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History
of Fashion in Ancient Africa and Beyond
Fashion
Costume Beauty in Ancient Times is an exhibition of
almost four hundred works, for the most part coming
from the rich collection of the National
Archaeological Museum of Florence, which took place
in 2004.
The tour of the
museum began with a small section about the
Pharaohs' Egypt, with jewels, decoration tools and
a series of important bas-reliefs and stone
sculptures depicting hairstyles and clothing. The
next section hosts some findings of archaic and
Hellenistic age coming from Cyprus and never
publicly displayed before.
The section
dedicated to Greece began with the ancient Greek
statue of the Kouros Milani, with its elaborate
braided hair falling on the back, according to the
fashion of the aristocratic elite of the age, and
some samples of Greek clothing from Centuries VI to
V bC.
The first
documents related to Etruria are male and female
funerary outfits of the Century VII bC of Casale
Marittimo, which still hosts the arrangement of
jewels for cloth decoration and various instruments
for the weaving of clothes (spindles, forks,
looms). The second group of Etruscan items concerns
the next period, where Eastern influences are more
and more visible, both in clothes and in
hairstyles. Along with the clothes is displayed a
series of gold works for the decoration of clothes
(buckles, belts, plates) and for personal
decorations (hair brooches, braid clips, earrings,
necklaces armillae) and a section dedicated to
cosmetics.
The third part
concerns the evolution of fashion from Century V bC
to Hellenism. A series of earrings, rings and
Hellenistic necklaces complete the Etruscan section
and begin the Roman one with a series of busts and
female heads' portraits in marble and bronze with
money and cameos, important documents depicting the
evolution of the women's hairstyles in the Imperial
families.
The last section
is the Coptic and Roman Egypt (Century IV to VI)
with the exhibition of clothes for children (robes
and bonnets), along with a never-before-seen wooden
sarcophagus decorated with the picture of the
deceased, dressed with a Roman robe, painted at the
bottom of the Sarcophagus. The sarcophagus will be
decorated with prized polychrome Coptic clothes in
linen and wool.
You can book now
tickets for Archaeological Museum http:/www.weekendafirenze.com
Africa
Fashion ...
for traveling, attending gala events, meetings, or
looking good for any occasion, has been a number
one topic in Africa Travel Magazine and its
powerful website. We use Webtrends to
monitor our site, plus the power of Google and
Yahoo to see how we stack up against other media.
You will be surprised. Below is a link to my first
article on the subject of hats. I have a passion
for hats, as you will learn.
The
Fabric of West African Lifesytle
Spring 2006 marked
the Africa Travel Association's return visit to
Ghana to stage a major event. Naturally, when our
members talk of Ghana and its West African
neighbours, the following question usually crops up
- what is Kente Cloth?
Kente Cloth is an
Asante ceremonial cloth that is hand-woven on
horizontal treadle looms. The looms we observed in
a village on the outskirts of historic Kumasi were
out in the open air, although the weavers, in their
wisdom, chose a grassy, shaded area. Cloth strips,
approximately 4 inches wide are sewn together into
larger bolts. Of many colors, sizes and designs,
Kente cloth products, long scarfs in particular,
are worn throughout Ghana and its neighboring
countries, during most social and religious
occasions. The name is derived from the word
'kenten,' which means basket. We saw virtually
every possible color and pattern of kente cloth
during the day-long Durbar ceremony at Koforidua
village near Accra. According to Ghanaians, kente
depicts the area's history and philosophy, its
ethics, oral literature, moral values, social and
religious concepts. Several of the Kente Cloth caps
we purchased in Ghana in 1999 have been our
trademark at events ever since, and the colors are
still vibrant.
Textile
Information from the Web
Adire
African textiles gallery:
variety of styles. Some African textiles such as
adinkra, kente and bogolan are becoming
increasingly well known. www.adire.clara.net/
Social
Fabric:
Exploring the Kate Kent Collection of African
Textiles. www.du.edu/duma/africloth/
Sub-Saharan
African Textiles.
from MARLA MALLETT www.marlamallett.com/african.htm
South
Africa's Fashion
Week
Sandton
Convention Center, July
Fashion
Boutiques of Cape Town
Capsule
on a variety of great little shops
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