A little island surrounded by the warm Indian Ocean, where narrow, winding alleys lead past the intricate carved doorways of majestic white stone houses and numerous mosques, spices and the smell of grilled food scent the air around the markets. After nightfall the streets are lit by lanterns, while the jinns fall asleep in their jinn jars in their family’s home. Lamu island, part of the Lamu Archipelago, situated on Kenya’s Northern Coast Line, offers a setting which could be swept away from a page in Schehezerade’s One Thousand and One Nights. Here time stands still.

With wooden beads, jungle prints, copper bangles and raffia, Yves Saint Laurent moved Africa in the realm of high fashion for his 1967 Spring/Summer Collection, described by Harper’s Bazaar as “a fantasy of primitive genius”. Born in Oran, Algiers, Yves Saint Laurent described his birth place as “a town glittering in a patchwork of all colors under the sedate North African sun” and African influences were rooted in the way he framed the female form, in his use of colors and fabrics. Since its impact on high fashion, Africa stayed as a source of aesthetic inspiration for many designers.

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