No matter how hard I look, I simply cannot find out who did this dress that Gwen Stefani chose to wear for NY Fashion Night Out on Friday. At first I thought it may be Christie Brown. I know it's not Ituen Basi — who also works in the traditional Nigerian print cloth. But the more I dug, the more often I came across the description that it is "African inspired". Um. Excuse me, why?
When I discovered that ASOS was doing an ASOS Africa range I was irritated. Why not buy in from an African designer? Then you get the authentic stuff not the stuff that is "inspired" like you have bought a cheap knock off Prada bag — like it is Prada-inspired.
But then I noticed it around a lot more. Sure some of the famous Americans are wearing Deloa Sagoe, Bunmi Koko and Duro Oluwu. But even more of them are wearing western interpretations on the African print idea. When we have so much to offer from Africa, it becomes so frustrating that these celebrities are happy with the poor imitations. The African aesthetic has once again been appropriated by the first world and used to line their pockets. It annoys me a great deal.
It also strikes me that these are the self-same American celebrities that would be first in line to man a phone at a George Clooney-organised telethon to raise money for Africa. And yet, they don't see that by choosing "African inspired" over "African" they are denying us the sort of assistance we would really rather enjoy.
What do you guys think?