Inside The Brand: BAARA

Bridging modernity and West-African archives

Coming from the heart of Paris with roots going as deep as Abidjan, Ivory Coast, streetwear brand BAARA is a label to look out for. Established by founders El-Bassem Aby and Abdoul-Karim Dabo in 2021, the newly formed clothing line takes an interesting twist of modern fashion trends and western african cultural evolution. Baara, which stands from the direct translation of the word work in Bambara, excels in every detail from the storytelling to the execution of each garment displayed.

For BAARA’s first known collection ‘MIRAKLTD EST MORT, VIVE BAARA’, the designer duo took us for a walk in the plateau of Abidjan, mainly to explore the city’s monument La Pyramide, an aesthetically innovative building (at the time) designed by italian architect Rinaldo Oliveria between 1970 and 1973. For many of Abdjian’s habitants, the now number one tourist attraction was perceived as an attempt to modernise its city's landscape and a first step into building Africa’s architecture of the future. Unfortunately, due to its high maintenance cost and inconvenient structural design, the building could never live up to its potential and was completely abandoned by the 90s, awaiting a revival. Luckily, the city’s diasporic community not only revived the deserted building, but also repurposed it into a bold statement, landing on the front of a long sleeved button up shirt. Their debut collection had one mission and one mission alone. And it was to create a bridge in which fashion enthusiasts across borders could form a deeper connection with one’s african heritage and reimagine powerful historical events in a modern environment.

Taking a step further into the height of futurism, the second official collection ‘What would Malick do?’ focused on resurrecting some of the most famous visual work of Malian photographer Malick Sidibe. At his peak, Malick’s captures embodied an extravagant and arguably stylish interpretation of youth culture in the 60s in Bamako’s hot spots. Today, a great portion of his work is celebrated globally and appears on the walls of most acclaimed museums and art galleries. In contrast to Malick’s analog photos, BAARA revisited the iconic era by introducing to the world its essential apparel. By doing so, the founders made sure to distinguish each eras and portrayed some of its new design artificially. 3D characters and an animated background installation made the collection for what it was; a transition from one extreme dimension to another. Although the clothes were not the focus point that revolutionised the collection, it took an innovative plot twist of presentation to ensure a visible elevation from its reference and the previous lookbook.

As a comeback from a strong concept last season, BAARA’s third collection ‘ACTIVE DIASPORA’ provided the foundation to which every streetwear guide is known for; graphics and outerwear. Somewhat of an interesting choice of garment was the implication of a mustard colour track suit, feeling quite out of touch from the brand’s previous work, however, well intact on its own. The collection as a whole was a risk without a strong storytelling narrating it as usual. On the other hand, it pushed for change in our understanding of what the brand really stood for.

Set to impress this time around, BAARA warned on their fourth collection ‘EN PLEINE LUCARNE’ the following;

‘SS23 takes you back to the old days, an ode to the perfect 2000’s football player aesthetic. This campaign follows the narrative of a footballer’s journey. Through a journalist lens, we captured four stages of a career: The contract signing, the press conference, the team picture and finally the lifestyle that follows. We are offering our takes on football iconic moments thanks to its power of connecting and gathering people’

and delivered just that. With the input of vintage inspired images and thoughtful retelling of football fairies, it made the brand’s most special and memorable campaign yet. Football being a culture that both of the European and african continent share and are passionate about, it only makes sense that a jersey infiltrated in between historical French players of African descent and African football icons alike, becomes the statement piece of this season.

Four collections in and it still begs the question; what makes this brand stand out from the crowd? Well, one of the reasons is, since the beginning of its creation, BAARA always felt more than just a brand. Instead, the fashion house almost felt like an identity in which like-minded individuals could attach themselves onto. Much like the strong french-speaking population of african descent that prevails on the parisian streets where BAARA was birthed, the brand equally bestows a sense of community through its Afro-european identification and strong storytelling. Amongst designs produced to replicate trends that we globally share, the brand offers a different narrative from the ones we’ve already consumed and are used to seeing. That is the storyline of the diaspora who still feels a strong bond with the motherland.