Fashion::Africa.Japan

Wafrica Kimono (hat tip Kamau) represents the marriage of cultural icons from Japan and Africa, the creation of Tokyo-based Cameroonian Serge Mouangue through merging the Japanese kimono and quintessential African cotton, colourful, patterned fabric. This seemingly effortless physical expression of Japanese and African culture attests to a far-reaching similarity into the characteristics of the people of two distant lands – ‘modern’ and in step with the global stage, whilst simultaneously harbouring ancestral customs, traditions and knowledge.

Mouangue does not accept the lazy, superficial interpretation of his work as ‘fusion’, but challenges the observer to see something more profound in creating kimonos with a fabric whose texture, bold colours and geometric patterns are foreign to its subdued traditional fabric, whose stiff, multiple layers do not accentuate the female form. A unique creation in its own right that embodies neither Japan nor Africa and at once both Japan and Africa, through the transformation of its iconic cultural symbols into a paradox that is a new singular yet plural expression.

I do not want the end result to belong to Africa, nor should it belong to Japan. It is not a fusion…I want it to be something else. It should transcend the boundaries of both cultures. It is a third aesthetic….The connection between two different worlds such as Africa and Japan may be hidden. There may be a sea that seems to separate the two places. But we are all connected. There is earth under the sea that links us all, but we can’t always see it. This is a project that tries to show that connection.

http://sci-cultura.com/2009/02/05/fashion-africa-asia/