Togo Yeye is a conceptual publication by two friends - London-based photographer and Nataal art director Delali Ayivi and Lomé-based fashion activist Malaika Nabillah. Created for Ayivi’s graduate project at London College of Fashion, she and Nabillah set out to champion Togo’s young fashion creatives, contribute to debates around defining an authentic contemporary identity for the country and dream of its fantastic future.

The duo spent several weeks in Lomé collaborating with fashion design students, street style stars, stylists, writers, make-up artists, models and artists to create a series uplifting stories for the book. By uniting all of these talents, and together exploring influences such as upcycling, American streetwear, afro-utopia and Togo’s historical dress practices, Togo Yeye proposes an entirely original, brave and imaginative aesthetic manifesto.

Below, Nabillah and Ayivi reveal their vision for Togo Yeye…

“Togo Yeye translates to ‘a new Togo’ in Ewe and is dedicated to tomorrow’s generation of artists and thinkers, today. Its main objective is to document and celebrate those who push creative boundaries, especially in Lomé’s fashion industry. We also hope that through collaboration we can strengthen our community and bridge the gap between the Togolese diaspora and people at home.

For that reason, our work often addresses the cultural dynamics between the many facets of Togolese identity. This is particularly visible in our work with friends and creators from the streetwear subculture whose style is a melange of western influences and Togolese interpretations. Instagram pages like Togo Archives already do impressive work to bridge geographical and historical gaps. However, we were missing a fashion and arts focused platform.

We met most of our emerging designers by attending graduate shows and by working with students from Lomé’s fashion academies such as Eamod Ayanick and FAALT. The concepts for our shoots were usually focussed on the garment or personal style we are capturing. Besides photography, another large component of our work is our conversations with artists about tradition, defining a Togolese modernity and our history.

We find that through our different perspectives and upbringings we can learn a lot from each other, and we hope to continue such conversations in the future through exhibition spaces in Lomé where creatives can learn with each other. Our next step will be to create an online directory for Togolese creatives worldwide.”

See Delali Ayivi’s photob story from the Black Lives Matter protests in Hamburg here.