New 'Africa Fashion' book does more than adorn the coffee table

There are fashion books on the coffee table, and then there are books that may land on coffee tables, but certainly offer much more than compelling images of a designer's collections.

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With “Africa Fashion,” originally published by V&A Publishing and released in North America courtesy of Abrams on August 9, minds will be captivated.

Inspirational images and historical context in equal measure, courtesy (in large part) of Dr Christine Checinska, editor and curator of African fashion and the African diaspora at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where the exhibition that accompanies the book opened in early July (and runs through April 16, 2023), "Africa Fashion" is designed for exploration and education.

Lesson number 1? Africa - and its fashion - is about abundance, not lack.

“The contemporary African fashion scene is so influential, so innovative, so impactful, I really see the continent as a global fashion hub,” Checinska told WWD. “I want visitors, readers and people who engage to get a glimpse of what I think is the magnificence of Africans. I want people to get a glimpse of the many histories and cultures. I want people to leave hungry for more and I want to resist this confusing shrinking of Africa. »

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Cover of "Africa Fashion", edited by Christine Checinska, published by V&A Publishing. Victoria and Albert Museum

Told with a nod to the continent's oral traditions, with prose ranging from the academic to the poetic, the book tells stories of designers from across Africa who emerged during the cultural renaissance that has followed the liberation of African countries from colonial rule, such as Ghanaian designer Kofi Ansah. It is part of the politics that cannot be separated from fashion, addressing once-enforced European dress codes that were widely countered in times such as when Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, delivered his speech at the inauguration ceremony. independence of the country wearing the traditional West African agbada, where before he had been photographed in Savile Row style suits. Along the way, he mixes the glamor of textiles and embellishments with snapshots from the 20th century to contemporary times.

"Ultimately, 'Africa Fashion' tells a story of the richness of the African continent, its people, its cultures and its stories, through the prism of fashion. It's a story of creativity , abundance and boundless modernity told from multiple perspectives of global Africa," Checinska writes in the book's intro. And as she tells WWD, it is "almost a moment of colonization in the 'backwards'.

The title comes without the "n", as in Africa, not African, by design: "The title is "Africa" ​​rather than African because we want to keep this open. African fashion can look like a lot There are many ways to be African or many ways to be fashionable and so to keep that slight ambiguity in the title there is kind of room for all the tension, the contradiction, the beauty, struggle, hope.