For Montreal designer Angy Foly, dressing women in her glossy and colourful boubous, a popular West African robe, is her way of instilling confidence in others and of staying connected to the Ivorian women who came before her.
“It helps to keep something from your past and not lose your identity,” she said. “To blend it with something new and something maybe more adapted to this generation.”
The 25-year-old is one of six Montreal designers who got to present her pieces at a fashion show on the opening night of the Africa Fashion exhibition at the McCord Stewart Museum Thursday.
The Montreal museum is the only Canadian stop for the touring exhibition, where African tradition and innovation are stitched together, as pieces by fashion pioneers from the 20th century share space with those that have graced runways in the new millennium.
Montreal designer Angy Foly, left. A model struts in one of Foly’s designs during a fashion show on the opening night of the Africa Fashion exhibition. (Left: submitted by Angy Foly. Right: Elias Touil, McCord Stewart Museum)
“I recognized myself in some of the designers,” said Foly, adding that she hopes the exhibition will leave a mark on Montrealers.
“To understand the heart of someone, you need to understand the story behind that heart,” she said.
Christine Checinska, from London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, is the lead curator behind the exhibition which will be on show at the McCord until February 2026.
“The story that this exhibition wants to tell is a story of agency, abundance and unbounded creativity across the African continent,” said Checinska, a former designer herself.
Featuring the work of 45 designers, it places an emphasis on today’s creators, which is significant given that some still struggle for more exposure at the North American level, according to Arlette Éhode. She’s the director of philanthropy at the Montreal Afro-Canadian Cultural Centre (CCAM), which partnered with the McCord Museum to stage Thursday’s fashion show.
Christine Checinska is the senior curator of African and African diaspora textiles and fashion at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and the lead curator of the Africa Fashion exhibition. (Laura Dumitriu/McCord Stewart Museum)
“Everything happens through the internet and word-of-mouth,” she said, referring to sales. “With an exhibition that puts African creatives at the forefront, it helps create a link with the diaspora that’s here.”
It also allows people who aren’t of African descent to familiarize themselves with fashion that goes beyond folklore, reaching into high fashion and, of course, everyday casual wear, she added.
WATCH | A glimpse into the Africa Fashion exhibition:
Africa Fashion exhibition celebrates agency and diversity across 54 countries
The exhibition, organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, runs from Sept. 25 to Feb. 1 at Montreal’s McCord Stewart Museum — the only Canadian stop on its international tour.
Fashionably independent
Agency is a key theme woven throughout the exhibition. Seventeen African countries achieved their independence in 1960, henceforth known as the Year of Africa.
It’s also the year Shade Thomas-Fahm came on the scene as Nigeria’s first fashion designer with the opening of her boutique Maison Shade. It quickly became a place where on-the-go women, as Checinska describes them, could access the convenience of western designs all while representing their Nigerian pride and heritage.
“There was a sense where young people … wanted to show themselves as cosmopolitan, as independent, as people with style, you know, with money, with means to show off new fashions and homegrown fashions,” said Checinska.
Thomas-Fahm pioneered, for example, pre-tied geles (ready-to-wear headwraps) and added zippers to traditionally wrapped skirts, known as ìró.
Some of Shade Thomas-Fahm’s designs are shown at the Africa Fashion exhibition, currently at the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal. Thomas-Fahm is largely considered Nigeria’s first fashion designer. (Cassandra Yanez-Leyton/CBC)
Across Africa’s fashion scene, traditional techniques and garments began to be revalorized, with textiles once common in the countryside finding their way into urban daily life — and even on the international stage, donned by politicians.
Textiles are at the heart of Marième Mboup’s work. She’s a Senegalese textile exploration artist based in Montreal and the McCord Museum’s spokesperson for the Africa Fashion exhibition.
“African textiles hold history,” she said. “You need to know their history to be able to relate to them, to resonate with them and be able to incorporate them in a work that is intentional and that spreads that history as well.”
Marième Mboup is a Senegalese textile exploration artist and stylist based in Montreal. She’s the McCord Museum’s spokesperson for the Africa Fashion exhibition. (Submitted by Marième Mboup)
A family affair
For Mboup, her mother and sister are her fashionable sources of inspiration, with her mother in particular showing her what it meant to be stylish growing up.
“Senegalese women love to dress up, they love to have … outfits to wear for each occasion and not necessarily wear them twice,” she said.
The CCAM’s Éhode, for her part, said participating in the exhibition and accompanying fashion show was a way to pay homage to her mother, a self-taught seamstress who regularly dressed her daughter in tailored outfits.
Her father, who she describes as a “great pan-Africanist,” was a fashion icon in his own right, she said. Growing up, she always saw him wearing clothes and textiles from different African cultures.
Arlette Éhode is responsible for philanthropic development at the Montreal Afro-Canadian Cultural Centre (CCAM), an organization that promotes Black artistry and culture. (Submitted by the CCAM)
“So, for me, highlighting African culture through fashion … it’s about representing myself, representing my identity but it’s also about representing a thousand-year-old know-how that is not very well known but has a lot to offer,” said Éhode.
When designer Foly launched her brand Elle She Her a year ago, she became the third woman in her family to enter the fashion world. Her grandmother is renowned Ivorian designer Angybell and her mother is a stylist. But she says she takes her inspiration from everywhere.
“I just want to leave my touch on the fashion industry,” she said.
She hopes the presence of the exhibition in Montreal will help “fertilize” the ground here, just as she’s getting ready to launch her new collection.
“Montreal is a very open and multicultural city. So it’s a place where you can bring your culture, your voice and people will listen.”
