To academic purists (and we are a snobby lot), everything Alan Donovan stands for is anathema: runway models wearing men's agbada, sexy "Jungle Safari" outfits assembled from clever combinations of trade beads and Lurex, and occasional bad art from Mali, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, and Nigeria: Christopher Steiner's Abidjan traders would shrug and call them "copies.

Texture and colour are applied with abandon--the audience snuggles down in plush silver velvet seats with squashy latex arms, private boxes have doors of padded gold lurex, and the smaller auditorium, which can seat 350, is lined with panels of perforated plywood stained oxblood red.

So Suzin mixed up a tab guitar tee with cropped plaid pants, then added a double-wrap belt, lurex wrist cuffs, and trendy sneakers that really make this fun, casual look rock