Sarah Diouf - Tongoro - The Story Teller
Hi Y'all!
I am continuing my series on African Fashion designers. Previously, I have featured Imane Ayissi, and Colle Sow Ardo. Today, I am going to talk about Sarah Diouf and her fashion brand Tongoro.
Compared to the previous designers we have discussed, Sarah Diouf is relatively young in the game. She launched Tongoro in 2016. And she is has already dressed Beyonce several times for her music videos and world tours. Altough this can be considered as her biggest achievement, Tongoro is much more than that. And today I am going to take you on a deep dive about the brand.
Sarah Diouf is the founder of Tongoro. She calls herself a "Child of Africa from West to Center" because her mother is Central African and Senegalese, her father is Congolese and Senegalese and she grew up in Ivory Coast. She was born in Paris, where she returned to complete a masters in marketing and communication. In 2008, she established a quaterly digital magazine titled Ghubar, which promoted African and Middle Eastern fashions and arts. She even received a Cosmopolitan fashion award and reached a loyal following of 10.000 readers over the years. Then in 2015, she created NOIR, a biannual lifestyle magazine connecting Black women globally.
In 2016, after moving to Senegal, she created Tongoro, a fashion brand. Tongoro means Star in the central african language Sango. Her aim is to create playful unique apparel insipred by the continent, but with global appeal. Sarah with Tongoro wants to change the way "Made in Africa" is conceived by offering luxury, and skillfully designed garments.
It is true that Africa is rarely associated with luxury. And this is due to numerous factors. As a part time fashion designer myself, I know how hard it is to find skilled labor. Most of the tailors I know are not professionally trained. They learned their craft by following another tailor at a younger age. And even if they manage to have proper skills, they lack the professionalism that would allow them to produce garments with precision and attention to details.
Sarah Diouf with Tongoro wants to change all that. First, she has an atelier in Senegal where she employs skilled local artisans. Then, she sources materials in the local markets. She is committed to reshaping Africa-based manufacturing. It is also important to note that Sarah Diouf has not herself been formally trained as a fashion designer. She has a rich experience in visual branding and communication, taking her inspirations from african photographers such as Seydou Keita and Malick Sidibe.
Tongoro has vary basic codes that make it reconizable. Their garments are often in black, or a mix of black and white. Moreover, the favor prints in their designs. They also love to use Cowrie shells as embellishments. Finally, they offer garments that are fluid and sometimes oversized.
I am not sure when I discovered Sarah Diouf. I just know that I started following her on Instagram before she started Tongoro. It was interesting to see her develop this brand. I actually like her brand a lot because it has the same aesthetics as me. I am obsessed with cowrie shells, loves everything fluid and enjoys a good print. But I have not managed to aquire an article of the brand yet because the prices are steep for me. The first time I saw her garment up close and personal was back in 2021, when I went to an event in Dakar. The Branding coach, who was having a masterclass, was wearing a Tongoro man's matching set that looked so good on her. I had to check where she got it from. When I found out it was Tongoro, I googled the price and was shocked to see 90.000 XOF (around $160 or €140). Back then, I have never put so much money into a single garment in my life. Therefore, I decided then and there that it was not a brand for me. That did not stop me from adimiring it from afar.
The other thing I absolutely enjoy about Tongoro is the storytelling of the brand. Her Instagram page is well curated with beautiful pictures. And her fashion shows or visuals are breathtaking. I still remember the day, a friend of mine sent me a DM to watch her fashion show on Instagram live. It was during Covid, a time where it was hard to have fashion shows. Tongoro had a fashion show right on the beach somewhere in Dakar. But it was not only beautiful models showcashing her latest collection. Sarah had Simb, fake lions that are the make up of Senegalese culture, dance around the models. As a Senegalese who grew up watching fake lions every Summer scaring and running after children on the street, it spoke to me.
She is also one of the first african fashion designer I saw use AI to showcase her designs on Instagram. Back then, it was innovative because it was before AI was a thing. I was so intrigued by the techniques.
Sadly, on two different occasions, I have witnessed controversy about Tongoro and her designs. The first time, she accused luxury brand Yves Saint Laurent to rip off her design. She had launched the Mburu bag, a long leather bag she named after the bread we eat on the regular. The following year in 2017, Yves Saint Laurent launched a similar bag during Paris Fashion week. Sarah was outraged and became vocal about the ordeal. It seems she tried taking legal actions but I am not sure how the matter was resolved.
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Tongoro Mburu bag
A few years later, in 2024, she also took to Instagram to put Balmain on blast for using face jewelry similar to hers during his latest fashion show. The irony was that Naomi Campbell was wearing the face jewelry, and it was similar to the face jewelry Sarah Diouf has given her during a prior trip to Dakar. The face jewelry was called Cairo and was a line she created and shown during Dakar Fashion week in 2019. But the controversy did not end there. Another designer, Theresia Kyalo, a Kenyan jewelry designer took to social media this time to accuse Sarah Diouf of ripping off her designs. Several people commented that the designs although similar could have come from the same inspiration, face paint on the men of Wodaabe tribe. Some even went so far as to dig up similary jewelry from other fashion shows dating back to the 60s and 70s. The controversy died down a few days later.
Nowadays Tongoro is a global brand offering much more than ready made garments. Sarah also does couture, and accessories such as bags and shoes. She has dressed celebrities such as Beyonce as I mentionned above, Kelly Rowland, Alicia Keys and Naomi Campbell. As far as I know, Tongoro is still an e-commerce fashion brand and does not have physical shops yet.
Someday, maybe I will have enough money to buy myself a Tongoro jumpsuit which retails for 170.000 XOF ($300 or €258), but until then, let me admire it from afar.
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Tongoro Jumpsuit
Beyonce in Tongoro for Black is King
Sources:
https://www.tongoro.com/
https://africarenewal.un.org/en/magazine/tongoro-africas-fashion-renaissance#:~:text=The%20creative%20brain%20behind%20this,around%20African%20culture%20and%20identity
https://nataal.com/tongoro
http://fashionafrica.tv/index.php/using-joomla/extensions/components/content-component/article-categories/322-yves-saint-laurent-steals-from-a-senegalese-designer
https://djellibah.com/en/home/2020/12/14/tongoro
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