Christine Checinska, Africa Fashion Exhibition

Abstract

The V&A is one of the few museums in the UK with a dedicated hall for fashion exhibitions. This unnamed, circular room may not be as expansive as other stages in the same museum, but it makes up for its lack of square footage with an also circular mezzanine. This space has recently hosted shows about Mary Quant and Dior, and recently presented Africa Fashion curated by Christine Checinska. The exhibition focuses on notable designers from the continent, traditional and new techniques, the importance of fashion in 20th-century African and diasporic cultural politics, and contemporary trends. Checinska’s curatorial voice is evident throughout, especially when she criticizes the lack of African self-representation in the V&A museum until very recently (Checinska, 2022a). The exhibition covers a respectable seven decades, taking the independence movements of the 1950s–1960s as a starting point. Africa Fashion is a celebration of freedom that rejects European colonial standards by some of the most brilliant and capable designers in contemporary fashion and art. It is not only a long overdue effort in decolonialism by the V&A, but also a beautifully curated exhibition on a par with the shows of Western designers the museum has presented.