South African fashion gets its museum moment

An exhibition at Cape Town‘s Zeitz MOCAA museum aims to give voice to South Africa’s neglected fashion history.

Since Lucilla Booyzen founded South African Fashion Week in 1997, a lot has developed in the fashion industry in the southern tip of Africa.

21 YEARS: Making Histories with South African Fashion Week, at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), aims to reclaim absent African fashion histories and neglected narratives through a micro-history of publications, exhibitions and related workshops that explore, showcase and archive events, magazines, makers, retailers, photographers and more. 

The fashion exhibition, occupying two gallery spaces, features 21 ensembles, each one by a different designer, highlighting styles, collections and seasons in South African fashion over the past 21 years. This collaboration with South African Fashion Week is a curated selection that offers visitors an intimate peek into iconic fashion statements by designers such as Clive Rundle, Amanda Laird Cherry, Marianne Fassler, Black Coffee, Sindiso Khumalo, Thebe Magugu and Selfi.

“In a continent where fashion has played such pivotal roles in crafting identities, politicising bodies and engaging modernities, it is critical that African fashion narratives are afforded new forms of attention in museum spaces,” says Erica de Greef, Senior Curator at Zeitz MOCAA.

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated publication, with both aimed at facilitating a range of fashion-focused conversations at the museum, including panel discussions, curator-led talks and walkabouts, experimental workshops, digital activations and participatory interventions.

Exhibition title:
21 YEARS: Making Histories with South African Fashion Week
Opening dates:
14 November 2018 - 7 January 2019
Venue:
Zeitz MOCAA

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