Project
Vision and Ambition: The project looks at fashion – specifically through the work of fashion designers – in Africa to explore the connections and contractions between the creative and cultural values and potential for economic development of the creative economy in Africa. Fashion is not only a sector of the world economy, it is also a lens through which we can explore cultural expression, memory politics, making traditions as well as broader economic and social impact of the creative economy.
The project is very timely as we see:
● a growing global awareness that fashion and garment production is steadily moving from China and India to new emerging African countries (such as Kenya).
● a mounting interest from market and policy bodies such as the African Development Bank who consider this sector a new economic resource for African development.
● an increasing presence of African fashion designers in international fashion shows, such as NY Fashion Week or African Fashion Week in London, and the emergence of new funding frameworks to support the creative economy of Africa[1].
We believe it is important that this research takes place now to allow a more critical reflection on how fashion will evolve on the African continent - specifically safeguarding and reflecting on its cultural value, making and self-expression, and creative content – before these cultural expressions are silenced by global pressures to conform to global economic and production dynamics.
The vision is to explore these broader cultural and economic dynamics in relation to fashion design in two African cities (Lagos and Nairobi) with the objective to collect enough evidence and develop a research framework and methodology to allow us to apply for a larger research grant that would allow us to expand the scope of the work to other sectors of the creative economy (for example craft, music etc.) and increase the number of countries and international partners involved. Overall the project aims to take the first steps in answering a major question in relation to the opportunity that the creative economy can play in the future development of Africa and how much it can connect and re-appropriate the continent’s rich cultural heritage and visual culture with the opportunity for economic development.
The research is organised around three questions, which will be led by each of the academic partners:
1) Creativity as memory politics within Africa fashion design Prof Ananya Jahanara Kabir
How do fashion designers act as cultural intermediaries of African heritage as collective memory, visual cultures and making traditions, producing and reproducing those cultural aesthetic value, reinterpreting them or appropriating them or even reject it them?
2) Fashion designers as part of the creative economy led by Dr Roberta Comunian
How do fashion designers behave as cultural entrepreneurs adopting business strategies to maximise their opportunity to engage with local, national and international markets? What networks and intermediaries do they work with (locally, nationally and internationally)?
3) Fashion designers in national and international production networks led by Dr Eka Ikpe
To what extent do fashion designers connect with the broader economy in relation to sourcing their inputs locally, nationally and internationally? What factors influence these dynamics? How do fashion designers plan and implement their production process, including outsourcing stages of their processes, locally, nationally, regionally and internationally? How do fashion designers connect to and access ma
[1] HEVA fund http://www.hevafund.com/news/2018/6/22/heva-unlocks-game-changing-investment-worth-kes-90-million-euro-800000-from-agence-franaise-de-dveloppement-afd-for-east-africas-creative-sector
The project is very timely as we see:
● a growing global awareness that fashion and garment production is steadily moving from China and India to new emerging African countries (such as Kenya).
● a mounting interest from market and policy bodies such as the African Development Bank who consider this sector a new economic resource for African development.
● an increasing presence of African fashion designers in international fashion shows, such as NY Fashion Week or African Fashion Week in London, and the emergence of new funding frameworks to support the creative economy of Africa[1].
We believe it is important that this research takes place now to allow a more critical reflection on how fashion will evolve on the African continent - specifically safeguarding and reflecting on its cultural value, making and self-expression, and creative content – before these cultural expressions are silenced by global pressures to conform to global economic and production dynamics.
The vision is to explore these broader cultural and economic dynamics in relation to fashion design in two African cities (Lagos and Nairobi) with the objective to collect enough evidence and develop a research framework and methodology to allow us to apply for a larger research grant that would allow us to expand the scope of the work to other sectors of the creative economy (for example craft, music etc.) and increase the number of countries and international partners involved. Overall the project aims to take the first steps in answering a major question in relation to the opportunity that the creative economy can play in the future development of Africa and how much it can connect and re-appropriate the continent’s rich cultural heritage and visual culture with the opportunity for economic development.
The research is organised around three questions, which will be led by each of the academic partners:
1) Creativity as memory politics within Africa fashion design Prof Ananya Jahanara Kabir
How do fashion designers act as cultural intermediaries of African heritage as collective memory, visual cultures and making traditions, producing and reproducing those cultural aesthetic value, reinterpreting them or appropriating them or even reject it them?
2) Fashion designers as part of the creative economy led by Dr Roberta Comunian
How do fashion designers behave as cultural entrepreneurs adopting business strategies to maximise their opportunity to engage with local, national and international markets? What networks and intermediaries do they work with (locally, nationally and internationally)?
3) Fashion designers in national and international production networks led by Dr Eka Ikpe
To what extent do fashion designers connect with the broader economy in relation to sourcing their inputs locally, nationally and internationally? What factors influence these dynamics? How do fashion designers plan and implement their production process, including outsourcing stages of their processes, locally, nationally, regionally and internationally? How do fashion designers connect to and access ma
[1] HEVA fund http://www.hevafund.com/news/2018/6/22/heva-unlocks-game-changing-investment-worth-kes-90-million-euro-800000-from-agence-franaise-de-dveloppement-afd-for-east-africas-creative-sector