The Oumé x Paul Kodjo Sentiments collection is a t-shirt line that transforms archival photography into wearable expressions of home. Each piece in the collection is built around a specific emotion—belonging, nostalgia, intimacy, comfort, and joy—pairing carefully selected images with contextual text that deepens the emotional narrative.

This collaboration was born from a simple realization: Kodjo's 1970s photography of everyday Abidjan captured the exact feelings Oumé seeks to evoke. His images of young people hugging on street corners, couples in tender domestic moments, friends dancing and celebrating—these weren't just documentation of a city in transformation. They were visual expressions of the warmth, connection, and sense of possibility that define what "home" feels like.

Paul Kodjo (1939–2021) was one of Côte d'Ivoire's pioneering photographers, beginning his career in 1959 on the eve of independence. Known for his big heart and the strong relationships he built with his subjects, Kodjo had a cinematographic eye—photographing in real homes and settings but with the emotional depth of pre-organized studio work. His archive was nearly lost to humidity and insects before photographer Ananias Léki Dago discovered it in a trunk and worked to preserve his legacy.

Each t-shirt in the Sentiments collection pairs one of Kodjo's archival photographs with text that identifies the core emotion of home — Nostalgia, initimacy, belonging, joy among others

OUMÉ X PAUL KODJO

BELONGING

The collection celebrates Kodjo as a father of Ivorian photography while serving as a genuine expression of Oumé's mission: to curate products, experiences, and stories that evoke the sentiments of home. Because Kodjo's work—with its focus on feelings of belonging, intimacy and joy during a transformative era—doesn't just illustrate these feelings. It embodies them.

OUMÉ— NOSTALGIA / INTIMACY / JOY

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