The Cowrie Shell in African Fashion
Explores how contemporary African designers use the cowrie shell as a symbol of identity formation and cultural activation.
About The Book
Table of Contents
About The Author
What is the history of the cowrie shell and what role does it play in contemporary African fashion design?
Tracing the cowrie shell from its’s origin in the Maldives to the coast of West Africa, author Joelle Firzli examines how the shell’s purpose transitioned from ornament to currency, and a symbol of identity formation through spirituality and adornment.
Inspiring European fashion designers, such as Yves Saint Laurent and Azzedinee Alaia The Cowrie Shell in African Fashion marks a shift in the shell’s cultural value and usage outside Africa. Subsequently reclaiming the shell and deviating from historical European appropriations, discover how African designers now use it to craft narratives that express joy, triumph, and perseverance embodying a profound connection to culture and memory in postcolonial Africa.
Highlighting how an object can act as a catalyst for change and symbol of resistance in African fashion, this book is ideal reading for students of Fashion and Personal Style Studies, Fashion Design, Design Studies, Museum and Curation Studies, History, African Studies, Postcolonial Studies, and Cultural Anthropology.
What is the history of the cowrie shell and what role does it play in contemporary African fashion design?
Tracing the cowrie shell from its’s origin in the Maldives to the coast of West Africa, author Joelle Firzli examines how the shell’s purpose transitioned from ornament to currency, and a symbol of identity formation through spirituality and adornment.
Inspiring European fashion designers, such as Yves Saint Laurent and Azzedinee Alaia The Cowrie Shell in African Fashion marks a shift in the shell’s cultural value and usage outside Africa. Subsequently reclaiming the shell and deviating from historical European appropriations, discover how African designers now use it to craft narratives that express joy, triumph, and perseverance embodying a profound connection to culture and memory in postcolonial Africa.
Highlighting how an object can act as a catalyst for change and symbol of resistance in African fashion, this book is ideal reading for students of Fashion and Personal Style Studies, Fashion Design, Design Studies, Museum and Curation Studies, History, African Studies, Postcolonial Studies, and Cultural Anthropology.
- Cover
- Half-Title Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Acknowledgments
- Abstract
- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Learning objectives
- 1 Tracing the cowrie: Origins, trade, and transformation
- Archaeological context, etymology, and beyond
- Extraction and processing
- Early trade networks and distribution
- Cowrie circulation in China
- Thailand and Southeast Asian networks
- The Trans-Oceanic journey to Africa
- Arrival in West Africa
- Conclusion
- 2 The materiality of meaning: Ritual, symbolism, and adornment
- Early application
- Divination and worship
- Amuletic and funerary functions
- Adornment
- Fertility and prosperity
- Status and authority
- Music and musical performance
- Cowrie shells as markers of musical status and authority
- Dance and ritual performance
- Cowrie imitations
- Conclusion and final reflection
- 3 The cowrie economy: Value, exchange, and the machinery of enslavement
- Indigenous cosmologies of cowrie money
- Material properties and global context
- Cowrie shells as currency in West Africa
- Counting systems and regional variation
- Geographic expansion and regional adoption
- Cowrie shells and the Atlantic slave trade
- European commercial networks and global circulation
- The fall of cowrie currency
- Contemporary legacy
- Cowrie shells as economic objects: Theoretical considerations
- Conclusion and reflection
- 4 Out of Africa: Power, profit, and African aesthetics in Western fashion
- Definition
- Historical phases: Two registers of engagement
- Artistic engagement: Dutch Golden Age still life
- Early fashion integration: Post-war American sportswear (1947)
- European couture: Pioneering designers
- Contemporary appropriation: Illustrative cases
- The Boho-Chic aesthetic
- Framework for ethical cultural exchange
- Conclusion and reflection
- 5 Reclaiming the cowrie: African design sovereignty and cultural futurity
- Fashion as cultural practice and resistance
- The Materiality of memory: Cowries as mnemonic objects
- Lafalaise Dion: Cultural preservation, spiritual reclamation, and artistic practice
- The case of Beyoncé’s “Black Is King” (2020): Collaborative appreciation
- I.AM.ISIGO by Bubu Ogisi: Decolonization and protective aesthetics
- Aajiya by Maimuna Cole: Pattern, print, and historical reclamation
- Labrum London by Foday Dumbuya: Diaspora, memory, and ethical production
- Grace Wales Bonner: Intellectual fashion and Afro-Atlantic histories
- Denim Tears by Tremaine Emory: Cowries, cotton, and the black radical tradition
- Simone Leigh: Cowries as monumental testimony
- Fashion as memory
- The case of Associate Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
- Conclusion and reflection
- Conclusion: The cowrie shell’s enduring legacy
- A final reflection
- Notes
- Expanding the conversation
- Bibliography
- Index
Joelle Firzli is a multicultural independent fashion scholar, and a part-time faculty at Parsons School of Design.
