2026/10/21 features Christelle Bakima PoundzaCloset Puma

"Closet" Christelle Bakima Poundza x Puma

Talent Christelle Bakima Poundza
Photography Basil Perot
Fashion Céleste André

There is something comforting about a mind that refuses to stay in one place. Christelle Bakima Poundza lets her many facets of artistry spill into one another, her words moving like a stream of consciousness through cultural critiques. Her PUMA looks, touched with bright red and cobalt blue, nod to the covers of her two published books. The colours serve as markers of different eras in Christelle Bakima Poundza's work.

The first, Corps Noirs (2023), addresses necessary conversations around modelling and fashion’s treatment of Black women, in prose that is intimate and nevertheless collective. It is a rare and precious thing to have and to hold a book that holds so much of its writer’s life. Her second ouvrage, Aya pour l’exemple (2026), offers a portrait of a generation through the ever-talented singer-songwriter Aya Nakamura. The textured and versatile PUMA wardrobe captures this grit of life expressed throughout her oeuvre. Especially in the skirts that balloon and bloom in leopard print, all grounded by the playful ease of her laced sneakers.