African Fashion Research InstituteAfrican Fashion Research InstituteThis digital VR fashion exhibition, presented by AFRI, highlights the work of three emerging African designers who were featured at the International Fashion Showcase, held in London’s Somerset House in February 2019. The immersive virtual exhibition of the International Fashion Showcase was created for the digital platform Matterport, and was developed in collaboration with and supported by the British Council.
Fashioning Brave New Worlds: Africa at the International Fashion Showcase (2019) was the first virtual fashion exhibition of its kind on the continent. Three African designers featured among the seventeen emerging creatives on the International Fashion Showcase in London, namely Thebe Magugu, a Johannesburg-based designer (who was also the winner of the IFS2019, and the LVMH2019), Kenyan jewellery designer, Ami Doshi Shah and Rwanda fashion creative, Cedric Mizero. The digital exhibition includes additional interviews, 360* views, and archival footage that expands the scope and reach of these designers’ work developed specifically for the project by AFRI, to expand the ways in which the designers’ work is understood, and articulated.
The virtual exhibition was launched at Gallery MoMo in Johannesburg, together with a panel discussion convened by cultural critic and creative activist Russel Hlongwane of Jetlag Inyathuko, on Saturday, 22 June 2019. In a dialogue via Zoom, the three designers explored the powerful, decolonial potential of new digital platforms for African fashion practitioners and for future forms of fashion curation from the continent.