Serge MOUANGUE blends Japanese and African design
Japanese Kimono and Obi-belts are known for their rich designs and represent the heart of traditional Japanese culture. African designer Serge MOUANGUE who works and lives in Japan saw an analogy to African traditional patterns and initiated the WAFRICA project to bring these two worlds together. The word WAFRICA combines the Japanese word WA 和, which means Japanese, and the word Africa. This perfectly represents the marriage of Japan and Africa intended from the WAFRICA project.
“I pursue and observe the complexity of different values and cultural identities in search of threads to weave a fabric which is a blending of these differences.”
Serge MOUANGUE
Serge partnered with the Tokyo based Kimono maker Kururi (くるり) to create a series of 18 Kimono with African design elements. Kururi was a purposeful choice since the company is also known for innovating Kimono design with regional Japanese fabrics or even denim. You can see parts of the Wafrica fashion show and an interview with Serge about his work on this video.
We were inspired to write about WAFRICA and Serge Mouangue through a post we found at Chocolate City – A leading blog about African American topics. Thank you to Chocolate City for picking up this wonderful topic and giving us the permission to quote them and drive to find out more about it.
blends Japanese and African design is an excellent idea
very creative, but ugly. African patterns and Japanese kimono’s just don’t work.
I think it is really beautiful actually some of these patterns looks like tie-dyed patterns of classical Japanese kimono. Maybe you shouldn’t be so prompt to say “ugly” it’s a little rude …