Fatyly

Fatyly is the ceramics and lifestyle brand of Faty Ly, a designer based in Dakar. Ly's interest in ceramics began in the late 1990s. It took form in 2001 with a gallery in Dakar devoted to crafts made with West African artisans. She is a graduate of Central Saint Martins and holds a master's in design management from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. She launched the Fatyly brand in 2015, creating one of the first hard-paste porcelain houses in Africa, with collections produced in Limoges. The work uses porcelain as a canvas for African visual heritage. The Toile de Korogho collection translates the motifs of the Korhogo cloths of the Senoufo country in northern Ivory Coast into tableware meant for daily use. Each motif carries its own symbolic charge. Ly cites the Senegalese sculptor Seni Camara among her influences, along with ritual and contemporary culture. She describes the dining table as a kind of performance in which each piece plays a part. She has worked with chefs and chocolatiers to promote Senegalese culinary heritage. She is a founding member of the Afroeats festival of African cuisine and sits on the board of Africa Design School in Benin. The brand publishes no street address and lists Dakar as its location. Its porcelain reaches buyers through stockists such as Alara in Lagos, which carries the collections alongside other African designers.