Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how the rebranding of the oldest producer of wax cloth from a manufacturer of textiles for Africa into a global fashion and design brand manifested in the material and visual reworking of the company's textile designs.

Paper long abstract:

Wax cloth, commonly known as "African print" or pagne, was introduced to West African markets by European manufacturers in the late 19th century. Since that time, the cloth - in particular the variety produced by its oldest manufacturer, the Dutch company Vlisco - has become a signifier of West African cultural identity and heritage, within Africa and beyond. In 2006, in response to sustained and overwhelming competition on its African markets, Vlisco initiated a shift in its business strategy, aimed at remaking the company from a manufacturer of textiles for Africa into a global high-end fashion and design brand. Design practice was one of the areas affected by this strategy. A series of changes meant to bring Vlisco's new textile prints in step with global fashion trends while building on the company's long history of producing for West Africa gave rise to prints with a noticeably different design aesthetic, widely deemed unrecognizable by the cloth's seasoned users in key West African markets. The material and visual reworking of wax cloth designs in Vlisco's reorientation from African to global markets is the subject of this paper, which is based on 13 months of ethnographic research conducted between 2013 and 2014 in Holland and Togo. Reading these textile designs as visual testimonies of ongoing negotiations of Africa's place in the world order, the paper demonstrates how design and fashion discourses, practices, and objects participate in projects of world-making.