It was 1960: the Year of Africa. The air was abuzz with revolution, 17 African countries gained independence that year.

As these nascent nation-states emerged from years of colonial rule, the decolonisation and reclamation of modern national African identities was not confined to the political realm. Music, culture – and even fashion – became vehicles through which a modern African identity was asserted.

Clothes were not just clothes. Clothes played a propulsive role in freedom movements, becoming visual symbols of a return to indigeneity and a rejection of the colonially imposed mass-market fabrics, many of which were cheap copies of existing textiles and marketed as “traditional”. Clothes could be seen as a second skin – telling us about where their wearers were from, their regional affiliation and political aspirations alike.

Taking the Year of Africa as its starting point, the Africa Fashion exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum (June 23 - October 22, 2023) delved into these topics, traversing the spectrum of what modern and contemporary fashion has meant in Africa.

The exhibition featured over 300 works, including fashion, music, film, visual art and photography, as well as textiles, and jewellery from the museum’s Arts of Africa collection, to immerse viewers in an overview of the rich and exuberant sartorial history of the continent.

"Fashion is both multidimensional and a fabulous creative statement. Africa Fashion encapsulates this with beautifully vivid and interlocking perspectives. Music, art, cultural identity, and material culture are emphasised to create a rich sensorial experience,” says Annissa Malvoisin, who co-curated the exhibition with Ernestine White-Mifetu.

This link between national and regional identity and sartorial expression was established at the beginning of the exhibition through a timeline along with documentary photography chronicling the seminal moments of African history from the 20^th century. Footage of key independence ceremonies was displayed, along with the flags of all the 54 African countries, along with interpretations of their symbolism.

The exhibition was organised into eight sections such as “Politics and Poetics of Cloth”, which tracks how sartorial expression became a strategic political act; “Vanguard”, which profiles pioneers of African fashion; and “Cutting Edge” and “Global Africa”, which brought the focus back to our hyper-connected contemporary moment by showcasing the global reach of current African fashion.

Whether delving into history or the current moment, the politics of clothing remain pertinent: the exhibition illustrated instances such as Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister of Ghana, announcing Ghanaian independence dressed in a traditional Kente cloth to a contemporary model wearing a frilly, exuberant, bubblegum-coloured creation from 2021 by the Ghanaian designer Papa Oppong that has the satirical slogan “Vote for Corruption” emblazoned across it.

It is this kind of contrast between moments of gravity and playfulness, historical events and contemporary trends that made the show a dynamic and exuberant spectacle.

This show could very well have been a fossilised expression focused on tradition and history. What took it beyond that is how it brings stories of African fashion visionaries to the forefront. The “Vanguard” section of the show featured garments made by luminaries such as Naima Bennis, a pioneering Moroccan designer who subverted traditional norms of Moroccan fashion by using materials typically fashioned into male garments for her female clientele. Alongside this was traditional Malian Bogolanfini or mud cloth, a cotton fabric dyed with fermented mud, tailored into sharp dress-suits by Chris Seydou – almost Jackie O-esque in their structured precision. There were headwraps – a category not often represented in Western fashion – by the legendary Nigerian designer Shade Thomas-Fahm.

This continuum between handloom and traditional fabrics and garments and their modern counterparts was captured through photographs by renowned photographers and artists such as Malick Sidibé and Hassan Hajjaj. Through their work, the outfits were shown in motion – worn by people moving through space. Sidibé captured a young couple, mid-dance, dressed sharply in western-style clothing. We also glimpsed studio portraits by photographers such as Michel Kameni of Cameroon, which offered an insight into how regular Cameroonians were putting their best foot forward as they presented themselves up to be photographed formally in the 1960s.

If these images touched upon the intimate and historic, the exhibition’s “Cutting Edge” section lead straight into the current moment that contemporary African fashion houses are enjoying. Subdivided into sections such as “Artisanal” and “Afrotopia”, it highlighted the fresh talent emerging on the continent. The co-curator White-Mifetu underscores that “this exhibition is an important presentation of African creativity that highlights not only fashion but also the dynamic diversity of talent coming from the continent.”

Even as emerging designers from the continent engage with global markets and trends, their work remains deeply rooted in their context. On display was South-Africa-based designer Thebe Magugu’s collaboration with stylist and traditional healer Noentla Khumalo for his Alchemy collection, which focuses on African spirituality and relationships with ancestors. Part of the research process for creating the prints for the show involved Khumalo throwing her divination tools – goat knuckles, dice and a whistle – onto a mat. Magugu abstracted these patterns into prints used throughout the collection. Similarly, Lafalaise Dion from Côte d’Ivoire, dips into the legacy of the cowrie shells as symbols of wealth, prosperity and fertility re-imagining it in the form of contemporary jewellery.

In parallel, there were challenges to tradition issued by designers such as the Nigerian designer Adebayo Oke-Lawal, whose label Orange Culture introduces fabrics and colours perceived as “feminine” to menswear. Gouled Ahmed from Djibouti – a costume designer, stylist and photographer – introduces self-portraiture that subverts traditional cultural gender norms, specifically challenging the lack of representation of non-binary Black Muslims.

And of course, fashion on the continent is an ever-evolving, moving thing. It didn’t begin with the era the show kicked off with, and it most certainly doesn’t end now. To drive this point home, the exhibition also hosted a pop-up by ALARA, a Lagos-based luxury concept store. Items on sale highlight the global conversations and exchanges that feed into contemporary African fashion. Like its historical counterparts and the show itself, these objects are exuberant, rooted in tradition while being immediate and relevant. If there’s one takeaway from the show, it is this: African fashion isn’t new… and it is very much here to stay.