Kimonos made from African fabrics

Serge Mouange ("a Cameroon-born, Paris-raised, Tokyo-based" Nissan car designer) has launched Wafrica, a couture brand that makes Japanese kimonos out of traditional African fabrics. They're just beautiful, and he's promised more Japan/African mashup designs in future (let's hope he launches them with a kinder website than the current unlinkable, music-in-background, browser-crashing Flashstrosity that's currently there).

Wafrica (via Tokyomango)

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trr

Very nice.
I’ve only been to three countries outside the US (not counting layovers or Canada) and two of them are in Africa and the other one is Japan.
Anonymous

To make it more complex, African textiles are made in the Netherlands (Europe). These are called “Dutch wax prints” and made by the compagny “Vlisco”. http://www.vlisco.com/home
claud9999

I love my Japanese yukatas. (Google is your friend.)

You can get them online or at a store in SF Japantown (a little store on the “bridge”.) Mine are very large, wrapping 1.5x around me and reaching past my knees (I’m 6’4″, 220#, American robes are almost always too short.) The thin cotton material breathes like a dream and is surprisingly warm, I use ‘em in winter around the 65F house.

Here’s hoping some African prints make it to the yukata.
MrsBug

What an amazing and interesting mash-up. The African prints look beautiful with a design as formal as a kimono.
mare

The funniest is that most traditional African fabrics are actually made in the Netherlands at Vlisco. http://www.vlisco.com/

The Dutch were also the first that traded with the Japanese so it’s nicely gone full circle.