We have always been fashionable: Embodying cosmopolitansim and nationalism through fashion in Accra, Ghana

Fashion, a rapidly changing and innovative mode of dress, is one of the most potent and visually present forms of artistic expression on the African continent. Scholars from multiple disciplines have begun to acknowledge its significance, yet much of African fashion remains largely unaddressed. The antecedents of contemporary African fashion cultures, as well as the ability of fashion to reflect important historical realities and cultural shifts, have continued to elude thorough academic investigation. Richards' dissertation serves to remedy this existing deficiency by documenting the fashion culture of Accra, Ghana from 1953 to 2013.;By relying on articles and photographs published in the Accra newspapers the Daily Graphic and the Sunday Mirror, this dissertation begins by establishing that a complex fashion culture, comprised of multiple realms of fashion, was firmly established in Accra by 1953. An exploration of the most significant fashion designers in Accra is the central focus of this dissertation, beginning with the recognition of the first formally trained fashion designer in Accra, Juliana Norteye. Her innovative fashions revolutionized existing dress practices by blending historical forms and materials with contemporary techniques and approaches to dressing, creating garments that visually represented the post-independence culture of Accra. The designs of Norteye paved the runways for ensuing fashion designers in Ghana's capital. Their careers and designs, placed in their respective temporal contexts, are explored in subsequent chapters. Specific fashions are examined in detail, illustrating how garments can encapsulate significant moments of cultural change, serving as physical manifestations of specific eras in the history of Ghana. The theoretical thread woven throughout this dissertation relates the fashions of Accra to a nationalist cosmopolitanism, illustrating that Ghanaian designers and their fashions embody this distinctive feature of Accra and its inhabitants. Richards ultimately argues that fashion is essential in ensuring the continuation of historical dress practices in Ghana and that the citizens of Accra have always been fashionable.