“Thank you, Lighthouse and Future Creative Leaders, for allowing me to dream bigger”

In February 2025, Lighthouse welcomed Tosin Adeosun, a British-Nigerian curator, researcher, and fashion historian, for a dedicated artist residency focused on expanding the African Style Archive—a growing digital resource documenting African sartorial history. Tosin is the founder of the African Style Archive, which she launched via Instagram in 2020 to explore the relationship between African fashion history, photography, and sartorial practices.

Over the course of the residency, Tosin worked alongside research assistant Roisin Atkins-Dykes.

The residency, programmed by Lighthouse’s Future Creative Leaders (FCL) and facilitated by Doctoral Researcher Fez Sibanda, provided Tosin with the time, space, and expertise to refine her archival practice.

Across the week, she deepened her research into African fashion narratives, sourced and digitised new materials, and developed strategies for the long-term structure of the African Style Archive’s digital platform.

“I'm working on the next stage of African Style Archive. Instagram has been great as a platform, to, you know, reach audiences and share things, but I'm looking to create a comprehensive open-access resource platform for African Style Archive. So essentially, it will consist of the digital repository, with references to images, footage as well, and then contextualising them by writing about them.

Another side of the platform will have Editorials. So I'd be very delighted to have contributions from historians, writers, scholars, or anyone who has an interesting story to tell.

You don't have to be an academic, you could, for example, be like I looked through my parents magazine collection ,and I saw these really interesting magazines from whenever, and I want to talk about them. Or my grandmother loved hats, and I photographed a hat collection, and I want to write about it. Or you go to Morocco and you saw, the shoes people wore and you decide to make a visual story about that.

So a platform where people can just talk about fashion in a nuanced way, and you don't necessarily have to be an academic. I'm also open to doing expert interviews, so inviting anyone from collectors, designers, and archivists on to hear their story on the platform.

The last aspect of it will be a learning library. So, currently I have a reading list with PDFs, but I want to expand this and kind of signpost to people where to go if you're looking for information about (for example) Senegalese jewellery. Because I get questions like: Where do I find these books? And people don't know where to look. So, that's the plan for the platform and why I'm on this residency - to explore what that could look like and how I could build the website. ” Tosin

The residency culminated in a public Open Session at Lighthouse’s Project Space, where Tosin shared insights from her research, discussed the evolving role of digital archives, and engaged in a live Q&A with both Fez and audiences.

The discussion explored the significance of African fashion history, the challenges of archiving Black cultural histories, and the importance of accessibility in digital archives.

“Archives are never neutral. They shape our understanding of history, dictating what is remembered, preserved, and passed down. Traditionally, the archive has been a site of exclusion, especially when it comes to African fashion history, which has often been overlooked or framed through a Eurocentric lens. This is what makes Tosin Adeosun’s African Style Archive (ASA) so urgent and necessary. It is not just a collection of images; it is an intervention—a challenge to the dominant narratives that have historically dictated what is considered valuable or worthy of preservation.” Fez

Tosin’s residency offered her time with a content strategist and a business strategist, Matt Locke from Story Things and Dom Bailey from Baxter and Bailey as well as loans from Brighton and Hove Museum. We’re incredibly grateful to these individuals and organisations for their resources and efforts.

Tosin Adeosun (she/her) is a London-based researcher, curator, and consultant specialising in the culture, art, and fashion history of the African diaspora. She is the founder of African Style Archive, dedicated to preserving, documenting, and celebrating African fashion history and its global influence. She collaborates with archives, communities, brands, and institutions to curate compelling stories. Tosin has worked with institutions like Google Arts & Culture, Byredo, Guest Artist Space Lagos, London College of Fashion, and Modern Art Oxford, unearthing compelling narratives.

www.tosinadeosun.com | @africanstylearchive @motown_gal

Roisin Atkins-Dykes (she/her) is Research Assistant for Africa Style Archive (ASA). She is a Graduate student of Anthropology from University College London, and now working as Project Assistant Intern with Kinetika Bloco. Roisin is currently exploring mediums of archival research, and most recently completed a short film production and editing with Four Corners Galleries. She is currently working on a project as an oral histories interviewer with MayDay Rooms and completing an archivist placement with Tower Hamlets Library and Archives.

roisinsreflections.wordpress.com | @roisinzad_

Fez Sibanda (she/her) is a Doctoral researcher at the University of Sussex with a passion for exploring how marginalised groups experience education. Her research dives into topics like race, coloniality, and higher education. When she’s not researching, she’s busy being a Lighthouse Future Creative Leader, where she’s hosted events and led panel discussions that spark important conversations. Fez is all about challenging systems, amplifying underrepresented voices, and creating spaces for powerful dialogue.

Future Creative Leaders (FCL) is a 12-month paid programme offering young creatives from underrepresented backgrounds the opportunity to work closely with Lighthouse's leadership team to explore various aspects of creative leadership. Funded and supported by Art Fund’s ‘Reimagine Grants’ and Chalk Cliff Trust, over the year, participants will co-curate programmes, select participants for mini-residencies, and recruit their successors, all while exploring alternative governance structures, accountability, and power-sharing.