Dress and fashion practices in Africa and the diaspora are dynamic and diverse, whether on the street or on the fashion runway. Focusing on the dressed body as a performance site, African Dress explores how ideas and practices of dress contest or legitimize existing power structures through expressions of individual identity and the cultural and political order.Drawing on innovative, interdisciplinary research by established and up and coming scholars, the book examines real life projects and social transformations that are deeply political, revolving around individual and public goals of dignity, respect, status, and morality.With its remarkable scope, this book will attract students and scholars of fashion and dress, material culture and consumption, performance studies, and art history in relation to Africa and on a global scale.

ContentsList of IllustrationsList of contributorsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction. Karen Tranberg Hansen, Northwestern University, USAPART IDressed Bodies and Power1. Dressing for Success: The Politically Performative Quality of an Igbo Woman's Attire. Misty L. Bastian, Franklin & Marshall College, USA2. Fashionability in Colonial and Postcolonial Togo. Nina Sylvanus, Northeastern University, USA3. Branding Festive Bodies: Corporate Logos and Chiefly Image T-shirts in Ghana. Lauren Adrover, Northwestern University, USAPART IIMaterial Culture, Visual Recognition, and Display4. Bazin Riche in Dakar, Senegal: Altered Inception, Use, and Wear. Kelly Kirby, University of Michigan, USA5. Fashioning People, Crafting Networks: Multiple Meanings in the Mauritanian Veil (Mala?fa). Katherine Wiley, Indiana University, USA6. The Hijab as Moral Space in Northern Nigeria. Elisha P. Renne, University of Michigan, USAPART III. Connecting Worlds through Dress7. Dressing the Colonial Body: Senegalese Rifleman in Uniform. Keith Rathbone, Northwestern University, USA8. Ghana Boys in Mali: Fashion, Youth, and Travel. Victoria L. Rovine, University of Florida, USA9. Forging Connections, Performing Distinctions: Youth, Dress, and Consumption in Niger. Adeline Masquelier, Tulane University, USA10. Fashion, Transnationality, and Swahili Men. Tina Mangieri, SIT, USAPART IVTransculturated Bodies11. Photography, Poetry, and the Dressed Bodies of Léopold Sédar Senghor. Leslie W. Rabine, University of California, Davis, USA12. Transculturated Displays: International Fashion and West African Portraiture. Candace M. Keller, Michigan State University, USA13. Spectacular Dress: Africanisms in the Fashions and Performances of Josephine Baker, 1925-1975. Bennetta Jules-Rosette, University of California, San Diego, USA14. Dressing Out-of-Place: From Ghana to Obama Commemorative Cloth on the American Red Carpet. D. Soyini Madison, Northwestern University, USAIndex