The Victoria and Albert Museum’s new blockbuster
exhibition, Africa Fashion (which opens on July 2),
is its first to explore fashion on the continent. It’s
been a long time coming. “Designers have referenced
the continent for ever,” says Omoyemi Akerele,
the founder of Lagos fashion week, who lent her
expertise to the V&A team. It’s true that Africa has
long been a source of inspiration for designers in the
West, from Yves Saint Laurent’s preoccupation with
Morocco to John Galliano’s Egypt-inspired spring/The V&A’s new blockbuster exhibition explores the history
of modern African fashion and the impact it’s had on western
culture. It’s been a long time coming, says Alice Kemp-Habib
AFRICA
FA S H I O N
summer couture 2004 collection for Christian Dior.
“The time has come for individual African voices
and perspectives to be in the foreground,” Akerele
says, and Africa Fashion takes visitors from the
liberation years (the mid-1950s to 1994) through to
the present day.
The most influential contemporary designers will be
spotlighted in the exhibition. There is Thebe Magugu,
the first African designer to win the prestigious LVMH
prize in 2019. He has since been endorsed by a slew of24 • The Sunday Times Style