Youssouf Fofana—the Parisian fashion designer behind Maison Château Rouge and the philanthropic founder of United Youth International (UYI), an organization dedicated to empowering the French capital’s youth through entrepreneurship—is stepping up as Jordan Brand’s creative director for the Summer Olympic Games, and with good reason.
“I want to leave a strong legacy by making the Olympics a positive experience that the kids can pour themselves into, rather than it being a bunch of brands taking over the city without thinking about what they can give back,” he said. Fofana aims to accomplish this by opening District 23: a curated, community-oriented hub where Jordan Brand will host fashion design courses, present cultural exhibitions, facilitate shoot-around basketball competitions and more for the youth in the 18th arrondissement, where Fofana grew up.
Paris’ most underserved, multi-cultural district, the 18th arrondissement has long been home to the city’s Black diaspora. As an immigrant, Fofana represents “Generation 200%”: “I’m 100% French and 100% Senegalese. I fully exist in both cultures,” he explained. It’s a common identity in the neighborhood, and it’s one that Fofana is looking to spotlight alongside the world’s largest sporting event.
District 23’s headquarters will reside within the historic Tati Barbes building, a former department store that Fofana, in partnership with Jordan Brand, has since refurbished into a cultural center complete with gallery spaces, design rooms, a library, a radio station and a café. “I used to get my clothes at Tati with my mother and father as a child,” Fofana recalled. “Not good clothes, cheap clothes. But it worked for us, and it’s part of our story. It feels really symbolic to do this project in the same building all these years later.”
In those gallery spaces, Fofana is in the midst of preparing two exhibitions. The first, titled Diaspora Renaissance, is a collaboration with and Infinite Archives and Anthony Gallery founder Easy Otabor that will invite Olympics-goers to experience the “global, interconnected nature of the African Diaspora” through the lens of contemporary artists like Gabriel Moses, Alvin Armstrong and Soldier. “With people coming from all over the world, we thought it would be important to showcase these diasporic artworks and share this messaging on the same stage,” Fofana said. “And for the children to see themselves represented in a meaningful way.”
The second showcase will unpack Jordan Brand’s archives ahead of its 40th anniversary. Dubbed DNA, the exhibition will explore the Jumpman’s cultural impact and, more specifically, its influence in Paris by featuring its most-memorable collaborations with the likes of Dior, Paris Saint-Germain and, of course, Fofana’s Maison Château Rouge.
Outside of its gallery walls, District 23’s “summer school” programming is particularly special for the kids in the 18th. Here, Fofana’s goal is to provide the district’s burgeoning creatives with the skills to get started in fashion by hosting technical design classes, brand-building crash courses and textile-focused intensives. “I didn’t go to fashion school, so it was very difficult for me to start my brand and learn how to make clothes,” said Fofana. “It’s the same for a lot of young designers in the district, so I would like to help change that.”
For the sportier children, Fofana enrolled all of the key indoor and outdoor basketball courts in the area in District 23’s programming. “It’s important that we preserve those safe spaces in the neighborhood because many of the parks would not otherwise be available for the kids with the Olympics in town,” he said. Among them, famed basketball court Pigalle Duperré, which was recently remodeled by Stéphane Ashpool and Ill-Studio, will host open play, shoot-out and one-on-one competitions.
Fofana has collaborated with Jordan Brand on several occasions over the last five years, lending his sartorial codes to footwear models like the Air Jordan 1 Mid and ready-to-wear collections that find the link between basketball and classic French style tropes. But this latest team-up sees the duo actualize their shared goals of creating a level playing field for underserved youth in a much more profound manner.
“The Olympics are going to be a massive event for the city but it will be difficult to access for the children, so we wanted to create a unique moment for them,” Fofana summed it up. “It’s about more than just memories. It’s a commitment to this neighborhood and the next generation that will come from it.”
