Trading style: Weltmode im Dialog

“TRADING STYLE. Weltmode im Dialog”, curated by Teimaz Shahverdi, sets up a creative exchange between historic, ethnographic artefacts from the Weltkulturen Museum and new designs for clothes and accessories developed by four fashion labels as a “collection of the collection”.

An exhibition with more than 500 objects, photographs and films from Angola, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Germany, Greenland, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Iran, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mexico, Micronesia, Namibia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tierra del Fuego, Togo, Uganda, the United States and Venezuela in a creative exchange with the fashion labels: Buki Akib (NG), A Kind of Guise (DE), CassettePlaya (UK) und P.A.M./Perks and Mini(AU).

The Weltkulturen Museum’s holdings from Oceania, South East Asia, Africa and America offer an outstanding variety of unique designs, forms, colours, cuts and patterns, including embroidered moccasins and sandals, beaded bags, woven belts, rainbow-coloured feather headdresses, and eccentric hats and shoes. In the run-up to the exhibition, four leading designers from Nigeria, Australia, the UK and Germany spent several weeks in residency at the museum working with the extensive collections of objects, films, and photographic images. These provided a source of inspiration for new designs.

Selecting Mexican, Indonesian, and Melanesian artefacts such as theatrical masks, a crocheted mask costume plus a variety of hand-loomed and printed textiles, A Kind of Guise experimented with classic methods for printing Batik and translated traditional weaving methods into cutting-edge techniques. Buki Akib from Lagos and London chose musical instruments such as drums, gongs, and thumb pianos from which to develop new knits and weaves based on the texture and structure of instruments some of which, like sonic jewellery, are worn on the body as shakers or rattles. Carri Munden from London, known under the label CassettePlaya, focused specifically on tattooing and scarification from Melanesia and the Brazilian Amazon region to produce digital prints on silk and a new micro-collection of luxury street-wear. The designer duo P.A.M. from Melbourne combined photographs from the image bank of the museum with Mayan symbols and folk iconography to reference their understanding of ‘global tribes’, a montage of people, architecture, landscape and objects of everyday use.

The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive publication (Kerber Verlag) as well as theme-based events including a film programme devised in cooperation with ARTE, a special Weltkulturen Evening School for style and fashion, plus lectures and workshops for kids and young people.

With the kind support of Hessische Kulturstiftung, ARTE and Ambiente.

For more information please visit www.weltkulturenmuseum.de