Why Bonhams Is the Last Global Auction House With a Dedicated African Art Sale
On March 19, Bonhams holds its Modern & Contemporary African Art auction at New Bond Street. The lots tell a
Maputo’s Modernist Moment
Between the late 1940s and the early 1960s, in the city then called Lourenço Marques, a generation of architects produced a body of work
Beyond the White Lines. Africa, Fashion, and the U.S. Open
The first tennis clubs in Africa were built like fortresses. Behind their gates in Lagos, Johannesburg, Nairobi, and Casablanca, colonists played in pressed whites while Africans raked clay, carried balls, or stood outside the fence. The game was there but not for them. That shadow framed a remark by South African designer Wanda Lephoto at […]
Continental Swagger: African Fashion Design in the 21st Century – Post-Panel Reflections
Yesterday’s Continental Swagger panel, presented by The Met’s Costume Institute, brought together three uncompromising voices — Adeju Thompson (Lagos Space Programme, Nigeria), Wanda Lephoto (South Africa), and Imane Ayissi (Cameroon/France) for an unflinching, deeply personal conversation on heritage, innovation, and the politics of where a designer chooses to stand. Moderated by Monica L. Miller, Guest […]
Sartorial Groundings: African Design at the Heart of Black Elegance
How do African dress traditions shape and inspire the possibilities of contemporary fashion and Black identity? In conjunction with the exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, Idelle Taye, founder of Guzangs, reflects and expands upon the rich relationship between sartorial expression and ancestral legacies across the African continent through the work of seven trailblazing contemporary designers. The Costume […]
Threads of Influence VII: The Archive Walked
We’ve spent the last four weeks digging into the roots of regalia, resistance, and everything stitched in between. Threads of Influence wasn’t about nostalgia. It was about showing how Black style has always been a strategy. And how tailoring, in particular, has carried history on its back. So when the 2025 Met Gala chose Superfine: […]
The Future Feels Different Here: 7 African creatives who are reshaping design on their own terms
On April 21, the UN observed World Creativity and Innovation Day. But for many African designers, artists, and architects, that kind of thinking isn’t tied to a calendar. It’s just how the work gets done. Across the continent, new ideas are taking shape. Quietly. Experimentally. Sometimes defiantly. Some are working with buildings left unfinished for […]