DECOLONISING AFRO AESTHETICS IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY

October 27, 2020 Geraldine Wharry

Puking Convo by Sandra Poulson

Deep social transformations have re-occurred these past few weeks and months, since the unfortunate murder of George Floyd. Not that police brutality is a new phenomenon. It has happened several times in the past without necessarily being shown or filmed. The violence and injustice towards Black communities existed prior to those events.

Today, the question around institutionalised racism has made its return in the public space and it is hard to ignore the social racial issues it brings to light for the world, and within the premise of fashion culture, and the style industry.

Op-Ed by Koura Rosy Kane - Writer and Trend Researcher.

The lexicon around racism is very vast and gathers various mechanisms that resulted in a common consequence: the exclusion and dehumanisation of a group according to their physical appearance and/or ideological values. Directly concerned by this process through history, the Afro-communities have largely experienced those mechanisms mainly related to their past of slavery and colonisation. Even after abolition and independence, oppression of Black people is still a reality in the West. As a response, creatives from Afro descendants are engaging in a process of using the codes that discriminate them to create an aesthetic engaging with their cultural heritage and to protect this set of values.

To grasp the idea of entering a new era of Afro representations and aesthetics, we must understand the institutionalised racism that leads to this structural shift.

Kwame Ture

Charles V Hamilton and Kwame Ture – also known as Stokely Carmichael - first explored the notion of institutionalised racism while co-writing ‘Black Power: The Politics of Liberation’. Although this study is mainly focused on a political sphere in America, it gives rightful details to describe the phenomenon experienced by Black people within the Western societies. “Institutional racism relies on the active and pervasive operation of anti-black attitudes and practices. A sense of superior group position prevails: whites are “better” than blacks; therefore blacks should be subordinated to whites. This is a racist attitude and it permeates the society, on both the individual and institutional level, covertly and overtly”. [1]

This approach is passed along through the years thanks to institutions that preserve the status quo. Along with these systemic traditions, internalised racism comes to enforce the belief of superiority among the dominant group.

“This approach emphasizes the psychic costs of internalized racial oppression defined as the individual inculcation of the racist stereotypes, values, images, and ideologies perpetuated by the White dominant society about one’s racial group, leading to feelings of self-doubt, disgust, and disrespect for one’s race and/or oneself. This emphasis on individual psychological wounds is evident in a legacy of personal, often anecdotal, accounts of struggles with internalized racial inferiority that span the twentieth century. Anti-racist activists, writers, social commentators, and artists of colour frequently touch on the topic in autobiographies, speeches, essays, editorials, films, music, poetry, and novels.” [2]

Fashion - as an institution itself - is also impacted by such racial mechanisms held by misinformation and misrepresentations. While the industry is mainly influenced by the western aesthetic, creating space for blackness to express itself genuinely and freely is a perilous journey that Afro creatives want to embrace. Truly bound to fast fashion, discrimination is supported by a system that produces standardised content made to promote white beauty and set off styles.

Deeply Euro-centric, the actual system is a place where Afro creativity is underestimated and considered as not valuable. From time to time, the dominant group even appropriates Afro techniques and symbols by putting them out of their social contexts to use them as ‘trends’ - more commonly named as Cultural Appropriation and Exploitation.

Marc Jacobs Spring Summer 2017 looks

Digging into the fashion history to seek for this practice is truly facilitated since these issues are unfortunately reappearing each season. Indeed, each season we can the topic of Appropriation coming back. Taking symbols from other communities and cultures – without any permission or financial compensation - is a habit largely normalised in the Western fashion industry. Despite an increasing usage of black models on the fashion scene, embracing the full Afro culture by crediting and involving the right contributors is rarely visible among the usual practices within the field.

Diversity – especially in the high ranked positions – is still more a concept than a reality in the actual fashion model. Amid the data we can find, the article “Why racism is so entrenched in the fashion industry” written by Elizabeth Segran for Fast Company underlines that “within the Council of Fashion Designers of America, one of the industry’s most prominent trade organizations, only 3% of members are black. Less than 10% of the designers at the last New York Fashion Week were Black. And only 15% of the models that walked the runway were Black” [3]. When we tend to think this problem is specifically located in the US, we must understand that it is more an issue that is visible in the Western creative industry.

The Black diaspora is experiencing this kind of prejudices while trying to make its way into this field. Mata Mariélle – make-up artist and founder of Mata Labs based in the UK – claimed in an interview in June 2020 for the Guardian that “From feeling like I don’t belong on certain jobs, to being the only black person in the crew, or being put in a box: ‘She can do black makeup so let’s get her.’ I know black creatives will know the experiences I speak of. We all know. I won’t dwell on these points. These are difficulties, however, that I continue to push through to continue doing what I love. What I want now is for real change to happen. No more performative black squares, I want real change from these big corporations who are heavily influenced by black culture.” [4]

Indeed, misconceptions around Afro-cultures are very vivid and tangible in the West. Mostly based on inconsistent stereotypes, the relationship this society has with the entire continent and its communities is deeply marked by the history of colonisation.

This approach tends to consider these nations as ‘undeveloped’ and ‘helpless’ where ‘drama’ is everywhere. This conception finds its roots in the values system and is bound to the history of slavery and colonisation; hence it settles also into norms and practices of the fashion industry. The educational model often dismissed the contribution of Afro-communities through fashion history.

Besides being an ancient practice among these civilisations, many techniques and ‘trends’ are coming from traditional African crafts.

For example, often associated with the hippie movement, Tie-dye was originally from Africa. Referring more often to Adire - Tie and Dye in Yoruba – this textile art was generally made by women from Yoruba located in Nigeria.

Despite the proven facts regarding the origins of this practice, the general psyche within the fashion industry is still not acknowledging this contribution while speaking about Tie-Dye. Indeed, some kind of propaganda is created towards this continent in the Western world. Not only the techniques and crafts from the continent itself have often been ripped off. The contribution of the Black diaspora within the Western fashion is also a relevant demonstration of the lack of rightful accreditation. For instance, Hip-Hop culture was born in the South Bronx in New York and originally emerged within the Afro-American youth. Many well-established brands afterwards have taken advantage of this movement generating a lot of financial gains that are still not benefiting the Black communities. When analysing this kind of phenomenon, we have the feeling that as long as the Afro communities handle cultural products, they are not valuable. It needs to be appropriated by Westerners to suddenly find its worth among white cultures.

Victoria Scott

Deep negative representations are influencing the way individuals from the West perceive and interact with Africa.

The question of negative perceptions within the Westerners mainstream psyche towards African populations and history has been a study area often explored. Among these researches, Japhace Ponsian from the University of Iringa (Tanzania) has delved into this idea in his piece on The persistence of Western negative perceptions about Africa: Factoring in the role of Africans. According to Ponsian, “Africa and the Africans have always been looked down upon by Western nations from long time ago. Racial theories were expounded to explain Africa’s perceived backwardness, barbarism, and incapacity to develop until after they came in contact with supposedly superior races that brought them development and civilisation. (…) More than fifty years after attainment of political independence, Africa is still viewed negatively in the eyes of the Westerners.” [5]

To his analysis, he is even adding an historical layer that is bound to those visions: “The people of Africa have been traumatized. European colonizers denigrated them for centuries as “subhumans” and denied them recognition of any meaningful intellectual, cultural, and historical accomplishments or experience.” These types of views are shaping the perceptions the actual industry has on creations from the continent. While searching on Afro history and its contribution, resources are very limited and most of them are from westerners that are – by definition – external to the entire cultures and traditions.

Tired of being analysed and used as a topic of research, the Afro communities and its diaspora are creating a space to avoid these insulting misrepresentations and create their own narrative.

What is very complex – however interesting – in this process, is the fact that we have two worlds that are interacting - the African continent and its diaspora – to rewrite the story of their heritage. As black individuals, they are the storytellers of a culture that gave them depth and meanings through plenty of symbols and traditions. Seeking for legacy in facts, they are putting the milestones of a movement meant to change the representations the West built around their cultures.

Repossessing the materials of creation is a way to escape the distortion and falsification of their ancestry.

While exploring this topic, Nigerian artist Michael Macharia [6] - known for his work in fine art and fashion photography - first mentioned Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk ‘The Danger of a single story’.[7]In this renowned video, “Adichie’ neatly shows that nowhere has been so subjected to a singularising narrative as Africa” as underlined by Michael. “The single-story narrative of Africa ultimately comes from Western discourse, and the stories most often prove to be a one-dimensional and imagined depiction of Africa above a nuanced representation of one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse parts of the planet.” For the CSM graduated of Contemporary Photography, the problem of representations goes way back to the Greek era and it is tied to Herodotus’ work. “Arriving in North Africa, Herodotus describes the place he encounters as a “land of wild beasts.” He claims that the dense forests of western Libya are inhabited by “headless creatures with eyes in their chest”, and later refers to dog-headed men, wild men and women. Herodotus’ accounts of the people he encountered in North Africa are traceable within the writings of English philosopher and physician John Locke.

In 1561, Locke sailed to Africa, calling the people he met “beasts who have no houses and without heads, having their mouth and eyes in their breasts.” It is likely that Herodotus’ aim in writing about Africa was to provide his audience with a highly imaginative, fantastical version of a people greatly removed from anything they knew.

Africa had not yet been explored [by Westerners], and so any narrative of it could plausibly fictionalise and fabricate without audiences having any reason to doubt the storyteller.” Although we could think these ideas around Africa and its communities are now from the past, Michael shows us these theories have actually influenced the contemporary Western vision. Indeed, to support such assumptions, “The scientific community in the 17th and 18th century began to understand Africans as primitive, more ape-like than human. This is evident in the works of Victorian scientist and author Frederick Coombs, who used science to validate belief in the apelike, unintellectual African. Coomb’s popular phrenology theorised that physical parts of the human body like the skull determined the individual’s intelligence. A larger skull suggested intellect, such that Africans - the skulls of whom Coombs found to be much smaller than Europeans - were less cognitively developed.”

For the Nigerian artist, African history and heritage have mainly been analysed by Western historians, philosophers or even filmmakers and this is a real problem. They “have propagated a single story of Africa: the continent as a homogenous place and its people as primal, primitive and somehow inferior to those telling the story. This single-story narrative spreads ideas about Africa with little regard for the historical or cultural realities. They are incomplete representations of a people and are more of an idea rather than reality. Its power lies in its persistence in Western politics and culture; it has even been internalised by many on the African continent itself.” The concern around narrative is tangible among the Afro creative communities.

Questioning the establishment seems crucial to overcome this syndrome of a single story as mentioned by Michael: “What is the future of Africa in the way it is represented? Will Africa ever become untethered from the single story?” According to him, “notions of a people are solely devised on knowledge and understanding and I firmly believe that we must address the origins and question the media through which it has been disseminated in order to change the narrative that is prevalent in western discourse. We must understand that there in no singular image of a people and place and it is our responsibility to provoke reflection on archaic narratives and dislodge ‘real’ Africa from the imagined versions presented. We must break down the stereotypes to reveal a more balanced and nuanced narrative.”

Michael Macharia

While searching within the past, the process of putting Black culture at the epicentre of creation is not new. It has been an efficient tool through history to narrate the heritage and aspirations of the Afro descendants. This ideology takes place in the creative industry and molds an aesthetic on its own. In the early 1970, Blaxploitation – a subgenre in cinema – was created to correct the misrepresentation and underrepresentation of black people into the movie industry in the US. Later in the 1990s, Afro-futurism appeared as a way to reimagine “not only new forms of temporality but also new black experiences and identities via science and speculative fiction or other artistic and intellectual means.” This movement is based on a multi-media approach that involved “(…) literature, visual art, photography, film, multimedia art, performance art, music, and theory—that imagine greater justice and a freer expression of black subjectivity in the future or in alternative places, times, or realities.” [8] Both sub-cultures were meant to put the black experience as the main source of creation. As the content manipulated by external actors are meaningless and unfairly judged, the aim of such movement is to reinvest the roots and foundations of black civilisations to build a future through visual production.

Today, Afro-creatives evolving in the fashion industry are using this same approach of putting themselves at the core of their studies as a way to escape prejudices and draw their own stories.

Among the Afro diaspora, multi-disciplinary creatives such as Sandra Poulson [9]are discussing social and political matters through fashion, photography and writing. Originally from Angola, Sandra has “been studying fashion at university since 2013. Initially studied Fashion design at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon, and then moved to London where [she] did [her] foundation at LCF, and BA Fashion Print at Central Saint Martins.” Her recent graduated collection An Angolan Archive is an anthropologic and semiotic study of the society she grew up in. “I am African, lived in Luanda until the age of 18, and what my work discusses is a direct outcome of my experiences. I hold my heritage very close to my heart, and that’s clear in my work.” In her creations Sandra is discussing the “political, cultural and socio-economic landscape of Angola as a case study to analyse the relationship between History, oral tradition and global political structures, as a body that is local to the conversation.”

Using fashion as a tool to investigate, Poulson is looking at her immediate environment and use the cultural objects from the ordinary life to analyse their role into the on-going social transformations – “which inherently draws the questions posed by the work to the task of decoloniality“ as she underlines. When it comes to the experience of Afro descendants in the West, Sandra thinks it is fundamental to dissociate representation from position. In other words, dismantle the notion of representation is not enough to allow the emancipation of the Afro-communities. However notion such as position can lead to tangible social restructuration. Indeed, “Representation allows in ways the performativity of the agency of bodies like ours. While at the same time, it maintains people in the periphery of economic power. Also, it allows western institutions/corporations to use our names and faces in order to profit them, once again. Position - on the other hand - could almost be seen as more mobile, as its vulnerable to be changed depending on various social, economic, educational and class factors.

While on one side it seems that representation is more and more of a trend and a commonly used tool, which gives the illusion of progression. ‘Re-positioning’ bodies like ours can in fact invert the colonial matrix of power we live under.”

Although she is very humble when it comes to her own contribution in the process of questioning the establishment, the impact of her work is easy to grasp. Far from the clichés on Afro communities drawn by Westerners, her approach goes above the simple garments. It is a reflective journey aimed to objectify the current order. “I believe my practice challenges and dismantles the political, socio-economic and historical manoeuvres affecting the people for the last 500 years.” As Michael, Sandra wants us to remember that representing the Afro communities cannot use a one-dimensional method and lens. “I think that having my work being used to represent, or read our communities is a means to group, generalize and disregard the diversity of culture and political complexities of communities across the continent and in the diaspora.” Being aware of this diversity and versatility is fundamental for these creatives that are digging in the historical sphere to re-appropriate the narrative around their communities and heritage.

Hopes of dismantling the current system to settle a better future for the industry are vivid. Sandra truly believes that as long as the society itself doesn’t structurally change, the fashion field will not improve either since it is part of the social structure.

To aspire for a better industry “fashion should be taken accountable at all levels as the problem systematically affects all stages of employing, designing, producing, marketing and profiting. To dismantle racism, the industry and people will need to revisit themselves in order to take real progressive steps rather then ticking the boxes once again.”

The Ladder by Sandra Poulson

Now that we are entering this new era where Afro aesthetic is repurposed, it will become harder for established companies from the West to ignore this need of truthful representations. Although the Afro-community has to endorse the role of narrators of their story and heritage, external actors have to respect and understand truly the claim to encourage real inclusiveness and authenticity. This time, the fashion industry, as a whole, will not be able to hide behind tokenism logic.

Overly used by the field, it refers to “the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality within a workforce.” [10] Having a tendency to fake inclusiveness, well-known fashion labels are playing too often the ‘black model’ card to simulate diversity within their company culture while having a few minorities at their boards or at high-ranking positions. Lately, with Marni’s offensive fashion campaign [11], we are witnessing again that not having Black voices at decisional roles is a real problem. On a survey from the U.S Bureau of Labour Statistics, it shows that in 2019, 12.1% employees from clothing stores were Afro-Americans against 75.1% of white. When searching within the art, entertainment and recreation, we can see the same phenomenon: 10.5% of Afro-Americans and 79.6% of white. The newspaper publishers category is gathering 10.0% of Afro-Americans while white people represent 84.5%. [12] These demographics highlight systemic problems towards Afro representations confirmed by the creatives’ experiences into the fashion industry.

Stylist editor Mecca James-Williams explained in a Harper’s Bazaar [13] that “It’s lack of access, and then when you get that access, you get disenfranchised. Your voice gets silenced. So, yes, I’ve been a senior styling editor and a deputy styling editor, but when I got these roles, me using my voice got me disenfranchised. I then got tokenized. I’d be explaining why something was wrong, and instead of people understanding, they’d create conflict and stereotype me within this one construct of what a Black woman is.” Amanda Murrey, stylist and branding consultant adding, “(…) Not seeing enough of us in that space, that’s been my biggest obstacle. Because psychologically, I felt like fashion wasn’t going to be a safe space for me if I didn’t see other people who looked like me.” Harper’s Bazaar themselves have been called out for a lack of diversity in their publication. Tangible data is given to support these assessments in a report from Tameka N. Ellington: Underrepresented: The Lack of Black Designers Featured in Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. [14]

The notion of safe space for black people to create into the fashion industry seems crucial for the years to come. Without any regulations and transformations, the field will not enable change to come.

As the necessity of institutions is indisputable, coalitions such as Black in Fashion Council [15] have been created to hold industry accountable concerning their level of diversity and inclusiveness. Behind this initiative are two black professional women: Lindsay Peoples Wagner and Sandrine Charles. They aimed to release an index score able to measure equity within the fashion industry. By approaching the matter of diversity with real data, it will allow to concretely evaluate the efforts and implications of fashion actors. This way, tokenism process can be eradicated through demographics that show the ethnicity of people at the high-level positions. “I know that it’s odd but I spend a lot of time and probably too much time thinking about reparations. And though I don’t know if that will ever happen for us, I think the closest viable feeling to that in fashion would be when we can say that we are being welcomed into spaces because of our undeniable brilliance that has been taken advantage of for far too long.

The respect is what’s lacking. I see a lot of surface level attempts of hiring of assistants and dressing of trendy rappers and not enough support for black people who work behind the scenes (…) “ said Lindsey Peoples Wagner. This willing to get Afro-culture respected is growing further within the African diaspora and natives. Juxtaposed to this approach of using data as a way to escape lack of real inclusivity, working on the educational sphere is also fundamental. To overcome this problem of resources Kimberly M. Jenkins creates The Fashion and Race Database in 2017. Her project to decolonise the fashion industry is appearing more than relevant in the actual context. This online platform’s goals are to “expand the narrative of fashion history and challenge mis-representation within the fashion system.” [16] Against systemic racism within the field, the most efficient response appearing is to aim for structural change.

Courtesy of Fashion and Race Datavase.

To summarise, unpacking racial issues towards Afro communities in the fashion industry and in the Western society is a very complex process we need to embrace right now. Although it might feel uncomfortable for some, we must go beyond personal and individual feelings to bring to light these mechanisms that have tangible impacts on Afro creatives’ trajectories within the field. It cannot remain a utopia or a vague idea. Understanding, accepting and respecting traumas faced by these communities could be a way to avoid the reproduction of such harmful systems. To reach this goal, performative activism will not be enough. Posting black squares on Instagram will not do the trick. Profound and structural changes have to happen. The years to come will be marked by an increasing emergence of this type of disruptive initiatives meant to shake the establishment. Thus, ignoring them will only end up leaving Western fashion labels behind – as they will not be relevant in this growing ecosystem.

In The Atlantic magazine, writer Amanda Mull underlines the fact that “Almost all of the industry’s most successful brands are owned by just two conglomerates, LVMH and Kering, which are controlled by French billionaires, their children, and their inner circle of other European aristocrats. Lots of people can buy into their vision of what power looks like, but it’s still their vision.” [17] These companies are monopolising the industry and they have no interests in changing the rules as currently, they benefit from them. Holding the status quo regarding diversity and inclusiveness allows them to keep their vision as dominating. We could think they need time to improve and by integrating concepts such as New or Ethical Leadership, it could be a way to make them appear more accountable, but is it really sufficient? After all they had the opportunity to change the model, but they choose to keep it as is. Thus, can Afro creatives trust them and forget about these habits of exploitation and rejection? How are we supposed to believe their commitments when the latter is filled with opportunism? It is hard to envision these labels becoming genuinely open to integration.

Perhaps it is because of their incapacity to respond to those claims that building something new for the fashion industry is inevitable.

We could embrace the idea of improving the existing one to overcome process such tokenism and lake of diversity in executive positions. However – although it could sound radical - building from the ashes of injustice can appear as a lost cause, while starting from scratch gives more freedom to redefine the basics for the future of the fashion industry. It is where the new era of Afro aesthetic finds its meaning and pertinence. Narrators of their own history and legacy, they aimed to repossess the space and position that have been arbitrarily attributed by external actors of their culture. We could see it as the beginning of a bigger social movement, which will reform the fashion industry by putting the values of minorities as a priority. After all, the current system is far from fair, so what are our interests in maintaining it?

Koura Rosy Kane is a Writer and Trend Researcher. She uses a cultural and social lens to analyse the fashion industry. Truly convinced this field goes beyond garments and trends, she wants to invest it as an object part of a bigger structure. Her personal project PLATFORM – focused on emerging and alternative fashion – is aimed to challenge the establishment.

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