Fashion Cities Africa, an upcoming exhibition at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery will explore practices of dress, fashion and styling in four major African cities – Casablanca in Morocco, Lagos in Nigeria, Nairobi in Kenya and Johannesburg in South Africa. The exhibition is hailed as the first of it kind in the United Kingdom (UK) and it will celebrate the contemporary African fashion scene.
The Brighton Museum and Art Gallery is in possession of an important collection of historical African textiles gathered between the years 1880 and 1940, and Fashion Cities Africa develops on this collection to investigate contemporary fashion in distinctive African metropolises.
“There’s been a surge of interest in contemporary African art and design in Europe and the United States in recent years, but this is the first major United Kingdom exhibition dedicated to contemporary African fashion. We want to reveal the diversity that exists across the continent – and within single cities – and show that wax print is only part of the story of African fashion,” said co-curator Helen Mears.
The museum has curated a diverse group of influential artists and tastemakers from each of the four cities, ranging from international designers and photographers to pop stars and bloggers.
Fashion Cities Africa will include Amaka Osakwe, the Nigerian fashion designer and creator behind Maki Oh, Johannesburg-based creative collective, The Sartists, Nairobi-based brother and sister duo, 2Many Siblings and Casablanca-based designer Zhor Raïs.
The exhibition includes diverse apparel from couture to street style, alongside images, film, sound evoking the creativity and dynamism of the distinctive fashion in each city. A book of the same name, edited by Hannahl Azieb Pool, will also accompany Fashion Cities Africa.
“Fashion Cities Africa” will run from 30 April 2016 – 8 January 2017 at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.
