McCord 2025: Africa Fashion

AFRICA FASHION

The landmark exhibition celebrating the irresistible creativity of the contemporary African fashion scene.

September 25, 2025 - February 1, 2026

This new McCord Stewart Museum's exhibition,  organized by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, is one of the largest ever dedicated to the African fashion scene. It showcases the creative energy of designers, makers and photographers from across the continent. Montreal is the only Canadian stop on an international tour that includes London, Brooklyn, Portland, Melbourne, and Chicago.

The exhibition features some one hundred garments and accessories, as well as textiles, photographs and videos, from the early 1960s till today, illustrating how African fashions have drawn international attention and become a powerful force for post-colonial self-expression.

The exhibition is organized into eight sections laid out chronologically from 1960 to today. 80 garment ensembles displayed on mannequins bring into light talented, cutting-edge designers from across the African continent. 

Africa’s cultural renaissance

The exhibition opens with 1960, the year that seventeen African countries became liberated of colonial rule. Tes newfound freedom generated a new sense of pride in being African that played out in literature, music, the arts and fashion. The first sections of the exhibition illustrate how various traditional cloths and textile practices from around the continent took on new political meaning in the context of independence. Thanks to the talent and influence of pioneers like Naïma Bennis, Shade Thomas-Fahm, Chris Seydou, Kofi Ansah and Alphadi who helped promote the booming industry, African fashions now have clients worldwide.

A vibrant continent alight with creativity

Focusing on the modern era, the second half of the exhibition demonstrates that the growth from the 1960s to the 2000s shows no signs of slowing in the new millennium. With the same desire for self-expression, designers and brands like Imane Ayissi, IAMISIGO, Moshions, Thebe Magugu and Sindiso Khumalo are charting their own course, pushing boundaries and opening up conversations around culture, race, gender and sexuality. The central exhibition space highlights a vibrant scene where African creations are leading the way in contemporary cutting-edge fashion. This section reveals that the period from the 2000s to today is marked by designers who challenge assumptions about who and what African people and African fashions are and can be.

In the second half of the twentieth century, African photographers took advantage of the democratization of photography to create portraits illustrating the euphoria of independence in nations on the brink of self-rule. Africa Fashion showcases their ability to capture those for whom dressing to be seen is a way of life. The images presented in the exhibition bear witness to a constant reinvention of identities, all within an ever-evolving African fashion scene of growing international importance.

Bal Afrikana: A Celebration of Black Creativity and Heritage

At the end of the exhibition, a short recap video showcases the two most recent editions of Bal Afrikana, organized by the Centre culturel afro-canadien de Montreal (CCAM), an associate partner of the exhibition. This 90-second film highlights Montreal’s creative industry talent, featuring work by local Afro-descendent designers.

Dr. Christine Checinska, Senior Curator of African and African Diaspora Textiles and Fashion, Victoria & Albert Museum stated:

"Our guiding principle for Africa Fashion is the foregrounding of individual African voices and perspectives. The exhibition presents African fashions as a self-defining art form that reveals the richness and diversity of African histories and cultures. To showcase all fashions across such a vast region would be to attempt the impossible. Instead, Africa Fashion celebrates the vitality and innovation of a selection of fashion creatives, exploring the work of the vanguard in the twentieth century and the creatives at the heart of this eclectic and cosmopolitan scene today. We hope this exhibition will spark a renegotiation of the geography of fashion and become a game-changer for the field."

Anne Eschapasse, the McCord Stewart Museum’s President and CEO, noted:

"We are thrilled to be collaborating for a fifth time with the prestigious Victoria and Albert Museum. Both groundbreaking and timely, this is the first international exhibition to celebrate the emergence, influence, ingenuity and unique energy of African fashion creatives. With its outstanding collection and commitment to intercultural dialogue, the McCord Stewart Museum is a leading destination for fashion in Canada, with exhibitions like ELEGANZA: Italian Fashion From 1945 to Today (2016), Balenciaga Master of Couture (2018), Christian Dior (2021) and Parachute: Subversive Fashion of the ‘80s (2021-2022), and jumped at the chance to host the exhibition’s sole Canadian showing. The exhibition will also be an occasion to spotlight the talents of Afro-descendant creatives from our own community, through a partnership with the Montreal Afro-Canadian Cultural Centre (CCAM)."

Production Team

Curatorship: Dr. Christine Checinska, Senior Curator of African and African Diaspora Textiles and Fashion, Victoria & Albert Museum
McCord Stewart Museum Curator: Alexis Walker, Associate Curator, Dress, Fashion and Textiles
Project Management: Eve Martineau, Coordinator, Exhibitions, McCord Stewart Museum
Exhibition Design: Guillaume Kukucka
Graphic Design: Stéfanie Vermeersc 

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

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For more information about current exhibitions and special evens associated with this exhibition, visit the McCord Stewart Museum website.