The Southern Hemisphere is so Hot right now!

So, dear reader, I spend a lot of time reading other blogs, walking the mean streets of Hackney, and disparaging as much as possible. There seems to be lots of attention being paid to the graphic designs inspired by African and Latin American textiles-- in particular I've noticed the jagged, repetitive lines, geometrical shapes filled with gradated colours, compositions that seem stacked rather than grid based. Newspapers talk about African inspired fashion while blogs like Mr.Mort and Indian Summer Vintage and vintage stores seem to respond more to Latin American or traditional Southwestern iconography. Maybe it is a proximity thing for the blogs, American bloggers are more likely to see things or be nostalgic for an imagined imagery that is geographically closer (and Swedish vintage stores in London are more likely to be sourcing their stock from New England or Canada) while here in the UK, particularly in this neck of London, we are more likely to see African stuff (I pass how many wax cloth shops and money transfer shops to Nigeria on my 30 minute walk to work? 15?).  Or just African inspired fashion is yesterday's news and Latin American will end up SS2011?  I'm sure that, to some degree or another, you can read a bit of colonialism or post colonialism into all of this.  But I have a sweet little Godard dvd to finish watching right now, but if threadbared (my new favourite smarty pants fashion blog) were to write about it, I'd prolly agree with whatever they post.