28-02-2025
"Africa Fashion" exhibit brings African style to Field Museum
The Field Museum is opening its first fashion-focused exhibit in more than a decade this weekend.
The big picture:"Africa Fashion" celebrates the diversity and inventiveness of Africa-based designers, showcasing more traditionally influenced garments and modern high fashion moments, including an Azzedine Alaia dress worn by former First Lady Michelle Obama in 2009.
What to expect: Mesmerizingly vibrant, colorful and sleek styles, with music by contemporary African artists streaming through the speakers.
Haute couture gowns; bright, finely crafted textiles from different regions of the continent; and ready-to-wear and updated spins on more traditional garments.
Striking gold necklaces and cuffs, plus statement earrings from jewelry designers and photos of outfits from the 1960s and '70s next to modern portraits taken on the streets in Lagos are on also display.
The intrigue: The exhibit includes "touchables" for low vision and blind visitors that feature a raised outline and layers of some of the garments on the mannequins.
What they're saying:"I really want to push against this idea that there's a geographical aesthetic as such. I feel like all cultures are fluid … the idea of origin or singular monolithic African style is not something that I would recognize. So I see everyone in the show drawing from this big spectrum of inspirations, which I think you find in every fashion system," exhibition curator Christine Checinska tells Axios.
If you go: "Africa Fashion" opens Friday and runs through June 29 at the Field Museum.
A companion exhibit called "Connecting Threads" focused on local artists and designers is also opening today.
