Africa Fashion

Vibrant exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the contemporary African fashion scene and its origins.

The ground floor of the show looked back to the Year of Africa in 1960 and the 1966 First World Festival of Black Arts in Dakar and the effect of those events. It also looked at the role of cloth on the continent with the wonderful quote “cloth is to Africa what monuments are to Westerners” and how designers have used traditional fabrics. It ended by looking at the role of photography to record and spread street style.

I did find that the information boards sometimes felt like they were in the wrong places. You had seen the display before you could read what it was about.

Upstairs was given over to a fabulous display of work by contemporary designers shown in a labyrinth style display as well as round the end of this fabulous space. On the whole this work was brightly coloured but my favourite piece was this beautifully tailored man’s suit in linen.

Closes 16 April 2022

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