The Revolution of African Prints in Power Dressing for a contemporary Man.

                            

African prints have been elaborated into lofty mediums of arts especially in west-Africa. The aesthetics which African prints denotes can never be over-emphasized; bold, repeating, intricate motifs and designs represented with beautiful hues.
                    
                                 HAPPY NEW YEAR MY PEOPLE! 

Hope we are doing great? I'm greatful to God for bringing us this far. I pray we all see the end of this year successfully.

However, we need to ask ourselves questions. Prevailing belly-ache questions that has over the years, threatened the identity of Africans. The question now is; is African print owned by Africans? What is the origin of this beautiful craft? Well, ever since I was a child, the beautiful and exuberant abstract prints patterns on aunty Uju’s wrappers shaped my upbringing and my mundane fantasies. Then I used to have a drawing book where I drew out the patterns on aunty Uju’s wrappers. To me, they were fascinating. I had virtually all aunty Uju’s wrappers in my closet. It was a surprising and hysterical moment for everyone; they wondered what I was doing with aunty Uju’s wrappers. Anytime she (aunty Uju) looked for them, without interrogating anyone, she would walk straight to me. Sometimes i would deny, but there was something about her when she interrogated me; even if I try to keep a serious face and deny an offence, she would make a facial expression that’ll torment the laughter in me, at that moment, my secrets were revealed.

Cross-section of Aunty uju's wrappers.

I got to a threshold and stopped imitating the patterns on aunty Uju’s wrappers; I started creating my own designs, motifs, and patterns. I still remember vividly, during break in secondary school, my class-mates would flock around me to see the latest designs I had created. They were highly fascinated and intrigued by these designs. More so, when in SS1, my school introduced ‘Entrepreneurship’ as a subject into our curriculum, with vast trade at its disposal. I didn’t need a sorcerer to tell me the entrepreneur-trade to venture into. As providence had it, I featured into textile trade. Textile trade then started with just seven students – Emono Bwacha, Shekwoyandu Dakwoyi, Ayomide alayande, Tolu owolo, Agharese dan-aighewi, Blessing ocholi and I - Seven creative minds who made a difference in the textile globe. As we had it, out of the seven of us, I was the most prolific artistically. But at the end of the term, I usually did not get the laurel for the best student in that subject, because the girls among us dealt with us theoretically. When reading for test or exams, they took pleasure in cramming every punctuations, hypothesis, and every details. At the practical level, I was at the top of my game, however, when it got to the theory form, my efforts weren’t good enough to compete with the ladies among us – they were a complete panel of ‘blue-ribbons’- slick, intelligent and top-of-the-line.  At this stage, my journey with African print began. I learnt batik, the art of dying, printing, and reproducing. Howbeit, I think that defined why today, my finger nails breed different colours of dye – I never wore gloves, shades nor followed the rules of the trade. I used to form ‘hard guy’ then, that explained why I learnt it the ‘hard’ way.

First photo - from, L-R; Chris Okagbu, Ric Hassani and Okafor Austin.
Second photo - from, L-R; Chris Okagbu, Okafor Austin, and Ric Hassani.
African Men in Prints.

                          

Nonetheless, with all these experiences, it wasn’t difficult for me to choose ‘African prints’ as my first editorial for the New Year. African print as a craft or trade does not belong to Africans but has it labour market in Africa. African print or other-wise called Dutch wax print is a kind of resin-printed fabric that has been manufactured in the Netherlands for a west-African market. Notwithstanding, to call these fabrics either Dutch or West African is to ignore a far more complicated set of origins. The chronicle of African print is quite comical and witty. It is said that in the mid 19th century, the Dutch enlisted a bunch of West African men – both slaves and mercenaries – to beef up their army in the Dutch East Indies [now Indonesia]. While there, these men took a liking to the local handicraft and brought batik and printing back to their home countries. Further, a taste emerged in west-Africa for these Indonesian designs. At the end of the 19th century, a printer was developed for the method of applying resin or dye to both sides of a cloth, but there was a problem: the machine made version of these cloths developed a crackling effects – a series of small lines, dots, and imperfections were the resins cracked and dye seeped through. These flaws discourage the Indonesian market and other European traders. In need for a market, the Dutch turned to west-Africa. As it turned out, West Africans accepted these imperfections. The accepted the fact that no two set of cloth were identical. The west-African fondness for this effect was so pronounced that the Dutch wax manufacturers still program those imperfections into the printing process today, long after the actual mechanical limitation has been resolved. Today, the Dutch wax material has become part of the African tradition. Wax prints are also used as courting gifts, among the Igbo’s they are usually included in a woman’s dowry, and they are even essential garb at funerals.

                                 

True power dressing is about demonstrating grandeur, mastery, elegance, and artfulness, not showcasing wealth and rollicking luxury. There is a need to understand these rules, a need to know and learn more about it, and more importantly to elevate its logicality to aggrandize African culture and heritage. Fashion is a messiah to the dynamism of culture. We are free to embrace the western culture, but in doing so, your root should not be forgotten. Suit as we all know has it history and etymology from the western culture, but as a fashion connoisseur, my duty is to create a balance between African culture and the western culture, however, this has been achieved slightly by reproducing a suit with the African print fabric. Without a doubt, the suit is the one item in a man’s wardrobe that reflects his style. A good suit makes a man appear trimmer, taller and stronger. Now tell me you don’t want that! A significant part of what makes a suit look good on a man is the construction and appearance of the suit jacket. I remember when in primary five, when I got a pair of suit as Christmas gift – I had no idea what constituted a good suit jacket. If it had buttons, a fancy collar and enough space for my body – it was perfectly fine for me. My dad would buy a bogus and Brobdingnagian suit for me, he’s paramount aim was to have the suit last me for the next ten years or more.
The single breasted suit above went through the process of ‘bespoke tailoring’ because it went through my specifications with far more attention to minute fit details and more so, I engaged multiple fittings during the construction process.

                     

Nevertheless, don’t forget that for a one button suit jacket like the one above, you button-up when standing, and then you unbutton when seated. All these little directories predefine your gentlemanliness. You can make anything out of the African prints fabric, it reflect your creative ingenuity and originality.
In addition, never overlook your time piece, shoes, related bracelets, and other intermediaries. They are highly important, because they complete and compliment your style!

                                 

Merci beaucoup! Hope my French is correct! Lol. Thank you so much for reading guys, I appreciate your audience. Don’t keep all of this information to yourself; recommend this page to somebody, a friend or maybe a colleague. Don’t forget to engage me, drop a comment – what do you think? Do you have something to add? I’ll always appreciate inputs. Happy New Year once again, see you in my next editorial.