The world’s largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts, and design Victoria and Albert Museum, is set to showcase and pay homage to decades of African Fashion from Saturday, July 2nd to April 2023.

The breathtaking pieces from 45 designers from over 20 countries – including an accompanying book filled with contributions from Nigerian designer Adebayo Oke-Lawal, founder of Orange Culture and art historian Gus Casely-Hayford will be an unbridled celebration of African culture in the heart of London.

Through clothes, photos, sketches, film and catwalk footage, the installation will take the visitors on a tour of the fashion industry’s origins on the continent and its evolution.

Christine Checinsk, the museum’s curator of African and African Diaspora fashion, told BBC News:

This is fashion that refuses to be boxed in.

It introduces the idea that African fashions are beyond definition and that creatives can and do choose their own paths. The industry in Africa is at the cutting edge of global fashion and the 250 exhibits are a timely celebration of [its] vitality and innovation.

The Africa Fashion installation divides into two floors of different sections: Cultural Renaissance, Politics and Poetics of Cloth, The Vanguard, Capturing Change, Minimalist, Mixologist, Afrotopia, Adornment, Artisanal, Co-creation, and Through the Photographer’s Lens.

Shade Thomas-Fahm, Alphadi, Seydou and Ansah are in the exhibition’s “Vanguard” section, highlighting the founders of modern African design. Nigerian designer Nkwo Onwuka will be capturing change with the innovative textile she created called dakala, aimed at reducing waste in the fashion industry.

The exhibition will explore the many facets of African style from the mid-1950s to the present, illustrating fashion diversity across the African diaspora.