- 4 days ago
Afrofuturism started in the US, but it is thriving all over the world especially in the Nigerian fashion scene.
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00:01I've never seen anyone with these puff rays before.
00:04They kind of look like pods to me.
00:06Like Afrofuturus, like something's going to open out of it
00:09and like light's going to come shine out.
00:11Tiny little miniature aliens are going to come out of it.
00:13Let's not think about that.
00:14No, no, no, not that futuristic.
00:24I'm wandering the stacks of New York's Midtown Comics.
00:27Whoa. This place is massive.
00:30Yup. Come on.
00:32Where I'm learning just how far superheroes have come
00:35since the age of burly white guys dressed in spandex onesies.
00:39Meet Delta Major.
00:43A comic book fan turned costume designer.
00:47A Delta is like a meeting point,
00:48and then a Major is just, when in doubt, the extra.
00:51I'm ever changing my style, my look, my hair.
00:55These comics have evolved, and so too have superheroes.
00:59These are some of the classics well-known from DC,
01:02like Batman and then the Black Panther, of course,
01:05with his vibranium suit.
01:07One of the biggest movies of last year.
01:10In 2018, Black Panther exploded into theaters,
01:14snagging more than a billion dollars in ticket sales.
01:16For so many, this was more than a movie.
01:19It was a resurrection of a decades-old movement called Afrofuturism.
01:24It's what happens when a sci-fi imagination
01:26is applied to African-American narratives
01:28across dozens of art forms, including comics.
01:33But for communities still reeling from tragedy,
01:36how can fashion and fantasy help write a new storyline?
01:40Afrofuturism has made it such a mainstream thing
01:43to just have Black badass characters that are smart, scientific,
01:47and just very powerful in their own right,
01:50while still being Black.
01:51There's a new Iron person.
01:53Iron Man isn't the only Iron?
01:55They're not gendered anymore.
01:56It's a 16-year-old girl named Riri Williams.
01:59She is a genius.
02:01She went to MIT,
02:02and she basically created his whole suit over again.
02:05She still wears her Afro, her natural curly hair,
02:08and is very into, like, street style and hip-hop.
02:10When you talk about comic books, your whole demeanor changes.
02:14You got so excited.
02:15You really light up.
02:16I do love comic books.
02:17My dad collected comic books.
02:19So it's, like, nostalgia, part of my childhood growing up.
02:24It's just, like, a thing that my family does.
02:26There was even a year where half my family literally went to Comic-Con,
02:30and we were just rolling deep as a family through Comic-Con,
02:32just nerding out together.
02:34Delta's love of comics only grew
02:36when she discovered her secret power.
02:39She could sew.
02:45Here are some of my creations.
02:47I created this top, the pattern on the pants.
02:50I make art with fabric.
02:52That's just my medium.
02:53This is awesome.
02:54Something I love to do in my pieces are the shoulder cap epaulets.
02:57Yeah, this is, like, your signature.
02:59Mm-hmm, it's my signature.
03:00It's, like, armor, but also, like, biomechanic.
03:03Just little wings.
03:04Just little, mm-hmm.
03:05Mm-hmm.
03:06These are my booty-less chaps.
03:09Excuse me?
03:10Yes.
03:11Your wax-cloth booty-less chaps.
03:13Talk about, like, culture jamming.
03:16West African wax print, but, like—
03:19Cowboy chaps.
03:20Cowboy chaps, which is very queer, you know?
03:22But then you have, like, the cargo pocket and, like, the hood,
03:24which is very American, you know?
03:26And, like, street fashion, yeah.
03:28I love combining—
03:29It's so good.
03:29That's it.
03:29That's the Delta thing, pulling from all these sources.
03:32For years, African Americans like Delta have been dreaming up an origin story,
03:37a source for their superpowers.
03:40Personally, do you know your ancestral history?
03:44Unfortunately, I do not.
03:45In America, we don't know where we came from, so we're just trying to pull from whatever connects us
03:50and gives us that sense of grounding and home.
03:55We are trying to, um—
04:07That's not our fault, but we are trying to connect.
04:12We have to remember that when we were brought here as slaves,
04:16we don't know what our lineage is and where we came from.
04:19We're trying to figure it out, and through the tool of dress,
04:24we're able to link back to our culture in the best way that we know how.
04:30Kimberly Jenkins is a professor of fashion history at Parsons School of Design in New York,
04:34in the midst of curating an exhibition on fashion and race.
04:39What does race have to do with fashion?
04:41Oh, gosh.
04:43We're realizing quite a bit.
04:44The way we dress ourselves and adorn ourselves is inextricably linked to how we see ourselves,
04:51from our hair to how we wear our makeup.
04:53We can think about how we can dress ourselves in a way that confronts a troubled past.
05:01It's imperative to look to our past and be able to acknowledge what our ancestors went through,
05:08even just a few generations back.
05:10The labels that we've been given, images from a Jim Crow past.
05:15With Afrofuturism, we can sort of reassess history and take our ancestors into liberation with us
05:21through dressing how we want and propose a new resilient future for ourselves on our own terms.
05:30I find George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic a really interesting case study in black history
05:35because they had this sort of double bind where they were black and marginalized,
05:40but they were also this group of like, and I say this in the most lovingly term, of black weirdos
05:45at that time.
05:46So they just thought, okay, well, if we're not going to fit in anywhere,
05:49we're just going to dress like aliens, these otherworldly characters.
05:53It was a cosmic response to American racism and discrimination.
05:59Sun Ra's music, Octavia Butler's literature, it all worked to reclaim black identity.
06:05Their supersonic statements gave rise to what would come to be called Afrofuturism.
06:11It seems to pull this ancient tribal past, and then it's fused with this super futuristic look that's almost like
06:19space alien.
06:20From New York to Nigeria, the style is contradictory and yet perfectly matched.
06:26Tradition mixed with technology, lo-fi with sci-fi, what's in our history mixed with what's in our imagination.
06:33Recent acolytes include Janelle Monae, Childish Gambino, and yes, even Beyonce.
06:40The look deliberately lays out a wider vision.
06:42It turns a dystopian past of slavery and colonialism into a utopian future where black people chart their own destiny.
06:54It's exactly what Kimberly's latest exhibition is about, imagination and the black American experience.
07:01This is a way of turning the classroom inside out and just letting the public get involved in the discourse.
07:07In this room, Afrofuturism looks like galactic headgear, regal dresses, and lots of hair.
07:16For these designers, it's a no-rules fashion salute to their identity.
07:21Academically speaking, Afrofuturism is an American concept.
07:25It was created by Americans and it reckons with the African diaspora.
07:30Do you think Afrofuturism has a place in Africa?
07:32Afrofuturism definitely has a place in Africa.
07:36Although we have very different paths, it would be incredibly interesting to see how that's being worked out through music,
07:44art, and of course, fashion.
07:46So I'm gearing up for a trip to Africa's biggest city.
07:51Lagos, Nigeria, where the continent's most ambitious, most talented designers go to get noticed.
08:01Lagos is a hustle.
08:02Lagos is a beautifully crazy city, but it also has so much vibrance and so much creativity going on here.
08:08There's so much innovation happening in Lagos.
08:11Home to more than 400 ethnic groups and 500 languages.
08:15Lagos is more than a melting pot.
08:17It's an explosion of cultures.
08:22Tonight, the curtain is rising in Africa's biggest runway.
08:26Lagos Fashion Week.
08:30Four straight days of events showcasing the works of designers like
08:33Lisa Falawio, Orange Culture, and I Am A Seagull, with radical stylists like Daniel Obasi.
08:41Then there's Falana, a singer with a taste for statement pieces, closing out the show with the debut of her
08:47new album.
08:50I am a singer, musician, songwriter.
08:53I'm obsessed with fashion.
08:55As am I.
08:57I can tell that you's a soldier
09:03My parents are Nigerian and they moved to Canada and I grew up in Toronto.
09:08But I wasn't removed culturally.
09:10My parents thought it was really important for me to know where I was from and to have connection with
09:15my family.
09:16Falana grew up listening to both American and Nigerian musicians and visiting Lagos to see family.
09:22So when she took up singing, the search for her voice led her back here.
09:32All the reference points that I had growing up, now they really fit in.
09:36All the kind of sounds that I hear in my head, it's now starting to make sense and come together
09:40in Lagos.
09:42When people listen to my music, I want them to be able to hear where the old meets the new.
09:48Taking the vintage and marrying it with the contemporary.
09:51So as someone who's obsessed with fashion and arts and culture, Lagos is really somewhere where I've found, you know,
09:57I connect with the heartbeat of what's going on.
10:02So this is Alara.
10:06This is amazing.
10:07It's absolutely gorgeous.
10:08And it's like a luxury store that reflects our own culture as well.
10:12Elegant, it's so classy.
10:14Taking traditional Nigerian like Adira prints and it just comes together really seamlessly, I think.
10:18Putting Nigeria in context of global kind of fashion.
10:22Yeah, exactly.
10:22Do you want to try this on?
10:23Yeah.
10:24Well, I'm not a hat person.
10:26Well, it's not even a hat.
10:26It's actually Kele.
10:27But this is a reimagined one.
10:29With bangs.
10:30Look, you look great.
10:33There's different ways to think about Afrofuturism, right?
10:35I think Afrofuturism can embody how our roots and how our culture can inform our future selves.
10:42What we as a culture will look like, sound like, feel like in, let's say, 21, you know, 100.
10:49Filana used her community's past to envision what it might look like as far out as the 22nd century.
10:55But Nigeria's history has been marred by what you could call an alien invasion.
11:02British colonizers occupied the region in 1885.
11:05They exploited the land's palm oil and forced people to convert to Christianity.
11:10When Nigeria gained independence in 1960, the British left behind a torn country to save itself.
11:17Yet, despite all that was taken from them, Nigeria's people endured.
11:21They found their way back to traditions that refused to be eradicated.
11:26For many artists here, moving Nigeria forward means looking back.
11:36Adire, it literally means tie and die.
11:40It was created and popularized by Yoruba women and passed down through generations.
11:45This is Dying Peace.
11:47This is where everything happens.
11:48This is where everything happens?
11:49Final stage.
11:51Hold on, hold on, it's clean.
11:55This is amazing.
11:57This is amazing.
11:57Of course it's amazing.
12:00Alright, this is what I call free hand.
12:02Okay.
12:03You understand?
12:05This is called batik.
12:07That's where the beauty is.
12:18Across town, one far out visionary is pushing traditions like Adire even further.
12:30What does Afrofuturist fashion look like for you?
12:33I think for me the message really is that anything is possible.
12:37I'm such a firm believer in alternative realities when talking about art.
12:44Within Afrofuturism, there is no limit to what you can do.
12:48So you can literally explore as much as you want to.
12:53Daniel is the styling genius behind some of Nigeria's edgiest photo shoots and fashion videos.
12:58His aesthetic is Afro space travel, like something that would fit in both at the Met and on Mars.
13:06Today, he's styling for Lana for Fashion Week.
13:09I definitely like this as a dress on its own.
13:12Okay, let me try that.
13:15Afrofuturism just offers that platform where you can explore.
13:19Where you can mix so much together and still not lose your heritage.
13:26As a musician, what I wear also plays and influences how my music is perceived.
13:32And I love to be able to collaborate with designers in a way that helps to bring my music to
13:36life.
13:41On the runway, this heritage is palpable, but the collections also feel decidedly new.
13:47Yes, there are local references, but they're in a global spotlight.
13:51And they're beaming.
13:55Yorba Ghele's and Adire Prince walk side by side with sheer panel dresses and androgynous silhouettes.
14:02I could believe these clothes were designed a hundred years ago or sent back from a hundred years in the
14:07future.
14:08That's the thing about Afrofuturism.
14:10It's fluid.
14:11It's what you dream it to be.
14:22I think understanding your past gives you context to be able to innovate in the future.
14:27And I think if you do not have a rooted and grounded identity, you'll be lost in the world.
14:32Oh, the dear sunshine you really want, they need me.
14:39Felana's performance is an apt finale to Lagos Fashion Week.
14:42And as I watch her sing, I can't help but think of Delta.
14:50Unlike Felana, Delta can't reconnect with her roots.
14:53She doesn't know them.
14:55Pinpointing her African-ness to a specific space and time is difficult.
14:59Her vision of self can shift with the change of an outfit.
15:03Some people see how a lot of African-Americans are picking and choosing pieces from all over Africa.
15:09It'd be like the equivalent of someone wearing a cowboy hat, like board shorts, and then I Love New York
15:15t-shirt.
15:16It's not anchored in anything.
15:18You're correct. It's not authentic, and that's not our fault.
15:21You can pull from all over and still be African-American and of Africa and of the diaspora.
15:28I find, like, whatever you're drawn to, your spirit's drawn to it for a reason,
15:32so I probably connect to it in some sort of way in my history.
15:37Tonight, Delta is doing what she does best, using her imagination to fuel her alter ego.
15:43So right now, I'm just drawing some tribal makeup on to go with this Afro deity that I created.
15:51I would love to know what part of Africa, what country, what tribe I'm from, looking at my features.
15:57I find I mimic Sudanese people with the high cheekbones and, like, the way my nose flares.
16:02I look at the Maasai tribes, and they're so tall and lanky, and I'm like, I might be part Maasai.
16:09What would you say to a black woman growing up in the United States who might not have the privilege
16:14of being so close to their heritage,
16:16who might be feeling lost and is looking to Afrofuturism as a way to heal and to look forward?
16:22Wow, that's a very heavy question because it's not just an intellectual thing, it's an emotional thing, it's a psychological
16:32experience.
16:33What would I say to them?
16:35I think they should obey their spirit.
16:40That's the thing that has really guided me, obey the spirit.
16:44Why is it important to know what your history is?
16:47The past influences your future, and a lot of black people do not know that in America,
16:53that we came from these rich heritage and cultural tribes.
16:59Afrofuturism is a tangible, visual representation of all the infinite possibilities that could be.
17:05Afrofuturism is seeing black people in a brighter light.
17:12In a country that has long denied black people their humanity, Afrofuturism recasts them as superhuman.
17:19In fashion, in sci-fi, there are no rules.
17:23In Afrofuturism, there's only one.
17:27Obey your spirit.