangely enough, I prefer their fit now. I wear these pants with a tee shirt (most of my tee shirts are men’s fit), with a beanie and my brown leather converses. If you ever see me dressed like this, know that I’m grumpy and I didn’t feel like trying to be cute today, hehe! But the good thing about these pants is that they make me feel manly and confident, which is good on my low days.

M: Which trend will you never be caught in?

M: The peplum. Leggings as pants. Neon colours (okay, I have one neon t-shirt dress, but it doesn’t count). Anything that is just too tight. Straight hair weaves, I look funny with straight hair, and not the good kind of funny.

M: What does your mom think of your style?

SAK: My mom thinks I’m weird, but at the same time she likes me like that because she made me like I am. I don’t see her very often as we live far apart, but the main thing she’d disapprove of is my love for short stuff, so I made the hems of my skirts longer! Otherwise, my mom is very supportive of what I do and she’d always let me wear what I want, and style my hair how I want to, as long as I’m decent!