Katoucha Niane

[LeBelAge]

"Today at the age of 47, I want a woman's combat and I have chosen the battle against excision," she said in a recent interview.
Excised at the age of nine, in her home country Guinea, Katoucha recounted the ordeal in a recent book entitled "In My Flesh".
The daughter of the writer and historian Djibril Tamsir Niane, Katoucha spent an idyllic childhood in Conakry.
"I grew up surrounded byu hibiscus and ylang-ylang flowers. I used to get drunk on the richest perfumes and saw myself as a perfumer or a model," she wrote in the book.
But then her life changed forever.
"We lived in Conakry, life was sweet, then one day mother said we were going to the cinema. And I found myself the victim of a horror movie.
"An unimaginable trauma, that I had never managed to talk about, until I found love and wrote 'In my flesh'," she said.
She said she saw her career as a top model, first with the designer Thierry Mugler, as a form of "revenge" for the horror of excision.
"I embodied the most arrogant and admired kind of feminity, I who was supposed to be diminished."

Omygod...

I am so saddened by the news of her disappearance.

 

[rubydon]

so sad. hope she is alive and well somewhere, just taking a break. and if she isn't, her beauty lives on.

 

[OMIFAN9]

This ironically was always one of my absolute favs of hers...
Thierry Mugler(1988) scanned by me. Photo Source:Soulstyle

 

[Faith Akiyama]

http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums/f63/katoucha-former-model-muse-ysl-maybe-dead-66017.html

Pray for the best...

 

[OMIFAN9]

^A final curtain call for one of the greatest runway divas...if you all still don't know now do...Ms.Katoucha Niane has passed . R.I.P to the fashion star,mother,activist and so on.
http://www.cutsewandblog.com/2008/02/passing-of-fashion-legend-katoucha.html

**She's been dead for like 3 weeks,apparently they just finally found her body. Her death was surely accidental and very sad.

 

[lisaa1]

she is dead.....that's very sad...

 

[OMIFAN9]

^Definitely!
**The girls before a show in the mid/late 80s by Elgort. Photo Source:scanned by me

 

[Grég.]

In her "In My Flesh" book, there's a picture of her with Iman and Naomi in a bar in the early 90's. I wonder if there are others of the three of them together.

 

[OMIFAN9]

In her "In My Flesh" book, there's a picture of her with Iman and Naomi in a bar in the early 90's. I wonder if there are others of the three of them together.

Hmmm,maybe just a few of them all together. But now I know I have to buy that book b/c the photo seems to be a rarity. Although there is one above that has her,Naomi & Webb in it. I just wonder how they've taken this...I know they were quite friendly with one another,maybe even really great friends...they came up together.
At the Metropolitan Top Model French Finals 2003. Photo Source:wireimage

 

[Trista]

Wow...I never knew of her, because she was doing shows before I was born and when I was young, but seeing those pictures of the haute couture shows...it is the epitome of what I saw of fashion when I was a young'un. Very powerful, very "I am woman, hear me roar".

RIP...

 

[OMIFAN9]

^I miss that presence..those women(and she was one of the very best on the catwalk) were like 'bow down & worship'! And people did they were models and proud of it! It was a great message to show/teach girls to carry themselves like queens. I miss those strong,yet beautiful,charismatic women images.
**I stumbled onto this video...okay I'll warn the first part is very sad it made me but the middle part is very awesome. Oh,check out the fabulousness she possessed while working.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxaOQR1mQnU

 

[OMIFAN9]

On the runway for Gianni Versace(1990)scanned by me. Photo Source:soulstyle

 

[OMIFAN9]

"Fall Ahead" Vogue US 1991 scanned by me. Photo Source:soulstyle

 

[OMIFAN9]

Guy Laroche(1991) scanned by me. Photo Source:soulstyle

 

[Trista]

Oooh please do post any images you have! It would be a fitting tribute to show her work to those of us like myself who were after her time.

 

[OMIFAN9]

"Bricolage de Genies" Vogue Paris September 1991 scanned by me. Photo Source:soulstyle

 

[OMIFAN9]

Yves Saint Laurent autumn/winter 1997-98. Photo Creditrban Thierry

 

[OMIFAN9]

"Moments Voles" Vogue Paris September 1989 scanned by me. Photo Source:soulstyle

 

[noahman12345]

She looks like a mixture of naomi and iman

 

[sepia]

#37... Wow, that's one of the best I've seen!