Africa Fashion consciously celebrates the vitality and innovation of key creatives at the heart of the scene during the 20th century post-independence era and now in this contemporary moment. Giving a platform to designers, stylists, photographers and wearers from over twenty-five countries across a broad spectrum of aesthetics, this exhibition foregrounds the voices and perspectives of African heritage creatives who are shifting the landscape of global fashion. Join exhibition curator Christine Checinska for a behind the scenes look at the making of the exhibition.
Dr. Christine Checinska is the V&A’s inaugural Senior Curator of African and African Diaspora Fashion and Lead Curator of the V&A Africa Fashion exhibition, 2nd July 2022 – 16th April 2023.
Prior to joining the V&A, Christine worked as a womenswear designer, academic, artist and curator. Her creative practice and research explore the relationship between fashion, culture and race. Christine has exhibited work in the group show The Missing Thread, Somerset House, London, September 2023-January 2024, and Folded Life, Johanne Jacobs Museum, Zurich, February 2021. She was a co-curator of Makers Eye: Stories of Craft, Crafts Council Gallery, London, July-October 2021. Her recent publications include ‘Re-Fashioning African Diasporic Masculinities’ in Fashion and Postcolonial Critique, Elke Gaugele and Monica Titton (eds.), 2019. In 2016 she delivered the TedxTalk Disobedient Dress: Fashion as Everyday Activism.
In industry for over thirty years, Christine has created womenswear collections for iconic British brands such as Margaret Howell, where she was a Senior Designer, during the late 1990s.
General adult admissions for this program is $25, general senior and student admissions are $22 and children and PAM membership admissions are free. Lecture tickets include Museum admissions.