African Print – A Fashion Adventure
November 4, 2017
Don’t be left out, Ankara print inspires new fashion trends. In a modern trend Ankara print, also known as African Print Holland wax or Dutch wax, has become a fashion adventure for the bold and the creative.
While designs from these prints had been widely accepted by older generations in Zimbabwe, the youths rarely found Ankara products appealing. As you may know, traditional can either be “cool” or “backward”. You can imagine a fashion conscious someone donning a something from the archive section! Now, however, our designers are constantly exploring ways to style the usually multicolored Ankara print for trendy youthful looks.
We have seen that old fashion when revived becomes pretty cool. Also, if you style old with a modern touch, your sense of fashion is respected. As such, it has become common for designers to combine Dutch wax prints with other modern fabrics. For example, here you can see how fashion model Diana Tanyah Mabesa aka Black Rose Zw complements her Afrocentric garments with kinky hair. We took this out of Glamafrique’s closet. We appreciated how the Ankara incorporated into a sweater.
To think that African neither originated from Africa nor was it initially intended for the African Market. As the story goes, the technique that gave birth to African Wax print was practiced in Indonesia. From there it inspired cheaper factory made versions in Netherlands. The Dutch entrepreneurs had hoped to sell their products back in Indonesia but they got a market in West Africa.
Now when you see Ankara print, you would have no doubt that it is traditionally African. From that you can see how culture is dynamic. Even here in Africa. We can change. In fact, we have been changing. More than we know it seems. So dare to tweak a few things.
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