{"id":12555,"date":"2026-03-18T23:10:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T22:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/lea-ouattara-founder-of-the-yahdemin-association\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T00:02:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T23:02:41","slug":"lea-ouattara-founder-of-the-yahdemin-association","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/lea-ouattara-founder-of-the-yahdemin-association\/","title":{"rendered":"L\u00e9a Ouattara, founder of the YahD\u00eamin association"},"content":{"rendered":"<hr>\n<p><iframe id=\"ausha-qQuE\" style=\"border: none; width: 100%; height: 220px;\" src=\"https:\/\/player.ausha.co\/?showId=qxYJmIJ4O3gr&amp;color=%23000000&amp;multishow=false&amp;playlist=false&amp;dark=false&amp;t=0&amp;podcastId=AG3e4srMEALX&amp;v=3&amp;playerId=ausha-qQuE\" name=\"Ausha Podcast Player\" height=\"220\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><script src=\"https:\/\/player.ausha.co\/ausha-player.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">African textiles aren&#8217;t just about clothes, they&#8217;re about a story, an identity and an economy in the making. It was with this deep conviction that L\u00e9a Ouattara made a 180-degree turn in her career. A former sales manager in a multinational import-export company, and a graduate of the IAE Poitiers business school, she chose to align her professional expertise with her personal aspirations by turning to the world of fashion and culture.  <\/p>\n<h4>Creation of the Mysthara boutique<\/h4>\n<p>After training as a <em>personal shopper<\/em>, L\u00e9a launched Mysthara, an online boutique offering &#8220;culturally affirmed&#8221; fashion. Her positioning is clear: to appeal primarily to women from the diaspora, offering them pieces that marry the authenticity of textiles (Kente, Bogolan, Lepi) with contemporary cuts, including a booming <em>Modest Fashion<\/em> section. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;We must believe in the value of our cultures. African textiles deserve to be passed on to future generations.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To achieve this, she works closely with designers from Nigeria, Benin, Togo and C\u00f4te d&#8217;Ivoire, acting as a bridge between the continent&#8217;s workshops and the international market.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-12548\" src=\"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/7-1-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Textil'Art'Africa  \" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\"><\/p>\n<h4>Yahd\u00e9min and the &#8220;Textil&#8217;Art Africa&#8221; initiative<\/h4>\n<p>But L\u00e9a Ouattara&#8217;s ambition goes beyond simple marketing. Through her association <strong>Yahd\u00eamin<\/strong>, she aims to structure the African textile ecosystem. The organization&#8217;s flagship initiative is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.textilartafrica.com\/vote\"><strong>Textil&#8217;Art Africa<\/strong><\/a>a pan-African platform for the valorization of traditional fabrics.  <\/p>\n<p>For this third edition, the competition takes on a whole new dimension:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A men&#8217;s focus:<\/strong> after two women&#8217;s editions, 16 ambassadors from 16 African countries (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Gabon, DRC, etc.) are competing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A digital stage:<\/strong> Events take place live on TikTok, using the power of social networks to reach a global audience.<\/li>\n<li><strong>An educational dimension:<\/strong> candidates are asked to report on the textile value chain, from the cotton field to the store.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-12540\" src=\"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/9-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Yahd\u00e9min Association\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\"><\/h4>\n<h4>Heading for Guinea and Kindia<\/h4>\n<p>The culmination of this adventure will take place on April 25 in Conakry, Guinea. True to her social values, L\u00e9a Ouattara has included a strong charity component in this final: a gala dinner will be organized to support women&#8217;s dyeing cooperatives in Kindia. <\/p>\n<p>By supporting these craftswomen, Yahd\u00eamin has come full circle: adding value to the finished product while protecting and financing the source of the know-how. For L\u00e9a, there&#8217;s strength in numbers: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;If everyone makes their contribution &#8211; designers, entrepreneurs, institutions &#8211; we will build an ecosystem capable of taking African fashion to the international stage.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A message of unity and ambition that resonates as a call to action for all players in the continent&#8217;s creative industry.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Read also<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/journees-africaines-2026-when-art-and-fashion-tell-the-continents-story-at-paris-dauphine\/\">Journ\u00e9es Africaines 2026, when Art and Fashion tell the Continent&#8217;s story at Paris Dauphine<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/georgette-griffiths-co-founder-of-fashion-week-by-elie-kuame\/\">Georgette Griffiths, co-founder of Fashion Week by Elie Kuame<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/retail-and-lifestyle-in-africa\/\">Retail and lifestyle in Africa<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From international import-export to the promotion of African textiles, L\u00e9a Ouattara combines fashion and social impact. With the third edition of her &#8220;Textil&#8217;Art Africa&#8221; competition, L\u00e9a aims to transform African know-how into a solid lever for international development. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-podcast-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12559,"href":"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12555\/revisions\/12559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africafashiontour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}