Paper short abstract:

How do we examine the circulation of goods, materials, media, and fashion professionals between Brazil and Angola? I advocate for decolonial fashion ethnography to promote diversity in fashion research based on decolonial and Afrocentric exchanges and dialogues.

Paper long abstract:

How do we examine the circulation of goods, materials, media, and fashion professionals between Brazil and Angola? 2018, I began researching fashion production and circulation in Luanda, Angola, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and Los Angeles in the United States. I felt uncomfortable; if I were to apply theories and methods based on binarism that Eurocentric framework works, I would be analytically unethical.

The multi-sited ethnography effects invited me to a colonial break involving a decolonial turn. This enabled me to notice that fashion theories, methods, practices, and politics from Angolan fashion knowledge production were considered invisible by the Brazilian fashion workers in Luanda.

The coloniality of power (A. Quijano) manifested in fashion, social sciences, and African scholarship still dismisses the value and knowledge of fashion in African and Latin American societies. The decolonial Fashion Ethnography: ‘Before Yesterday’ method aims to enable new perspectives and methodologies to engage on social-historical, cultural, political, and economic forces that shape the field and to promote a more nuanced and inclusive understanding of fashion and its role in shaping cultural identities and subjectivities.

I list 20 attentions that one conducting qualitative research in Africa and its Diasporas should take. By doing so, we will begin making visible the invisible while challenging the dominance of Eurocentric ideas and practices in the research process, offering alternative perspectives and approaches.