Category: Fashion

By Derek Mwale Imagine putting on a jacket that becomes warmer when the weather turns cold, then gradually releases excess heat when the afternoon sun becomes unbearable. Imagine a shirt that helps your body stay comfortable during exercise without becoming soaked in sweat, or a pair of trousers made from fabric that responds to changes…

Before fashion became a language of personal expression, many of its most recognizable accessories were simply solutions to everyday problems. There is something fascinating about the objects we carry, wear, and display without thinking too much about their origins. A wristwatch tells us the time. A belt holds our trousers in place. Sunglasses protect our…

Fashion has a strange superpower: it can make people stop walking, start staring, and question everything they thought they knew about clothing. Imagine attending a fashion show where models walk down the runway wearing dresses that appear to be made of shattered glass, jackets that look like architectural structures, or outfits so enormous that the…

Fashion has a strange memory. The clothes we once laughed at, the accessories we abandoned, and the styles we swore would never return have a habit of showing up again, sometimes looking almost exactly as they did decades ago—and sometimes looking like they have just escaped from a time machine with a better understanding of…

There is a moment in every person’s life when they walk into a clothing store, look at a jacket, check the price tag, and quietly put it back where they found it. Perhaps the jacket costs more than their monthly rent. Perhaps the shoes cost more than a laptop. Maybe the handbag is priced so…

There was a time when the future had a very specific appearance. It was metallic, covered in glowing lights, filled with flying vehicles, and populated by people wearing strange glasses that looked as though they could scan the universe. In old science fiction movies, the characters rarely wore ordinary accessories. Their clothing looked engineered, their…

There was a time when a handbag was simply a handbag, a shopping bag was something you carried home from the grocery store, and a keychain existed to keep your keys from disappearing into the mysterious depths of your pockets. These objects had practical purposes. They were designed to solve ordinary problems, and their value…

For a long time, fashion moved in one direction. From Paris to the world. From Milan to the world. From London, New York, Tokyo—and then eventually, somehow, to everyone else. Africa was often placed at the receiving end of that cultural pipeline. We consumed the trends. We imported the brands. We watched the runway shows….