This Montreal Fashion Week, the city’s creative pulse beats to a new rhythm. From September 25, 2025 to February 1, 2026, the McCord Stewart Museum proudly presents Africa Fashion, an exceptional exhibition conceived by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) that celebrates the dazzling creativity and cultural influence of African fashion on the global stage.

Best Kept MTL attended the exclusive opening night, where guests, designers, and tastemakers gathered to preview over 100 garments, textiles, photographs, and videos tracing the evolution of African style from the 1960s to today. The exhibition reveals how fashion became both a form of self-expression and a powerful postcolonial statement, a living art of identity, innovation, and independence.

A Global Story with Local Threads

As the exhibition’s only Canadian stop, Africa Fashion is more than an import, it’s a conversation. Montreal, known for its cultural fusion, provides the perfect backdrop for the show’s mission: to amplify African voices and perspectives while celebrating fashion as an art of self-definition.

The evening also featured a runway presentation curated by the Centre culturel afro-canadien de Montréal (CCAM), showcasing six remarkable local designers. Under the creative direction of Bal Afrikana’s head stylist Mlle Geri, the showcase blended tradition and modernity, while guest stylist @Sheyumboe added a futuristic edge that turned heads throughout the museum atrium.

Reframing Fashion Geography

Curator Christine Checinska, Senior Curator of African and African Diaspora Textiles & Fashion at the V&A, describes the exhibition as an opportunity to “renegotiate the geography of fashion.” Instead of trying to define a single African aesthetic, Africa Fashion celebrates vitality, innovation, and the cross-pollination of creative influences from across the continent and its diaspora.

From legendary trailblazers to today’s avant-garde talents, each designer featured brings a new dimension to what fashion can be — art, activism, and cultural memory woven together.

A Montreal Must-See

Museum CEO Anne Eschapasse emphasizes that this marks the fourth collaboration between McCord Stewart and the V&A, following Eleganza: Italian Fashion, Balenciaga: Master of Couture, Christian Dior, and Parachute: Subversive 80s Fashion. Now, Africa Fashion continues that legacy but with a distinctly contemporary, global heartbeat.

For fashion lovers, cultural explorers, and design students alike, this exhibition is a feast for the eyes and a spark for the imagination. Expect color, craft, and conviction in every thread.

🎟️ Africa Fashion runs September 25, 2025 – February 1, 2026
📍 McCord Stewart Museum, Montréal
👉 Reserve your tickets here

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