A Meeting of Cultures: Fashioning North Africa

It’s long been a problem for creators and commentators across Africa that our continent’s creative output is presented as a monolith. “African fashion” – what is that exactly? The continent is so large, culturally rich, and self-evidently diverse, it seems patently ridiculous to attempt a single definition, or to put together an exhibition or book that tries to do so. And yet this is what has commonly occurred to date. By contrast, A Meeting of Cultures does something different: first, it frames its efforts in curation and editing with a set of essays that reflect on the political effects of the practices of collecting and cataloguing clothing made by various designers and communities in North Africa in the past. Secondly, it considers the region as such – rather than through the lens of the nation states created largely via the colonisation of the area by European states in the 19th and 20th centuries – and as an area adjacent to the Mediterranean. Finally, it presents a wide range of current designers from North Africa and its diaspora, grouped loosely into a trio of categories: Disruptors, Our Land, and Threads. Both visually and decolonially inspiring, this is an essential sourcebook for anyone with an interest in contemporary fashion globally.