Africa has long been overlooked in contemporary fashion. But, in the National Gallery of Victoria’s new exhibition Africa Fashion, Senior Curator Dr Christine Checinska wants to showcase “an abundance rather than a lack”, of African creativity.

“It’s about showing the world we’ve always been cosmopolitan, we’ve always been creative, we’ve always created artwork and we’ve always had an impact globally,” she says.

NGV Africa Fashion is a collection of 200 works from more than 50 designers, spanning more than 20 countries and regions on the African continent from the mid-20th century to today.

By combining editorials, sketches, photography, ready-to-wear fashions, textiles, film and music, the exhibition is not only a visual delight, it also tells the political history of African fashion.

Here are five important pieces to check out (and perhaps inspire some more African-made designs in your closet).

Queerness and fashion hand-in-hand

The 360-degree Afrotopia room is filled with ready-to-wear accessories, suits, dresses and suit-dress hybrids, addressing a political issue in Africa.

An iridescent suit by South African designer Neo Serati Mofammere represents the unisex brand: chaotic, fun, daring, exciting, youthful and socio-politically optimistic.

The colours in this peplum suit are blended to celebrate gender-fluidity, representing the invisibility of non-binary people in Africa.

“[It’s a] reference to the coming together of male and female … It’s about standing proud of who you are,” Dr Checinska says.

Wearing as a political act

The Politics and Poetics of Cloth room tells the story of African leaders protesting against colonial rule with textiles.

Nelson Mandela ANC commemorative cloth is a screen-printed cotton from the 1990s produced for the African National Congress, an anti-apartheid political party in South Africa.

It was brought to a rally held by the ANC in London to raise money as people were fighting for Nelson Mandela’s freedom.

This style of commemorative cloth is common in Africa, often featuring a slogan on the border, a portrait of the political figure and a flag.

The Nelson Mandela cloth reads “A better life for all; Working together for jobs, peace and freedom.”

Capturing change

James Barnor is Ghana’s first fashion photographer, and a pioneer for counteracting racial biases in 20th century photography.

His photography is playful, cosmopolitan and filled with Black pride.

Barnor opened the first colour processing lab in Ghana in 1969, but with one important difference. He didn’t use the Shirley card — a widespread reference card for calibrating skin colour, shadows and light during the printing process. Given that it depicted a Caucasian woman, Kodak employee Shirley Page, pictures of people with darker skin were poorly rendered and sometimes unrecognisable.

“He refused to use the Kodak Shirley card,” Dr Checinska said.

“He focused instead on trying to truly represent the richness, the elegance, the variety of Black skin tones.”

Modern and timeless

Think African textiles intertwined with gender fluidity, and you’ve got design project Lagos Space Programme.

Its founder, Adeju Thompson, uses Nigerian practices and textiles in their work, including Adiré, a cloth produced by Yoruba women of south-western Nigeria using dye techniques.

Thompson worked with a community of women dyers in the region and reintroduces this old tradition into modern practice in the Mask piece in this collection, created by David Gardner.

With big lips, long eyelashes and decked out in pearls, it is an ode to the queerness of traditional Nigerian masquerade.

As Dr Checinska explains: “Female figures might be played by men, male figures might be played by women and so there was always an inherent gender fluidity.”

Bridging Africa with the West

Elegant ball gowns from designer Chris Seydou challenge the Western perception of what can be considered luxury fashion.

Seydou learned his trade from his mother — who was a seamstress in Kati, a town in Mali — and moved to Paris to pursue his career in fashion.

Despite his changed location, Seydou continued to embed traditional Malinese bògòlanfini or bogolan (mud cloth) in his work.

Dr Checinska describes Seydou’s work as “showing the enduring elegance of African women through his evening wear.”

NGV Africa Fashion is on display until 6 October 2024 at NGV International, Melbourne.