DOZO : A community pillar and platform for emergings brands in Abidjan

We went to Abidjan in the summer of 2022 to explore the local fashion scene and meet with some of the people who are shaping the industry. This led us to meeting Aziz Doumbia, the founder of DOZO.

If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the Abidjanese fashion scene, Dozo is your go-to place for it. Not only is it a landmark space to find the coolest brands in the city, it is also a curated community that stands out from local codes while still pays tribute to those that came before them.

Our conversation with Aziz gave us some precious knowledge on the local fashion scene, the paradox of African luxury, and its intersection with street culture.

 

Can you Introduce yourself ?

My name is Aziz Doumbia. I am 31 years old. I am a father. In 2018 I opened the DOZO boutique.

It’s an adventure I started when I was in Paris in 2013-2014. We started by having pop-up shops there.It was arount the time when there was the boom of African brands. We started to see a lot of interest in these brands. Then the idea was to create a place where we could gather all of these brands because they were isolated, on their own on Instagram, it was not interesting and that’s how we started. We set up pop-up shops.

Then when I returned to Abidjan in 2016, I started to host new pop-ups here because I noticed that the conditions were somewhat the same. You had a lot of interesting brands but they were scattered. The goal was to create places where they could be gathered each time.

From the beginning it worked great, so we decided to make a permanent store.

 

What does DOZO mean ?

The DOZO are tribes of hunters. So, the idea was to have a place where we could gather all these brands to empower them. We have a lot of artists, designers, and musicians who gravitate around the store. I don’t think we initially formed as a collective, but  we all found each other in this universe and the store served as a platform to foster creativity and to make space for people who wanted to tell stories.

 

What can we find at DOZO ?

DOZO is a “Maison d’Artiste” in fact.

So when we throw parties, it’s the best place to meet the local creative scene. We’re going to have people from my generation. I was born in ’91, and then we’ll have people who are a little younger and people who are a little older. Because those who came before us were the likes of Jean Servais, a whole generation of African designers. The store serves as a gathering spot for all these people. So at our parties, we try to have an experimental approach, to stand out from the local codes and to come up with something new and interesting every time.

We do with the artists we choose, and DJs we invite.

There is an entire community who held on to the store because they connected with this unique side, I would say. And that’s something we’re very proud of.

 

What would you say is a specificity of African luxury?

It is a walking paradox because we live in countries that are called “poor”. But 60 to 70% of the brands that are created here are luxury brands. Because if the European brands have the strength of industrialization and everything that is already in place there, down here, we have the power of luxury, in fact. We have the power of noble materials and production processes that are still slow, that are respectful of nature, that keep a certain authenticity.

It allows to create pieces that are not not just clothes or t-shirts. These are pieces that come

with something extra and with a lot of character.

 

How can brands sustainably grow in this environment ?

Now, as soon as you produce 10 shirts, you can have a brand.

You can start building a community. You can start getting customers. So for me, the brands that are going to survive are the brands that, in addition to protecting their creative strengths, will succeed in forming a business and managing the financial part, the production, the communication, and the development. Here, it is unfortunately very often the aspect that hinders brands’ growth.

 

Cover Image curtesy of DOZO

Model @kimyamc

Clothing @braandless

Accessories @bodhi_nomadiclifestyle
Photography @toorasan