Fashion Cities Africa

Colourful exhibition at Brighton Museum looking at contemporary influences and designers in four African cities, Casablanca, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Lagos.

It was fascinating to see how diverse the styles were with each city having a recognisable interpretation of their culture. The show was nicely designed with a clear commentary and good descriptions of the outfits and trends.

I loved Said Mahrouf’s 2015 collection based on the work of Malevich with sleek draped dresses. I was also interested in the work of 2manysiblings in Nairobi using recycled clothing and the amazing fact that 81% of clothes sold in Uganda being second hand. The last section looked at the development of Lagos Fashion Week.

My favourite garment was a grey strapless dress, pictured here, with a full skirt and pink metallic and gold trim. It was just such a simple, classic shape and design.

Closed on 8 January 2017.

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