Transcultural body spaces: re-inventing and performing headwrap practice among young Congolese women in London

ABSTRACT

This article examines embodied representation of race, ethnicity, and gender, questioning ideas of cultural appropriation. Using the London-based Congolese transnational fashion brand Kiyana Wraps as a case study, the article addresses how young Congolese designers re-invent their cultural heritage to conceive the label stylisation and construct meanings of Blackness/Africanness. The article also explores the brand’s social spaces, where the headwrap ritual is used by different actors to perform hybrid identities. In addition, wearing the headwrap reveals symbolic metaphors of empowerment, through which intertwined ‘feminist’ and ‘feminine’ identities are evoked. The paper examines how Congolese women are creatively taking inspiration from the environment of London to produce innovative fashion trajectories as lived socio-cultural experiences. It argues how the headwrap ritual signifies an aesthetic and material process through which specific racial and ethnic boundaries are transcended, fabricating transcultural body spaces which encompass individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds.

KEYWORDS:

• Congolese diaspora
• transnational fashion
• hybrid identities
• cultural appropriation
• UK
• DRC

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The article is part of a more in-depth case study analysis of Kiyana Wraps which covers all aspects of the multi-sited ethnography, which follows people (young migrant women); things (headwraps) as well as metaphors (signs, symbols, and images), stories (memories and everyday life narratives), lives and biographies, and conflicts related to the commodity culture of headwrap (Marcus 1995).

2 Kiyana Wraps website http://www.kiyanawraps.com/ Accessed on 13 January 2017.

3 “Unveil-the-workshop” event was held at the St. James Hotel and Club, Green Park; 17 December 2016.