Afrochic chronicles how Africa, as both expressive culture and myth, influenced the emergence of modern fashion.
Curious to learn more about this research, read my essay “The African Roots of Modern Fashion,” in The Brooklyn Rail:
I recently presented some of this research in the talk, “Afrochic: Race and Emergence of American Fashion,” at the College Art Association in February 2019. I discussed fashions that were commissioned to accompany the Primitive Negro Art exhibition mounted at the Brooklyn Museum in 1923.
The fabric for the garments pictured above was called “Congo Cloth,” and based on textiles collected from the then Belgian Congo territory in Africa. This talk will be published in a forthcoming anthology. Stay tuned for further details.
CAMARA DIA HOLLOWAY 