Résumé

"Featuring fifty-five pieces of African textiles, clothing, headwear, and jewelry, African Apparel: Threaded Transformations across the 20th Century celebrates dress as products of global interactions, generational conflict and continuity, and expressions of gender. Richly illustrated, this catalog highlights the strength and resilience of long-standing practices that characterize African dress; the wide variety of cultural, religious, and political motivations for adorning oneself; and the varying identities reflected in analyzing African material culture of the last century and a half. Textile selections include those handwoven and dyed alongside factory-woven and machine-printed cloth, as well as items of adornment including amber and silver jewelry from North Africa, beadwork-embellished clothing from South Africa, and various headdresses from across the continent. This unique collection is explored in conversation with the collector, through an in-depth essay, and with detailed object entries. From European colonization to independence, to economic liberalization, African Apparel demonstrates how dress practices reveal personal and group identities, cultural traditions, and aspirations"--