Sarah DIOUF

For fashion entrepreneur and designer, Sarah Diouf, the road to helming a Beyoncé-approved brand has been far-flung. She was raised in Abidjan on the Ivory Coast before moving back to her birthplace, Paris, where she completed a masters in marketing and communication. Sarah began her professional career by establishing Ghubar in 2009, a quarterly digital magazine promoting African and Middle Eastern fashion and arts. She followed this with NOIR in 2015, a biannual lifestyle magazine connecting Black women globally, before an unexpected move to Dakar, Senegal, where she began her fashion label, Tongoro. A celebration of African essence and the continent’s pastiche of culture and color, the brand’s regal, airy aesthetic has been a go-to for the likes of Beyoncé, Naomi Campbell and Alicia Keys. We chat with Sarah about the Senegal capital’s culture of hospitality, its spirit of serendipity and stellar seafood for her Dakar Travel Playbook.