Day in the Life: Amah Ayivi

“I’m wearing cook’s pants,” Amah Ayivi says, pointing at his slender checkered trousers. Earlier in the morning, they caused some confusion at the bakery where he buys his morning croissant. He laughs at the memory. Whether in partial chef uniform or not, Ayivi attracts attention. Even now, while seated in a Parisian café just down the street from his showroom, three people and a dog greet him warmly within an hour.

Today, paired with his trousers are a slim white T-shirt, a gray-and-white hat and plastic jellies. He has a vast assortment of silver rings on all fingers, including one that declares ART COMES FIRST (from the eponymous brand), several from Morocco and Niger plus a woman’s ring by American jeweler Ginette that lives on his pinky. His style reveals his sense of limitlessness. “People have this idée arrêtée”—fixed idea, ” he says. “For me, you can wear whatever you