Soft lights among the olive trees and the historic city walls were the setting for the “African Party” organized on Thursday 29 August at the Fiermontina Urban Resort in Lecce by the new director of the structure, Franz D’Aversa, and on the initiative of the Social Cooperative Orient-Occident, an Italian branch of the Moroccan NGO, the Fondation Orient-Occident, engaged for years in the fields of migration, integration, employment and interculture, and of the Atelier Migrants du Monde in Italy and Morocco, a social brand and laboratory of couture and embroidery where local women, migrant and refugee women come together in the production of stylistically and culturally unique clothes.
The award-winning belly dancer Maria Diodicibus opened the event performing in splendid choreographies accompanied by Gabriele Poso’s Djset, supported by the sounds of some percussionists. The relentless rhythm of the music has enriched the whole evening as a backdrop to the tasting of typical foods of Moroccan origin and coming from other countries of the African continent, as well as the exhibition of some clothes from the production “Migrants du Monde”, in a suggestive show: 14 splendid models and 29 exits to narrate, along an illuminated catwalk, the collection of the Parisian designer Isabelle Camard, Moroccan-inspired and embellished with sophisticated hand embroideries, and the summer capsule-collection by the designer Leccese Bruna Pizzichini, new Art Director of the Atelier.
The new capsule collection, characterized by flounces and the use of beautiful African fabrics, intends to convey and be an example of intercultural exchange between Italy and Morocco. The garments, also embellished with traditional embroidery, are designed for the Mediterranean woman, always in line with the Migrants du Monde philosophy: weaving dialogues through culture and the sharing of a common project.
The event enchanted the audience, captured by the evocative atmosphere; many were the people who attended this concert of influences and traditions, of art and culture. The evening ended with greetings from the President of the Fondation Orient-Occident, Yasmina Filali and the President of Arci Lecce, Anna Caputo.
