Paper short abstract:

‘Filling the Gaps in Collecting and Exhibiting African Fashion: A Case Study of the V & A Museum’ will explore how the museum used the ‘Africa Fashion’ exhibition as a turning point in making amends for its failures in collecting and curating African fashion in its existence

Paper long abstract:

In July 2022, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, United Kingdom launched an exhibition titled ‘Africa Fashion’. This blockbuster exhibition (closing April 2023) is the largest and most extensive exhibition dedicated to contemporary African fashion in the United Kingdom.

‘Filling the Gaps in Collecting and Exhibiting African Fashion: A Case Study of the V & A Museum’ will explore how the museum used the ‘Africa Fashion’ exhibition as a turning point in making amends for its failures in collecting and curating African fashion in its existence. This included reaching out to African designers to donate items to the exhibition, purchasing clothing from designers to add to its collection, encouraging members of the public to make donations from the personal archives, and drawing on its own holdings of textiles and photographs. These methods successfully contributed to the exhibition which features 250 objects, the works of 45 designers from 20 African nations.

The paper will conclude by offering best practices for museums that collect and display contemporary African fashion, and highlight museums that have been inspired by the exhibition such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which is preparing to launch more exhibitions on African fashion through its costume institute.