Last week, Ouédraogo presented her project Porte de la Richesse during Amsterdam Fashion Week, an emotional and political performance piece celebrating Black identities and calling out institutional racism and white privilege. “Black people have been calling out racism for generations. We shouted it in the streets. We put it in our writing. We put it in our music, in our movies, in our shows. We put it on stages. In your institution. And you danced, you laughed, you clapped. But you never heard,” the voiceover said at the beginning of the performance.

Born to a Dutch mother and Burkinabé father, Ouédraogo’s mixed heritage has always played an important role in her life and work. “I think I always felt an urge to represent myself as someone from the African diaspora,” she says. And after these past months, which she defines as “traumatic, exhausting and extremely tiring,” even more. Today we speak with her about identity, fashion, how in-depth research informs all her projects and how is she navigating these turbulent times.