Wax Print

1 Fabric, 4 Continents, 200 Years of History

Wax Print (2018) traces the vast and multi-stranded global history of a fabric that has become an iconic symbol of Africa worldwide. The documentary follows British-born filmmaker and fashion designer Aiwan Obinyan on beautiful, transnational two-year journey, in search of the untold story of how wax print fabric came to symbolize a continent, its people, and their struggle for freedom. 

Each wax print has a pattern, identity, and origin story embodied in the cloth. Obinyan traces how the fabric’s bright bold patterns and colors have been transformed by colonial encounters and become a significant part of the heritage of the African diaspora. The film also details an Indonesian, English, and Dutch history of the fabric, while bringing forth issues of fast fashion and mass-produced wax print copies. 

The screening is presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Weaving Threads of Belonging: Cloth, Identity and Political Change in Africa and its Diasporas,” now on view in the Rachel Hope Doran ’19 & CF+TC Display Vitrines, Terrace Level at the Human Ecology Building.

The exhibit is created by students who were enrolled in HIST 2452/6452 – Dress, Cloth and Identity in Africa and the Diaspora with Professor Judith Byfield and is presented by the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection (CF+TC). Both the course and the exhibit provide a different lens through which to explore and encounter African societies, their histories and dress cultures.

Free admission! Sponsored by the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection, the Cornell Public History Initiative, the Department of History, and the Africana Studies and Research Center.

Part of our "Campus Collaborations" series. Courtesy of Documentary Educational Resources.