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The V&A's blockbuster African fashion exhibition opens this weekend

Photo credit: Nabil Zorkot
Photo credit: Nabil Zorkot

The V&A's blockbuster exhibition, 'Africa Fashion' will open this weekend, Saturday 2 July.

The landmark exhibition celebrates the irresistible creativity, ingenuity and unstoppable global impact of contemporary African fashions – and will be the UK’s most extensive exhibition on the topic to date.

The showcase brings together over 250 objects, drawn from the personal archives of a selection of iconic mid-twentieth century and influential contemporary African fashion creatives, alongside textiles and photographs from the V&A’s collection.

Photo credit: Alphadi
Photo credit: Alphadi

45 designers from over 20 countries across the continent have been featured, over a varied time period. There is also a selection of garments on show are from the personal archives of a selection of iconic mid-twentieth century African designers, including; Shade Thomas-Fahm, Chris Seydou, Kofi Ansah and Alphadi, marking the first time their work will be shown in a London museum.

The exhibition also celebrates influential contemporary African fashion creatives including Imane Ayissi, IAMISIGO, Moshions, Thebe Magugu and Sindiso Khumalo, showcasing objects and the stories behind them alongside personal insights from the designers, together with sketches, editorial spreads, photographs, film and catwalk footage.

Photo credit: Fabrice Malard
Photo credit: Fabrice Malard

'Africa Fashion' will explore how fashion is an integral part of African culture historically, also looking at the work of contemporary designers, stylists and photographers working in the continent today and the impact that this new wave of creatives are having globally.

"Our guiding principle is the foregrounding of individual African voices and perspectives," said Dr Christine Checinska, curator of African and African Diaspora Fashion. "The exhibition will present African fashions as a self-defining art form that reveals the richness and diversity of African histories and cultures.

"To showcase all fashions across such a vast region would be to attempt the impossible," she continued. "Instead, Africa Fashion will celebrate the vitality and innovation of a selection of fashion creatives, exploring the work of the vanguard in the twentieth century and the creatives at the heart of this eclectic and cosmopolitan scene today. We hope this exhibition will spark a renegotiation of the geography of fashion and become a game-changer for the field."

Africa Fashion will open this Saturday, 2 July. The exhibition is free to view – find out more here.

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