This article is part of a series in |
Culture of Nigeria |
---|
The fashion industry in Nigeria plays an important cultural role and contributes significantly to the country's economy. Clothing incorporates a variety of colours, fabrics, and embellishments (often beads). Many of the component cultures of Nigeria wear styles that are characteristic of their tribal society and customs. Nigeria produces fashionable textiles and finished garments and has designers who have achieved international recognition.
Nigerians usually dress casually because of the hot climate. However, both formal and traditional clothing are also worn. Many African cultures have a characteristic traditional style of dress that is important to their heritage. [1] Traditional garments worn in Nigeria include:
The Yoruba men wear agbada, which is a formal attire, commonly worn as part of a three-piece set: an open-stitched full gown, a long-sleeved shirt, and sokoto (trousers fitted snugly at the ankle). [2]
The Hausa wear Babaringa. The isiagu is a men's pullover shirt similar to a dashiki that is worn by many groups in Africa. The traditional attire of Igbo men includes an isiagu patterned with embroidered lion heads, usually worn with trousers and a traditional striped hat. [2]
Traditional Yoruba dress uses fine beads and textiles to reflect social status and religious affiliation as well as personal identity and taste, Gold and other jewelry is also worn by Yoruba women. [3]
The Edo also traditionally express their status and identity with beads, but also with raffia work, anklets, and bangles. Edo men traditionally wear coral beads of two kinds, ekan and ivie, with either suits or traditional robes; traditionally, they wear a white shirt contrasting with brightly striped fabric. [2]
The gele is a traditional Yoruba woman's head wrapping made of firm material. It may be worn as a fashionable accessory on formal occasions but can also be a daily wear. [2] The gele is peered with Iro ati Buba, Komole dress or Asoebi dresses by Yoruba women. Edo women wear a wedding crown called an okuku. [2]
Muslim women in northern Nigeria wear various types of veil, including the hijab, which reveal the face but cover the hair and may cover much of the body. Veiling may take fashionable forms. [4]
Euromonitor estimated in 2015 that Nigeria accounted for 15% of a $31 billion fashion market in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Nigerian fashion industry grew 17% between 2010 and 2019, with events such as Lagos Fashion Week helping to promote it. [5] The Covid-19 pandemic, which moved fashion shows online, led to more attention to Lagos Fashion Week and other fashion showcases in Africa. [6]
Nigerian fashion has been popularized by the Nigerian edition of the South African magazine Drum , which was launched in Lagos in 1958 and featured images of the "new" Nigerians. [7] In the late 20th century, several editions of the Dressense Fashion Catalogue were produced by fashion designers in Nigeria, aimed at the upscale market. [7] The Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria was established in 1989 by Kola Kuddus to promote Nigerian fashion both domestically and internationally, [8] and the Central Bank of Nigeria has an initiative to support fashion designers. [6]
Nigeria has produced many fashion designers.
Shade Thomas (later Thomas-Fahm) became Nigeria's first widely recognized fashion designer. After studying fashion design in England in the 1950s, prior to Nigerian independence, she set up a shop at the Federal Palace Hotel in Lagos and a garment factory at the Yaba Industrial Estate. Specializing in simple designs using locally woven and dyed textiles, she became locally and internationally known in the 1960s and 1970s. [7]
Fadipe Adedamola Olaniyi is CEO of Hoodies and Stones Clothing, which promotes African culture through its products. [9]
Duro Olowu is a Nigerian women's wear designer with Jamaican roots who launched his own label in the 2000s. [10]
Lisa Folawiyo uses traditional West African fabrics to produce modern tailored designs. She launched her label, Jewel by Lisa, in 2005e. [10] She also produces custom luxury prints and accessories, such as jewelry and purses. Line J Label, her diffusion line, showcases urban fashion with Afropop influences. [11]
Philip Ojire launched his urban fashion label Freak Vault Clothing, formerly Shirt Freak, in 2017. [12] [13]
Omotoso Oluwabukunmi runs tWIF Clothing; [14] the name is an acronym of The Way It Fits. Launched in 2012, the company produces branded apparel for businesses and other organizations, as well as own-brand menswear including shirts, pants, suits, and native attire. [15] [16]
Kenneth Ize, a menswear designer who grew up in Austria, [17] won the Fashion Focus prize and was one of the first Nigerian designers to have his clothes sold at Browns in London. [5]
Tolu Coker, a British designer, pays ha lote in her fashion designs to her Yoruba heritage from her parents. [6] [18]
Evans Akere is a Nigerian fashion designer [19] [20] [21] and the founder of the luxury menswear brand called Vanskere [20] [22] , a distinguished Nigerian luxury fashion brand that specializes in ready-to-wear urban African attire.
The rich cultural diversity in Nigerian society has a huge influence on the Nigerian fashion world, with the various elements of the varying ethnic groups showcasing their unique designs and customs even in the modern-day world. Nigerian fashion goes beyond the display of beautiful designs to the portrayal of cultural and symbolic importance with the incorporation of some indigenous textiles such as the adire, aso oke, and ankara prints. [23] Although there have been a lot of changes in the Nigerian fashion world, there is still a retention of its unique beauty and originality. Fashion in the 1960s was characterized by women dressing in both fitted and oversized attires as well as mini skirts and dresses with simple local hairstyles and Afros. While the men wore bright-coloured shirts in different patterns and marched with tight skinny pants. The 1970s were characterized by baggy-sleeved buba worn on wrappers tied a little above the knees to the mid-thighs called Oleku for women, and men wore agbada and danshiki outfits with both gender jerry curls and permed hair. The 1980s had women wearing maxi skirts and men oversized suits with huge permed hair. The fashion trend started to experience a significant change in the 1990s with the influence of America with miniskirts and scousers and native boubous for women. Men also had a difference in the trouser fashion with narrower hems and loosely fitted around the hip and waist region. [24] Currently, Nigerian fashion continues to change and evolve with the incorporation of traditional fabrics and bold, colourful designs to make different styles. Nigerian streetwear has gained global recognition on the world of fashion stage, with the likes of Kenneth Ize [25] being chosen as one of the finalists for the LVMP Prize for emerging fashion designers. [26] Another prominent Nigerian designer is Amaka Osakwe, founder of the Maki Oh, whose design was worn by the then-first lady of the United States Michelle Obama. [27]
Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into outfits that depict distinctive ways of dressing as signifiers of social status, self-expression, and group belonging. As a multifaceted term, fashion describes an industry, styles, aesthetics, and trends.
Clothing is any item worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural products found in the environment, put together. The wearing of clothing is mostly restricted to human beings and is a feature of all human societies. The amount and type of clothing worn depends on gender, body type, social factors, and geographic considerations. Garments cover the body, footwear covers the feet, gloves cover the hands, while hats and headgear cover the head, and underwear covers the private parts.
The aloha shirt, also referred to as a Hawaiian shirt, is a style of dress shirt originating in Hawaii. They are collared and buttoned dress shirts, usually short-sleeved and made from printed fabric. They are traditionally worn untucked, but can be worn tucked into the waist of trousers. They are worn casually or as informal business attire in Hawaii.
Formal wear or full dress is the Western dress code category applicable for the most formal occasions, such as weddings, christenings, confirmations, funerals, Easter and Christmas traditions, in addition to certain state dinners, audiences, balls, and horse racing events. Generally permitted other alternatives, though, are the most formal versions of ceremonial dresses, full dress uniforms, religious clothing, national costumes, and most rarely frock coats. In addition, formal wear is often instructed to be worn with official full size orders and medals.
A folk costume expresses a national identity through clothing or costume, which is usually associated with a specific region or period of time in history. It can also indicate social, marital, or religious status. If the costume is used to represent the culture or identity of a specific ethnic group, it is usually known as ethnic costume. Such costumes often come in two forms: one for everyday occasions, the other for traditional festivals and formal wear. The word "costume" in this context is sometimes considered pejorative due to the multiple senses of the word, and in such cases "clothing", "garments" or "regalia" can be substituted without offense.
African clothing is the traditional clothing worn by the people of Africa.
In clothing for men, a dickey is a type of shirtfront that is worn with black tie (tuxedo) and with white tie evening clothes. The dickey is usually attached to the shirt collar and then tucked into the waistcoat or cummerbund. Some dickey designs have a trouser-button tab, meant to secure the dickey-bottom to the waistband of the trousers, and so prevent the dickey from becoming untucked.
Fashion of the 1980s was characterized by a rejection of 1970s fashion. Punk fashion began as a reaction against both the hippie movement of the past decades and the materialist values of the current decade. The first half of the decade was relatively tame in comparison to the second half, which was when apparel became very bright and vivid in appearance.
Kurdish traditional clothing is a historical and contemporary aspect of Kurdish heritage.
The wrapper, lappa, or pagne is a colorful garment widely worn in West Africa by both men and women. It has formal and informal versions and varies from simple draped clothing to fully tailored ensembles. The formality of the wrapper depends on the fabric used to create or design it.
Pakaian is the term for clothing in Malaysia's national language. It is referring to things to wear such as shirts, pants, shoes etc. Since Malaysia is a multicultural nation: Malay, Chinese, Indian and hundreds of other indigenous groups of Malay Peninsula and Borneo, each has its own traditional and religious articles of clothing all of which are gender-specific and may be adapted to local influences and conditions. Previously, traditional clothes were worn daily. However, by excluding Baju Melayu, Baju Kurung many are now only worn on special occasions such as marriage ceremonies and cultural events.
Outside Western cultures, men's clothing commonly includes skirts and skirt-like garments; however, in the Americas and much of Europe, skirts are usually seen as feminine clothing and socially stigmatized for men and boys to wear, despite having done so for centuries. While there are exceptions, most notably the cassock and the kilt, these are not really considered 'skirts' in the typical sense of fashion wear; rather they are worn as cultural and vocational garments. People have variously attempted to promote the fashionable wearing of skirts by men in Western culture and to do away with this gender distinction.
Aso oke fabric, is a hand-woven cloth created by the Yoruba people of west Africa. Usually woven by men and women, the fabric is used to make men's gowns, called agbada and hats, called fila, as well as women's wrappers, called iro and head tie, called gele.
The national costume of Indonesia is the national attire that represents the Republic of Indonesia. It is derived from Indonesian culture and Indonesian traditional textile traditions. Today the most widely recognized Indonesian national attires include batik and kebaya, although originally those attires mainly belong within the island of Java and Bali, most prominently within Javanese, Sundanese and Balinese culture. Since Java has been the political and population center of Indonesia, folk attire from the island has become elevated into national status.
Fashion and clothing in the Philippines refers to the way the people of the Philippine society generally dress up at home, at work, travelling and during special occasions.
Aso ebi (Yoruba), sometimes spelled as asoebi in Nigeria and ashobie in Sierra Leone and the Gambia, is a uniform dress or dressing code/style that is traditionally worn by the Yoruba People and acculturized by some other African cultures, is an indicator of cooperation, camaraderie and solidarity during ceremonies, events and festive periods. The purpose of wearing the dress can be to serve as self-identification with age mates, relatives or friends during social occasions or funerals.
Most Sudanese wear either traditional or western attire. A traditional garb widely worn by Sudanese men is the jalabiya, which is a loose-fitting, long-sleeved, collarless ankle-length garment also common to Egypt. The jalabiya is often accompanied by a large turban and a scarf, and the garment may be white, coloured, striped, and made of fabric varying in thickness, depending on the season of the year and personal preferences.
Yoruba women’s clothing is the traditional attire worn by women of the Yoruba ethnic group in parts of Nigeria, Benin and Togo in a region called Yorubaland. The clothing reflects the rich culture, history and aesthetic preferences of the Yoruba people.
Evans Akere, popularly known as Vanskere, is a Nigerian fashion designer and the founder of the luxury menswear brand, Vanskere. Despite not being widely known by his name, his designs and signature style has significantly influenced the landscape of menswear fashion in Nigeria as well as the larger African continent.
Vanskere is a distinguished Nigerian luxury fashion brand that specializes in ready-to-wear urban African attire. fashion company founded by Nigerian designer Evans Akere. The company was founded in Nigeria in 2005., The brand has gained widespread recognition for its dedication to manufacturing stylish and high-quality clothing.