The Museum at FIT recently opened a groundbreaking exhibition that looks at the African diaspora through a fashion lens. The museum’s associate curator of costume, Elizabeth Way, conceived of this show, Africa’s Fashion Diaspora, and selected the pieces that are on display. Newsroom spoke with the exhibition curator about how the show approaches Black identity, what visitors should look for, and how they can extend their knowledge.
Newsroom: How is this show different from other fashion exhibitions with a focus on Africa?
Elizabeth Way: Africa’s Fashion Diaspora is a focused exhibition that looks at how Black fashion designers from across the diaspora are contributing to transnational conversations on modern Black identity. Philosophers and politicians have called these ideas Pan-Africanism, Black Consciousness, Négritude, and even Afrofuturism. This exhibition acknowledges fashion’s crucial role in expressing Black identity across national boundaries.
What do you want people to take away from this exhibition?
I hope people come away with an appreciation for creative fashion design as cultural production and its vast capacity for storytelling. There are specific stories and histories of different Black individuals and communities embodied in each piece, and I hope the audience discovers a new favorite designer they may have never come across before.
How is this different from other shows you have curated like Black Fashion Designers in 2016 and Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: Fifty Years of Hip Hop Style in 2023?
Both Black Fashion Designers and Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous were surveys that took a revisionist approach to fashion history. They filled in crucial parts of fashion history that are often left out of mainstream narratives. Africa’s Fashion Diaspora is a much more focused exploration of how 20th- and 21st-century Black fashion designers consider their identities through their design practices.
Are there any designers whose objects are on view for the first time at MFIT?
Yes! There are too many to list here but almost half of the designers in the exhibition are being shown for the first time in our galleries.
Tell us about the companion symposium on October 25. What can attendees expect?
The symposium is a mix of scholarly presentations by the top fashion historians in their subject areas, with talks on Black fashion design from the Caribbean, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Brazil, and the U.K., and conversations with designers on their creative practices and expressions of identity. It will be a fun and very informative day!
Africa’s Fashion Diaspora is on view through December 29. Find out more on The Museum at FIT’s website.
The Museum at FIT’s Fashion Symposium is free and open to the public; find the full schedule and speaker bios online and register.