Creating African Fashion Histories

Johannesburg display at Fashion Cities Africa © Judith Ricketts

Old Courthouse lecture theatre, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery

Wednesday 2 November 2016

A one-day conference hosted by Royal Pavilion & Museums with the Sussex Africa Centre / University of Sussex and the University of Brighton.

Coinciding with the first major UK exhibition dedicated to contemporary African fashion, Fashion Cities Africa, this conference will explore the possibilities and limitations of dress and fashion history to discuss current and past narratives in African fashion.

Panels will focus on the construction of African fashion histories; the transmission and translation of African fashion identities; new directions in collecting and curating African fashion and the evolution of new platforms for the dissemination of African fashion.

Speakers include Victoria Rovine (author, African Fashion, Global Style), Carol Tulloch (author, The Birth of Cool: Style Narratives of the African Diaspora), Christopher Richards (curator, Kabas and Couture: Contemporary Ghanaian Fashion), Erica de Greef, Angela Jansen (author, Moroccan Fashion, Design, Culture and Tradition), Heather Akou (author, The Politics of Dress in Somali Culture), Jody Benjamin, Hannah Pool (author, Fashion Cities Africa, curator, Africa Utopia) Helen Jennings (author, New African Fashion) and others.

Conference fee: £50 full price, £35 concessions. This fee includes tea and coffee and, following the conference, an evening reception with the opportunity to view the exhibition Fashion Cities Africa. 

For booking and more information: brightonmuseums.org.uk/cafh | 03000 290902