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Friday, September 23, 2022
AFRIYAH: Ghanaian Costume Designer Who Worked On The Woman King Speaks On Styling Actors And Her Career
YEN.COM.GH: Ghanaians born in the nineties have seen the best of local movies such as Diabolo, Mamma Mia and theatrical dramas like Obra and Osofo Dadzie by great actors such as David Dontoh and Grace Omaboe, popularly known as Maame Dokono.
5 comments:
Gaby F
said...
This is so cool!!!! As an avid moviegoer, I watched The Woman King right after opening weekend. Not knowing much about it I just went in blind, and I had a great time. Quite frankly I had not even considered the idea that the fabrics used in the film were woven, much less by hand. I just thought they were printed fabrics enhanced by the magic of editing or something of the sort since Hollywood tends to make any and all shortcuts possible. It was fascinating to me to learn about the BTS context behind it all. It makes me wish the Oscars had a proper way of acknowledging the craftsmanship behind the design because this is truly remarkable. This was a small army of craftspeople led by a one-woman operation that took a leap of faith to follow her dreams of working as a creative. I hope I get to hear more buzz about this soon.
This was a really interesting article. It was amazing to hear about AFRIYAH's rise into the industry and how she found her love of designing and costume work. It was also amazing to hear about the interest in authenticity in the costume department. I love that they were focused on finding the right materials and patterns to accurately depict the women as they would have been all those years ago. However I was a little bit surprised to read about how she was the only Gahnian creative on the team. It makes me wonder where else in the movie they pushed for the authenticity and maybe where they fell short of it. It is very clear from the effort and immensely hard work that AFRIYAH put into her research and creation of the fabric that they were as true to the real thing as anyone could have gotten. But with her being the only person on the team who is from the location of the movie, it makes me wonder what the other areas did to ensure authenticity.
I think this is a great success story of a person pursuing their passion. It's interesting to read that while she tried to create non-white motivated things, she was labeled as a "non-conformant". The way AFRIYAH got into the industry is actually very interesting, starting as a designer and moving into other fields. It's great that she makes it a point to tell Ghanaian youths that it is possible to "make it" in Ghana, like she did. It's surprising that she was the only Ghanaian person on the The Woman King - I wonder how diverse their production crew as a whole was. The way the production process itself is described is interesting, and AFRIYAH clearly cared about how accurate and genuine the costumes were (so much so that they may not even be costumes). The travelling she did is really impressive; I feel as though you never hear about movie workers travelling around like AFRIYAH did.
I recently had the pleasure of witnessing The Woman King and I was immediately encaptivated by the costumes! The duality in which these costumes possessed throughout this marvelous film is truly astonishing in the way it vividly depicts the way in which the woman within The Woman King hold different roles/positions within society. I was happy to see this Ghanaian costume designer have their voice and experience discussed because it is rare to see African designers be represented throughout the film industry. I found her role as a costume assistant very intriguing considering she was specifically assigned to work on woven fabrics, considering I was not aware that they were hand woven! She really made these costumes her own and more custom to the production as a whole. Creating a very authentic look. I also liked how she met individually with the cast members and determined what their personal styles were! I can not wait to see more from this designer!
I’ve seen posters for this movie, and have been meaning to make time to go see it. We know I love a costume design article, and this one was an interesting read. AFRIYAH talks about the sheer amount of effort she put into her education, her creative passion. It sounds like after being a celebrity stylist, Beasts of No Nation was a huge break for her in the film industry. I think it is super important to highlight the section where she talks about trying to not do things that were white-motivated, especially as she was beginning her career. And, that got her labeled as “non-conformant”. Blatantly racist, because we know that when a white creator does something “out of the ordinary” they get intrigue and praise for it before anything else. Another interesting thing that jumped out at me in this article was how many times it was mentioned that she was the only Ghanaian on the production team. Alex mentioned this as well, I would also be curious to know who was on the rest of the creative team, and how diverse it was. Excited for AFRIYAH, and will hopefully see the movie soon.
5 comments:
This is so cool!!!! As an avid moviegoer, I watched The Woman King right after opening weekend. Not knowing much about it I just went in blind, and I had a great time. Quite frankly I had not even considered the idea that the fabrics used in the film were woven, much less by hand. I just thought they were printed fabrics enhanced by the magic of editing or something of the sort since Hollywood tends to make any and all shortcuts possible. It was fascinating to me to learn about the BTS context behind it all. It makes me wish the Oscars had a proper way of acknowledging the craftsmanship behind the design because this is truly remarkable. This was a small army of craftspeople led by a one-woman operation that took a leap of faith to follow her dreams of working as a creative. I hope I get to hear more buzz about this soon.
This was a really interesting article. It was amazing to hear about AFRIYAH's rise into the industry and how she found her love of designing and costume work. It was also amazing to hear about the interest in authenticity in the costume department. I love that they were focused on finding the right materials and patterns to accurately depict the women as they would have been all those years ago. However I was a little bit surprised to read about how she was the only Gahnian creative on the team. It makes me wonder where else in the movie they pushed for the authenticity and maybe where they fell short of it. It is very clear from the effort and immensely hard work that AFRIYAH put into her research and creation of the fabric that they were as true to the real thing as anyone could have gotten. But with her being the only person on the team who is from the location of the movie, it makes me wonder what the other areas did to ensure authenticity.
I think this is a great success story of a person pursuing their passion. It's interesting to read that while she tried to create non-white motivated things, she was labeled as a "non-conformant". The way AFRIYAH got into the industry is actually very interesting, starting as a designer and moving into other fields. It's great that she makes it a point to tell Ghanaian youths that it is possible to "make it" in Ghana, like she did. It's surprising that she was the only Ghanaian person on the The Woman King - I wonder how diverse their production crew as a whole was. The way the production process itself is described is interesting, and AFRIYAH clearly cared about how accurate and genuine the costumes were (so much so that they may not even be costumes). The travelling she did is really impressive; I feel as though you never hear about movie workers travelling around like AFRIYAH did.
I recently had the pleasure of witnessing The Woman King and I was immediately encaptivated by the costumes! The duality in which these costumes possessed throughout this marvelous film is truly astonishing in the way it vividly depicts the way in which the woman within The Woman King hold different roles/positions within society. I was happy to see this Ghanaian costume designer have their voice and experience discussed because it is rare to see African designers be represented throughout the film industry. I found her role as a costume assistant very intriguing considering she was specifically assigned to work on woven fabrics, considering I was not aware that they were hand woven! She really made these costumes her own and more custom to the production as a whole. Creating a very authentic look. I also liked how she met individually with the cast members and determined what their personal styles were! I can not wait to see more from this designer!
I’ve seen posters for this movie, and have been meaning to make time to go see it. We know I love a costume design article, and this one was an interesting read. AFRIYAH talks about the sheer amount of effort she put into her education, her creative passion. It sounds like after being a celebrity stylist, Beasts of No Nation was a huge break for her in the film industry. I think it is super important to highlight the section where she talks about trying to not do things that were white-motivated, especially as she was beginning her career. And, that got her labeled as “non-conformant”. Blatantly racist, because we know that when a white creator does something “out of the ordinary” they get intrigue and praise for it before anything else. Another interesting thing that jumped out at me in this article was how many times it was mentioned that she was the only Ghanaian on the production team. Alex mentioned this as well, I would also be curious to know who was on the rest of the creative team, and how diverse it was. Excited for AFRIYAH, and will hopefully see the movie soon.
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