Hat
Designer
Patrick Kelly
(1954 - 1990)
Spring 1988
Spandex, straw, and cotton
Gift of Bjorn G. Amelan and Bill T. Jones
Object number2016.82.17
Patrick Kelly – a Black American, Paris-based designer known for celebrating Black culture – reinterprets kente cloth as a high fashion print, paired with a basket headpiece. This usage reveals the complexity of Black American engagement with African culture. Originally worn by Asante royalty, kente became a Ghanaian national symbol after independence from Britain (1957). Some Black Americans adopted it as a Pan-African motif of Black pride, but art historian Nii O. Quarcoopome writes that, as a general diasporic fashion statement, kente becomes “a catchall design for things ancestrally African. Kente is now the Motherland, reinvented, packaged, and made palatable for mass consumption.”
DescriptionWhite wicker basket hat with Kente cloth sash trim, and covered headband; repurposed from urn shaped handbag with lid topExhibitions