"There Was No Fashion in Morocco Before": (Re)Creating Contemporary Moroccan Fashion History Download/Print Leaflet Creating African Fashion Histories Politics, Museums, and Sartorial Practices, 2022
A present-day generation of fashion professionals argues ‘there was no fashion in Morocco before’ because fashion is believed to be a European phenomenon that was introduced during the French Protectorate (1912-1956). This reflects a dominant national and popular discourse, introduced by the French and appropriated over time, that Moroccan dress is ‘ancestral/traditional/authentic,’ whereby changes are believed to be ‘modern/European’ and therefore ‘not Moroccan’. This chapter explores several reasons why a Moroccan fashion history is lacking and its consequences for contemporary fashion professionals. First, it looks at the absence of contemporary urban fashion in public and museum collections. Priority has been given to rural and 'old' garments because they are considered of greater historical value. Simultaneously, garments have been predominantly considered as physical objects, elevating materials and decorations over social and cultural meanings, prioritising 'dress' over 'fashion.' Second, it analyses how 'traditionally Moroccan' has been defined, which is a stubborn remains from both colonial and post-colonial nationalistic (identity) politics. The French extensively documented Moroccan sartorial practices, although through an orientalising lens, and by doing so, provided munitions for the nationalists to build a unifying national identity. Finally, the chapter focuses on the role (essentialist) national identity has been playing in contemporary fashion design. Since the 1960s, fashion designers have been (re)defining and (re)inventing Moroccan fashion and by doing so, challenging national identity. This chapter argues that there is an urgent need to decolonialize Moroccan fashion, to free it from both its French culture episteme and its cultural reductionism imposed by nationalist discourse.