Was the Mini-Skirt Actually Invented in Africa?

I just saw this interesting piece, please read.

Though debate over who designed the first miniskirt has raged on for decades – everyone from André Courréges and John Bates to Jean Varon and Mary Quant has been accredited with it – the mainstream view cements its origins firmly in 1960s London, during Britain's Youthquake. Yet Tanisha Ford, an academic and writer for The Root , has called this belief into question in a recent article. While researching old issues of Drum – South Africa's leading black lifestyle magazine at the time, noted for its 1960s reportage of township life under apartheid – Ford discovered a series of articles that claimed the miniskirt was actually invented in Africa.

An image from a 1969 copy of The Drum. Photo: via Tanisha Ford/The Root

According to Drum, the miniskirt was part of the 'Afro look', a term coined by global style commenters to describe clothing that featured African and African- inspired prints, materials and techniques. Drum's story of the miniskirt's invention draws upon African oral cultural history from the 1970s. Interviewed
in 1971, Swazi model Felicia Mabuza claims that African women "have been wearing the self-same garb for centuries now". Mabuza went on to compare a photograph of herself with that of a another model dressed in a modern-day mini to demonstrate how the abbreviated garment had long be apart of everyday African dress.

Photo via Vintage everyday

In 1972, Drum interviewed South African-based designer Haya Rinoth who claims that miniskirts were an East African innovation, championed by "fashion- made" women in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Of course, no one can be sure of the miniskirt's true origins. As Ford points out, trends may emerge in
multiple places simultaneously, making it impossible to pinpoint an exact derivation. However, the Drum articles reveal several interesting perspectives.
Mabuza and Rinoth's stories are important because they tell an African-centred fashion history – one that's rarely heard in the West. As Ford says, "They were
using fashion to make claims of modernity in an attempt to depict the realities of African life and culture, which looked far different than the images of bare-
breasted women and men in loincloths that filled the pages of National Geographic. "The 'Afro look' was about opulence and glamour and challenged the West's widely held view of how Africans dressed. Drum headlines such as 'African Fashion Is Getting Its Own Back' and '150 Years Old ... [the Miniskirt] Is the Latest Look' spoke of South Africa's style influence and boldly inserted African voices into the global fashion conversation. African designers reclaimed ownership of the mini, in their quest to make their mark and gain visibility in the global market – much like the British designers of the day. And yet, as is the case with so many stories in histories, it is the Western folkore that seemed to have lived on. As Ford asks, "Why should we take African designers' and models' claims to the miniskirt any less seriously than we have taken the British history of the garment?" as she urges us to question the mainstream and pay heed to alternate perspectives.