Seriously, can we get more of this woman on the runways? She is awesome.

Also, THREE CHEERS for something that isn’t complete media/cultural imperialism!

not to say that’s not fetishistic or marginaization or ‘othering’ — and while good intentions obviously don’t prevent racism — i find this sort of thing far more refreshing than zebra print high fashion and ‘tribal’ prints and wood necklaces. isn’t ‘personal style’ or ‘street style’ much more representative of culture than ‘high fashion’? wouldn’t a college student identifying or being interested by a picture of a south african peer be notably less ‘othering’ than, probably, their anthropology textbook?

furthermore, i would see infinite potential for opening discussion about postcolonialism and race relations as conveyed here specifically THROUGH fashion — the mix of ‘british’ and ‘traditional’ styles is pretty obvious and is a great access point to open conversation about these things and their causes, effects, and implications, rather than relying on the ‘stereotypical tribal chic’ the poster riled against. i am sure people would love to hear these young people talk about how and why the politics and history of their country might affect their style, and i think it would most likely be a largely effective discussion.

the similarity to street fashion photographs in new york or stockholm in fact places these young people in the same context as blonde swedish models wearing dior exiting their fashion shows in paris — quite the opposite from placing them behind glass in a diorama in a racist natural history museum, which is how most ‘americans’ think of ‘africans’. i think it’s extremely interesting to see a community like blackcigarette respond so well — and yes, many readers probably are falling into fetishization of the subaltern and whatnot — but considering the amazing near-absence of minorities at ALL in ANY sort of high fashion that isn’t specifically marketed to the urban/hip-hop community (unless we’re putting black models in editorials about africa running around with elephants or whatever that dreadful vogue spread was), i would absolutely commend the photographer and poster for bringing some amount of diversity to this colorless media.

i like this post because
1.) as someone way too into fashion, i hate when people disregard it as ‘anti intellectual’ and am sick of defending why blogging about fashion and culture and sociology is neither incompatible nor shallow, and
2.) the ladies (and a few gents) who post at blackcigarette (myself included) are all some of my favourite internet folks. YES.

I write post-neocolonial pre-pagan masculinistic comments on transnational websites with words.

In all the seriousness I can muster about this post, I wonder if you see the irony in your framing here or not. Despite the invocation of various code words (transnational feminist ftw) that tell us that when YOU photograph South Africans, it’s totally not racist in any way, this is still a form of “othering”, and it’s just as insidious as when white people you don’t like do the same thing.

IMHO.

In the photographs found at “Don’t Sleep On Africa,” we see a much more nuanced postcolonial aesthetics reflecting multiple modernities as well as unalterable histories: these include the multiple imperial enterprises of the “scramble for Africa,” but also the circuits of what Paul Gilroy called the “black Atlantic,” through which we might look again at these photographs, their performativity and politics of consumption. In doing so, we might find in some of these images a subtle critique of the West’s cultural realities, through which those familiar fashionable markers of “tribal chic” (zebra stripes, for instance), when they do appear, are rendered insistently, assuredly modern.