‘Play it again Sam,’
Oddly enough Humphrey Bogart never went to Casablanca. They filmed the whole damn thing in LA and pretended they were in Casa. Fifty odd years later and you still won’t see many white faces here.
Amine Bendricuich
Casablanca may be the biggest city in Morocco but its not for tourists, they all schlep off to Marrakech or Fes for some of that medieval market magic or up to Tangier looking for a sniff of the old school sleaze that made it the home of William Burroughs who remodeled the city into Interzone in the classic Naked Lunch.
Today Casablanca is one of the biggest cities in Africa- a noisy messy sprawl of seething life, stink and noise.
In Casablanca music is the law. Its everywhere, get in the taxi and the driver will speak at a thousand miles an hour in French and crank up the radio blasting out the Chaabi- a pop form of all Moroccan music’s mashed together. He grins and batters his hands on the steering wheel; this is upbeat music, the sound of the city that crackles with its own energy.
Casa is a music city, it oozes the stuff. Every taxi, every street corner is buzzing with electric noise.
There is a nascent hip-hop scene and, curiously, a death metal scene.
Its also very modern.
There is a fashion scene here of sorts.
On the street the main look is sports casual- lots of football shirts whilst the girls wear their clothes tight. There are also some people pushing the margins...
Amine Bendricuich...
(His myspace is www.myspace.com/stounamine )
...Is a whiz kid. Everywhere I go round the city I see him, at every gig at every event.
He has his own distinctive look as well, a new millennium Moroccan; Amine is a real cool kid who has his finger on the pulse in Casablanca. If there is a fashion scene here he’s going to know!
‘The fashion scene in Morocco... well, I think that's a little bit early to speak about a fashion scene here, because it's really the first beginning of it’s creation and development. Moroccan people wear a very large panel of clothes, people are still very influenced by the occident, or completely the opposite- I mean they wear traditional djellabas, or caftans, or gandouras, which is become more rare. Concerning the street fashion, we have it now since 4 or 5 years ago. It began with festival " le boulevard des jeunes musiciens" which gave to the youth a free space of free expression in music, art, and fashion. But its still a young street fashion scene, which needs to grow up, with the Moroccan people who have their own sense of style, but they need to personalize it more, because now, it's a kind of Moroccan copy of European style, but fortunately that there is more and more exceptions, that encourage people to dare to be different.’
This is cool. There is nothing worse than the Macdonaldsisation of the world’s culture, When I was in Istanbul it was great to see the girls making the headscarves all colourful and in their own style. In Morocco Anime is a walking talking example of updating your own culture. His own personal style is highly individual, hip and very Moroccan. He is a man with a mission.
‘I want to make the Moroccan people look MORE'ROCKIN,‘ he laughs, adding, ‘because I believe that we have a big creative potential here, all we need is to dare more, cuz as I told you, and as you seen, we have a big Moroccan musical scene, and fashion and music are very related to each, but till now, our singers and musicians, who are supposed to be precursors in street fashion, are just satisfied with European like looks expect for some artists like Haoussa or Zwm. So I’m trying to give that new urban scene some products and designs which can make them have their own local style.‘
It’s an interesting balance but one that he seems to be pulling off. Amine is a man of the world. His mix n match approach is reflected in his outlook.
‘I got a scientific baccalaureate, and then I started my fashion studies in Tunisia for 3 years. I’ve been in Paris a few times, and then I went back to Tunisia to finish my studies. When I get my diploma, I was invited to Germany, to participate to the CPD " Collection Premiere Düsseldorf ", I sold some of my stuff in a concept store there, but I stopped, cuz I didn't have the money to continue producing clothes, and the demand became greater than my capacities, so I retuned to Morocco, because I think that it's easier to be a success in Morocco, and then get exported to foreign countries. It’s also a way to show Europeans that we can make great things around here, and we're not producing human bombs as people think over there! and that we're very creative, and they have to support this creativity, because if the occident is the present, we are the future.’
Its this forward looking thinking that is typical of so many of the people that I meet in Casablanca. This idea of finding their own way in an overcrowded fashion scene.
‘You have to know one thing which is: my clothes are Moroccan because I am Moroccan, creativity is international, for example: when Gaultier used the British kilt, nobody said that he's British or he's making traditional British clothes, but everybody said that it's Gaultier style. So for me the most important thing in clothes is to have a space where I can put my lines and structures, which are more important than the clothes. I’m just trying to have my personal touch, and to preserve my universe, and always try to make my clothes useful, in the sense that. There is always a message or a concept on ‘em that can participate in making things better.‘
Go to Amine’s website and give him some support- he’s smart and hip and we need to make these connections in this fucked up world!
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