‘#FashionTribes’ Now On at NAA

Clothing, jewellery, accessory and textile designers assemble in the Namibian Art Association’s ‘#FashionTribes’.

Featuring 10 garments, 20 jewellery pieces as well as a variety of textiles, leather bags and accessories from designers such as Chakirra Claasen, Ina-Maria Shikongo, Leon Engelbrecht and Maria Caley, the exhibition endeavours to explore a selection of fashion styles linked to African identity.

From Tuaovisiua Katuuo’s hot pink, lime and yellow evolution of the Herero dress crafted in vibrant remembrance of Anna ‘Kakurukaze’ Mungunda to Beata Hamalwa’s deconstructed yellow patchwork cascading in a train of memories, ‘#FashionTribes’ presents diverse and creative garments incorporating history, culture and traditional Namibian fabrics.

With Simba Vera bringing geometric prints into the concrete jungle, Eveste Mtuleni adding a “classy touch of roots” to a red gown while Claasen pursues an innovative sustainable Namibian design aesthetic through a transformative use of rust, the exhibition also showcases a variety of techniques and veins of inquiry.

In Lynette Diergaardt’s textiles, the quest is to create/unearth Namibian identity through the development of patterns made in the colours most preferred by the populace. This in contrast to a collection by Shikongo who chooses to fuse African and Japanese identity in her Africa-inspired take on the traditional kimono.

Consummate in Caley’s ‘Vakwangali’ collection presenting prints and colour made from natural dye and trade cloth such as Sikatu,
Nakanunga, Lyosikwangali and Ekehe and trendy in Engelbrecht’s quirky leather bowties and elegant satchels, ‘#FashionTribes’ also features signature jewellery from Laimi Kakololo and Reinhold Nampola as well as garments by Deon Angelo and Talodjona Namupala.

‘#FashionTribes’ will be on display until 6 September. Opening hours are Monday to Friday from 08h00 to 17h00.

– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on social media; marthamukaiwa.com