Imane Ayissi celebrates African craftsmanship with modern elegance at Paris Couture Week

Ledohowski among new entrants to Manitoba Business Hall of Fame

The late Canad Inns founder will join the ranks of Manitoba Business Hall of Fame members next year.

Leo Ledohowski is one of three honourees to receive the prestigious title. Mark Evans, the executive chair of Conquest Planning, and Michael Pyle, Exchange Income Corporation’s chief executive, are also slated to be inducted next year.

“Each of their stories is very unique,” said Greg Leipsic, president of JA Manitoba.

The non-profit oversees the hall of fame; its board chooses new faces annually. The incoming businessmen will be honoured at an April 6 gala at the Victoria Inn Hotel.

Imane Ayissi celebrates African craftsmanship with modern elegance at Paris Couture Week

PARIS (AP) — Cameroon-born designer Imane Ayissi fused sumptuous satin and taffeta with ancestral African crafts in a couture collection that celebrated heritage while embracing modernity. This season, Ayissi explored the cultural and symbolic power of fabric, using draping, layering, and artisanal techniques to tell a story of African artistry on the global stage.

Standout looks included a matte black crossover belted coat exuding quiet luxury, a billowing white gown with cascading folds turned up into itself, and a top of interlocking colorful flowers crafted with intricate precision. These pieces highlighted Ayissi’s knack for balancing opulence with subtlety.

Ayissi honored African craftsmanship through Kente fabric transformed into striking halter dresses and kimono-inspired jackets, while raffia — his signature — made vivid appearances in fuchsia and scarlet fringes, capes, and bow details. Circle motifs and bark appliqué flowers lent a modern edge to these traditional materials.

Reimagining colonial-era kaba dresses as symbols of empowerment and drawing parallels with global influences, Ayissi offered a couture collection that felt like a dialogue between cultures.

Two U.S. presidents, and America’s decline

“Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” — Abraham Lincoln in his Cooper Union address, given in New York City in 1860.

Failure to exploit NDP weaknesses leaves PCs in tailspin

Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative party is getting slaughtered.