AFRICAN FASHION, GLOBAL STYLE, histories, innovations, and ideas you can wear

315pp., 4to., b/w & colour illus., paperback, Bloomington, 2015. 

Victoria L. Rovine's study of how fashion is manifested in Africa and how Africa is manifested in fashion. She traces the complex networks of influence and inspiration, analysing the work of fashion designers whose work reflects African histories and cultures, and demonstrating that dress styles associated with indigenous cultures can have all the hallmarks of high fashion.

Includes a chapter on fashion design in South Africa.

"This book could be revolutionary. Victoria L. Rovine has provided a map of the African fashion terrain with sustained case studies that provide compelling evidence of the history, resourcefulness, and personal creativity behind African fashion." —Heather Marie Akou, Indiana University Bloomington

"A perceptive and thought-provoking inquiry into indigenous and international African fashion. Victoria L. Rovine demonstrates the relevance and special potential of fashion studies for providing new insights into the complex interconnections of African localities and global systems." —Suzanne Gott, University of British Columbia

"African Fashion, Global Style is a fascinating and important book, based on extensive research and written in a clear, accessible style. Victoria Rovine is one of the world’s greatest authorities on African fashion, and this is unquestionably the single best book on the subject." —Valerie Steele, Director and Chief Curator, The Museum at FIT

"African Fashion, Global Style delivers on its title’s promise. Victoria L. Rovine establishes that modernity is not just a Western phenomenon, and provides examples of conceptual designers and smart consumers on the world’s second largest continent, offering readers new insights and hard data. She confirms that the intriguing topic of fashion is also serious business in Africa." —Joanne B. Eicher, Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion

Victoria Rovine is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.