Developed by the Fowler Museum at UCLA, “African-Print Fashion Now! A Story of Taste, Globalization, and Style” introduces visitors to a dynamic and diverse African dress tradition and the increasingly interconnected fashion worlds that it inhabits: “popular” African-print styles created by local seamstresses and tailors across the continent; international runway fashions designed by Africa's newest generation of couturiers; and boundary-breaking, transnational, and youth styles favored in Africa's urban centers. All feature the colorful, boldly designed, manufactured cotton textiles that have come to be known as “African-print cloth.”

The exhibition explores the global stories of these textiles (Fig. 1)—the early history of the print cloth trade with West and Central Africa, the expansion of its production following independence movements, and the increasing popularity of Asianmade print cloths. Diverse popular styles from Ghana (Fig. 2), Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, and Senegal are featured, as well as groundbreaking runway...

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