V&A Museum 2 July 2022 – 16 April 2023 — Richness and diversity of African cultures are exhibited in a range of fashion creatives from over 20 countries across continent. African Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London UK, explores the contemporary couture, ready-to-wear, made to order, and adornment offering a close-up look at the new generation of designers, stylists, collectives, and fashion photographers working in Africa today. 

“Africa Fashion means the past, the future and the present at the same time. The joy of life and the joy of colour are completely different and very particular to the continent. It’s a language of heritage, it’s a language of DNA, it’s a language of memories.” – Artsi, Fashion Designer, Maison ArtC. 

Spread across two floors, the exhibition celebrates the global impact of contemporary African fashions and how the digital world accelerated its expansion. It features selections of garments from iconic mid-twentieth century African designers like Shade Thomas-Fahm and Chris Seydou. Also, influential contemporary African fashion creatives showcase their objects and stories behind them alongside personal insights from the designers along with editorial spreads, photographs, and catwalk footage. 

“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.” – 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.” 

Read more on: https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/africa-fashion