Africa Utopia holds day of fashion and style

Southbank Centre’s Africa Utopia presents a day dedicated to contemporary African fashion and style. On Saturday 12 September, Southbank Centre spaces will be transformed for an afternoon of cutting-edge African fashion, an interactive performance piece about hair salons, a buzzing market place, workshops and a programme of talks and debates.

Highlights include:

●      A fashion showcase curated by East London designer Samson Soboye with a team of leading designers from the African Diaspora to present inspiring womenswear, menswear and accessories.

●      The People’s Catwalk celebrates how African fashion influences London style. Members of the public are invited to send images of how they wear their heritage and what it means to them; with the best entries picked to walk the catwalk.

To submit images, email africautopiafashion@southbankcentre.co.uk.

●      A buzzing, indoor market place offers the latest in African-inspired fashion, accessories, books, art and homeware. Designers include Sapelle, Gitas Portal, Aso Global and Kehinde’s Kloset, also featuring Market Stories, a series of talks on The Clore Ballroom where traders are invited to explain their crafts, their ideas, themes and how they source materials.

●      tiata fahodzi presents aunty aunty, let me do your hair – actors invite participants to take a seat in their pop-up salon and indulge in conversation between hairdresser and client. Take a seat in their hairdressing chairs, share your salon stories and help to shape their brand new play.

●      A programme of talks and debates looks at how the arts across the continent affect social change as well as exploring the myths and realities surrounding gender and sexuality. Leading designers, writers, artists and performers examine how the arts are challenging stereotypes and existing narratives both on the continent and in the Diaspora. Speakers include Nimco Ali (anti-FGM campaigner); Sunny Dolat (NEST collective & Stories of Our Lives); Zimbabwean author Tendai Huchu; Ade Adenji (co­founder of The Quest); Afro-futurist author Tosin Coker; writer, musician and activist Chardine Taylor­-Stone; Irish-Nigerian visual sociologist and writer Emma Dabiri; actor, director and feminist activist Abraham Popoola; plus poet and women’s rights activist Jessica Horn presenting The Love Mic with performance and dialogue from poets Amaal Said, Toni Stuart and Rich Blk and musician Matshidiso.

Southbank Centre’s Africa Utopia explores what can be learnt and celebrated from modern Africa and the African Diaspora. The festival investigates the arts and culture of one of the world's most dynamic and fast-changing continents and looks at how Africa can lead the way in thinking about society, community, business and technology, fashion, gender, power, politics, sustainability and activism.

10–13 September 2015

Southbank Centre

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/africa-utopia