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Since the 1990s, the “ethnic” fashion trend has been unfurling on the Western world. The attraction for the Other is reflected as much in Haute Couture collections as in commercial considerations geared to an “ethnic” market at a more popular level. Paradoxically, if Africanness can be perceived as “ethnic”, African clothes fashion designers refer only timidly to this adjective. The Author’s research is based on the examination of Francophone Black women’s press (September 1998- September 2004). The studies reveal the meanings that become associated with the term “ethnic” which explain the observation of an attitude of rejection of an identity-related assignation coming from the West.