Some views of the embroidery exhibition in Saint-Louis, Senegal

Now on at the CONSERVATOIRE DES ARTS ET MÉTIERS DE L'ÉLÉGANCE (CAMEE) at 226 rue Khalifa Ababacar Sy, Saint-Louis. Thank you to Mai Diop of Atelier Tesss  for the photos.

Bazin de Bamako – at the International Festival of Extraordinary Textiles, Clermont-Ferrand

Organized by author/filmmaker Patricia Gérimont, the Malian dyer Sanata Magassa presented her remarkable fabrics at the recent festival, accompanied by an exhibition at the musée Bargoin. The dresses in some images are from a workshop at Louvain la Neuve, styled by Issa Tio. All phot0s by Patricia Gérimont, please do not reproduce without permission.

A glimpse of Dogon textiles today.

Some more photos taken earlier this year in Dogon country, Mali, this time by Ilsemargret Luttmann. As we can see design innovation in indigo dyeing, embroidery, and weaving are very much a feature of contemporary dress.

All photos copyright Ilsemargret Luttmann. Please do not reproduce without permission.

Guinea Conakry Fashion 1900

All these images are by one of my favourite of the early African studio photographers, A.James, active in Conakry circa 1900-1910. As far as I am aware, and unlike many of his contemporaries, his life and work has as yet not been researched. They are superbly evocative images, combining poise, beauty, fashionable hairstyles, jewellery, locally woven and imported textiles ….

More on “The Fashionable Hair”–style on Africa’s west coast in the 1900s

In a post last month I looked at a series of early postcards by the African photographer Arkhurst showing images of women’s dress and hair styles on Africa’s west coast, the region stretching from Nigeria up to Sierra Leone, in the early 1900s. Since so many people enjoyed seeing them, today I have brought together another group of postcards from the same era, this time by other photographers, showing similar fashions. All photos author’s collection, click to enlarge.

“Gold Coast, Fanti Woman” – postcard circa 1900, photographer “W.S. Johnston & Sons, Art Photographers, Freetown, Sa Leone.”

The above two photos “Gold in evidence gold coast Type” and “Gold Coast Beauty” are a rare instance of two views from the same sitting. Photographer “Photoholm – Lagos” circa 1900.

“Fantee-women” published by L. Pagenstecher & Co, Sekondi. circa 1900.

“Accra” – photographer and publisher unknown. circa 1900.

“Sekondi – Fantee Woman” photographer and publisher unknown. circa 1900.

“Congo. Femme Acra” photographer and publisher unknown. circa 1900.

For a discussion of this kind of image in the wider context of the history of photography in Africa I can recommend the book Photography and Africa by Erin Haney (reaktion books, 2010.)

“The Fashionable Hair”– Africa’s coastal style in the 1900s

These images are from two series of postcards produced between 1900 and 1910 by the photographer F.W.H Arkhurst in Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast. Arkhurst, a member of the Nzima ethnic group born in the Gold Coast , was a timber exporter who lived in Assinie and later in Grand Bassam. His studio photographs capture perfectly the then fashionable style of  women’s dress along the African coast from the Niger Delta to the Ivory Coast as families grew prosperous from trading opportunities in the expanding colonial economies. Hair was swept high and adorned with gold jewellery or wrapped in cloth, tailored dress was of imported cotton prints, often with a shawl or wrap of locally woven fabrics.