Although African designer Lamine Kouyaté is currently being discovered by a new generation of fashion-conscious boys and girls, the talented founder of XULY.Bët has, in fact, been showing his work since the early 1990s, a decade that retains special appeal for fashion connoisseurs. Kouyaté returned to the Paris calendar last year – right before the pandemic started disrupting our world – and I was lucky enough to attend his comeback show, featuring the likes of Michelle Elie, Rossy de Palma and many other friends and models that he has cherished for years. Interview by Philippe Pourhashemi.