Afrosartorialism

I thought I would never go back to doing research and writing about my favorite topics. I’ve thrown myself headfirst into motherhood and trying to survive financially under frustrating conditions that have taken a toll on my mental well-being. But I should have known that I couldn’t ignore my heart’s call forever. When the world seems to be spiralling downward, following one’s passions is our best survival strategy. So, here I am, attempting to resuscitate this blog (though I make no promises about consistency – sorry). Also, I think the planets have finally aligned for me, putting amazing people on my path, with whom I’ve been scheming to launch new research projects. Or maybe I have just burst the bubble of isolation and stress that has kept me in a hole for so long?

Either way.

Since I can’t believe that fascism is THE political trend of the moment and ethnonationalism is considered a viable political option, I will avail myself of what remains of our freedom of speech online to share excerpts from an old article of mine on migrant fashion. It is entitled “Displaced Fashion, Fashion of Displacement: Two Visual Statements About Migrant Fashion from Africa,” and appeared in issue 95 of Africa e Mediterraneo (the journal I’ve editorially directed for the last two years). It is based on extensive interviews I conducted in 2021 (times really does fly) with Walé Oyéjidé, the founder and creative director of Nigerian-American luxury brand Ikiré Jones, and with Amza Niyonzima, founder of the Rwandan-South African brand MasaMara (see here and here).

Here is an overview of the article:
“Displaced Fashion, Fashion of Displacement” discusses Oyéjidé and Nyambo’s reading of migration through design, examining the themes of flight and marginalization in their work, which blends art and fashion. Through film-making and photography they explore the effects of displacement on identity, looking into the relationship between dress and space through the vantage of migration. This experience plays out in the larger context of the global fashion industry, where movement is increasingly regulated and enabled based – directly or not – on commercial goals, which render space-making a contested practice in material and symbolic terms. The final part of the article situates the case studies within the artistic movement of African fashion makers, who mobilize visual means to dissect the asymmetries of this system and advance an idea of sustainability based on the political power of representation.”

At the time of publication (end of 2021), Ikiré Jones and MasaMara had both released fashion films that center experiences of migration: After Migration: Calabria and Migration is Beautiful: Destroy All Borders, which are deeply personal for my interviewees. Walé was born in Nigeria and moved to the US at a young age with his parents, and Amza is a Rwandan asylum seeker in South Africa, who spent half of his life in refugee camps across Central and Southern Africa. Their brands were born out of the desire to acknowledge migration as one of the defining experiences of our times—a truth that resonates even more in 2025. Migration is the lens they apply to their creative endeavour and professional relationships. In their films, it is the reality in which the characters move: literal shelters, urban areas of reception, and marginal spaces.

Especially relevant to me is the location of Ikiré Jones‘s film “After Migration: Calabria”, which was shot in the Calabria region of Southern Italy, where migrants were offered shelter in the empty homes of depopulated towns. For twenty years, Calabrian mayors set an example of virtuous reception policies that deployed hospitality to combat population decline. Those place-making practices in turn promoted social sustainability and innovation that both the migrants and the locals benefited from.

Walé and Amza use different tropes to represent migration, which is another interesting aspect. In the Ikiré Jones film, migrants are depicted as royalty—quasi-superhuman beings wandering around desolated landscapes to bring them back to life.

“In After Migration: Calabria, costume brings to life [the two main characters]’s experiences of flight and relocation. Their outfits are a combination of plain clothes (most likely from their personal wardrobes) and pieces from Ikiré Jones’ collections. The match of styles captures a collision of opposed figurations and meanings. Predictably, Alieu and Favor are clad in functional and plain, muted-colored clothes. This is a uniform to blend in, which tells a story of perseverance, social invisibility and disguise in the country of reception. On the other hand, the Ikiré Jones’ items – a shoulder scarf and two man jackets – were created to elevate the wearer. They are glamorously decorated with intricate patterns of vibrant colors that display detailed montages – or pastiches – of altered Renaissance paintings. The ethical message of the film – to change the perception of migrants for the better – is inscribed in these designs.”

In the MasaMara case, migrants are part of a collective occupying and making connections in urban spaces.

“[In the film’s opening] [t]he designer’s voice explains the theme of the collection and its ethical message: «I wanted to show that migration is not a problem, but a process […] and use the platform I was given to move away from negative narratives that frequently goes [sic] with foreigners and refugees». The film juxtaposes scenes of togetherness to others of isolation referencing his experience in South Africa, where an «us versus them» mentality has emerged, he claims in the film, which construes displaced persons as enemies. The garments shown in «Migration is Beautiful: Destroy all Borders» incorporate these themes via symbolic references and material procedures. The collection reworks elements of a migrant’s wardrobe – bucket hats, windbreaker jackets, «humidity scarfs», and puffers cut in the shape of life vests – into the activewear for which MasaMara has been known since launching in 2016. The connected themes of transit, belonging, and home are instead the inspiration of the Spring/Summer 2020 collection, called «Third Culture Kid, Son of the Soil». When it showed at South Africa Menswear Week in July of that year, the models carried backpacks and rolled sleeping bags on their back and walked holding children by the hand. Their garments were created by stitching together different types of fabrics, all of them displaying the geometric and symbolic motifs found in many African dress cultures. This focus on African aesthetics that is MasaMara’s sartorial signature, reflects Nyambo’s aim of keeping alive dress’ long-standing function as a medium of social commentary on the continent, refocusing it on social harmony.”

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In both cases, new geographies are created, but we are left wondering whether the characters will put down roots there or move on—whether displacement for them is temporary or an existential condition. And so the questions arise: Will there be more borders to cross? Will design serve as a kind of map-making activity, orienting and memorializing transit on fabric, a fabric that is then impressed with traces of the embodied experience of displacement?

Cover image: Still from Ikiré Jones’s film: “After Migration: Calabria”. The full credit list can be found at https://ikirejones.com/amfilm1.

Reference: Picarelli, E. (2021), “Displaced Fashion, Fashion of Displacement: Two Visual Statements About Migrant Fashion from Africa,” Africa e Mediterraneo, Blacks to the Future, 95: 52-62