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Saturday, October 9, 2010

PLEASE CALL IT AFRICAN





It doesn't matter if the styles are Westernized! The prints are African. Please, call it African. It doesn't matter if the prints are worn by Gwen Stefani or Beyonce. It still represents the African style. Western styles have seeped into the African Continent. It is time for Africa to embrace and hug the Western world with its uniqueness and for merges to be recognized. Welcome to the real fashion world where we mix and match.

8 comments:

  1. Additionally, how we rock or funkify the prints is what counts! Ola

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  2. Love it! Good job Em.

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  3. Emem!! great job.. i agree.. i feel same with indian prints..tht they are stil indian prints but merged with western style can look cool!! :)i have my own fashion blog too. i will let u know when i publish it! good work! ;) - Z~

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  4. It is AFRICAN, whether it is worn by a European or an American, it is AFRICAN.

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  5. Emem, I completely agree. Thanks for creating this blog. Wonderful job! ~Kukie

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  6. I get it, but ur premise is a bit flawed. While Ankara (pseudonamed African Print) is heavily worn by Africans, especially in Western Africa, the material or its prints we love so dearly is not exactly African. Ankara as we know it today, was first manufactured in Dutch land to be marketed in Asia (primarily Indonesia) but the Indonesians did not quite agree with the product, they chose their locally manufactured fabrics instead, so in other not to cut a total loss of investment, the Dutch ventured to market their product in Africa, West Africans appreciated the fabric and adopted it as their own, with time, the fabric was made almost exclusively for West African consumption. Due to the mass appeal of the fabric Textile mills sprung up around Africa and as such some production began in Africa, but the origin of the fabric is not really African. Today one of the largest manufacturers of Ankara fabric is Vlisco which is a Dutch (Hollandais) company.

    With that been said, the mass appeal we are now seeing for the fabrics in todays fashion world is all thanks to the elegance and poise with which our beautiful African women have worn the fabric for decades and the artistic visions of the designers who cut and sew these bespoke works of art, color and buoyancy. On that note, I would like for any non-African designer making any kind of design with the fabric, western or otherwise to always put the phrase "African Inspired" or something to that nature wherever they make reference to the fabrics or its design patterns. After all, they still refer to "Black Americans" as African-American even after over 5 generations have been born and breed in American (side point I know..lol)...The West can't get to pick and choose when to give us credit where it is due. We might not be the pioneers of the fabric, but without us there would not be any appeal for the fabric, the fabric wouldn't have commercially existed. On that note, I can live with it if they at least CALL IT AFRICAN INSPIRED...

    ~~ You know who :)
    I got some fashion expertise too oo...lol

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  7. if u ask me, i'll still ca
    ll it africa becos the ankara fabric was rejected and if it wasn't worn and appreciated by we africans, no body would have heard of it, we embraced it. So call it afican.

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