DURBAN DIRNDL

AfRICAN FASHION
The true size of Africa

The true size of Africa

Global Dirndl

D´urban Dirndl (Berlin/Germany), Capsule (Thornten Heat/ UK), Monu and Monu (Salzburg/Austria, Lagos/Nigeria).

Natsuki Otani

The Tokyo born illustrator submit drawings of a Chichia and a Jewel by Lisa design for the book Fashion Africa by Jacqueline Shaw. 

Sika

Ghana born designer Phyllis Taylor source all materials and fabrics from local traders and stockists in Ghana, where her garments are also made.

„It’s only with the recent interest in exotic prints that African cloth is becoming popular. In a way popularity is good because if Sika becomes more accessible to the fashion buying public, more people will be wearing African prints, but then I’m not too sure how it would take off and if there’ll be enough interest to make it mainstream.“

www.sikadesigns.co.uk/

James Barnor

1930 born Barnor began his career in a makeshift studio named “Ever Young” in Accra. He took portraits of sitters from all walks of life, from civil servants to newly-weds. In the late 50s, Barnor moved to London to work as a fashion photographer, and began to capture unique images of Africans living in Britain. His covers and fashion shoots for Drum, the most widely read magazine in Africa at the time placed black models dressed in western, 60s fashions in typical London settings and cars. 

Hemma

After studying and teaching in Ghana, New York based designers Cindy Gaston and Edna Bisson drew on their inspiring journey and  create Hemma, meaning Queen, in Twi, the most used language of Ghana. Hemma is a luxury (300- 475 $) brand with a very strong Kente accent.

http://www.thehemmacollection.com

                              1870                                               2012

Roots

Congo, 1924

Dior, 2009

Chanel, 2011

(More about the origin of this hair style in my earlier post: The African Princess and urban turban)

How Josephine Baker changed the world The old Egyptians stayed weeks and months in dark rooms before their marriage to became pale. Japanes women had a rice flour make up. Queen Elisabeth I. and many others poisend herself to death with mercury and lead just to became white. Only farmers and outdoor workers had tanned skin. And than came a woman, one of the first international superstars and one of the most influential woman of the 20. Century and changed it all: „All went to the beaches to get dark like Josephine Baker. The French got sick trying to get black—café au lait—you weren‘t anything unless you were café au lait“ Henry Louis Gate in an interview.                  Bronzers and new colors such as suntan became popular at the end of the 1920s. Famous white women like Coco Chanel and Joan Crawford helped to popularize sun worshiping. Tan skin clearly still had a symbolic connection to people of color at the same time that it came to stand for exotic tourism. Joan Crawford, for example, was scolded by the studio for her tanning because she looked like a lineal descendent of Sheba.

How Josephine Baker changed the world

The old Egyptians stayed weeks and months in dark rooms before their marriage to became pale. Japanes women had a rice flour make up. Queen Elisabeth I. and many others poisend herself to death with mercury and lead just to became white. Only farmers and outdoor workers had tanned skin. And than came a woman, one of the first international superstars and one of the most influential woman of the 20. Century and changed it all:

„All went to the beaches to get dark like Josephine Baker. The French got sick trying to get black—café au lait—you weren‘t anything unless you were café au lait“ Henry Louis Gate in an interview.                 

Bronzers and new colors such as suntan became popular at the end of the 1920s. Famous white women like Coco Chanel and Joan Crawford helped to popularize sun worshiping. Tan skin clearly still had a symbolic connection to people of color at the same time that it came to stand for exotic tourism. Joan Crawford, for example, was scolded by the studio for her tanning because she looked like a lineal descendent of Sheba.