The Dynamics of Style and Culture in Francophone West Africa and Paris

Catalog description

The focus of this course is to examine the impact of African fashion on Parisian Fashion. We will start with a survey of various African textiles, unraveling the stories woven into these traditional threads. We will then decipher the iconography of African Modern Art and African fashion with its vibrant visual language and history, its sophisticated system of communication where every pattern, shape, color and drape tells a story of lineage, spirituality and social status. This part of the course will cover how the rich material culture of African Fashion has found its ways onto major global Parisian fashion runways, in art galleries and influenced street style, cinema and sports. Through these new lenses, we will also discuss creative inspiration versus cultural appropriation. The second part of the course will explore the Epistemology of African Style validating African perspectives in the face of, and in opposition to, colonial or Western-dominated narratives. We will lay bare the Iconographies of Black Fashion through the lens of culture, art & music by highlighting its agents of change such as precursors, makers, curators, Intellectuals, and artists. It will examine the power of tailoring, the politics of self-representation, and the study of power through the explorations of Black Dandyism and a close study of Les Sapeurs. We will map out the history of Black style across the ages by establishing the markers, signifiers, key elements and cultural connotations of African Fashion in Paris.