African textiles are textiles from various locations across the African continent. Across Africa, there are many distinctive styles, techniques, dyeing methods, and decorative and functional purposes. These textiles hold cultural significance and also have significance as historical documents of African design.
What do African patterns mean?
A major form of expression, African patterns are popular as a means of personal adornment and a medium of communication. These exquisite textiles give wearers and admirers insight into social, religious, and political African contexts in an abstract and approachable way.
What do African clothes represent?
The garments often come in different colours of red and black for the traditional healers, while gold and blues signify royalty. There were also cloths that signified marital status such as nursing charms.
Does African prints have meaning?
The colours and symbols used in each print design can symbolise a tribe, marriage and social status of the wearer. After the fabrics are designed, printed and distributed to markets, particularly in West Africa, the women who wear them create the stories and hidden meanings behind them.
What do kente cloth colors mean?
Kente is a meaningful sartorial device, as every aspect of its aesthetic design is intended as communication. The colors of the cloth each hold symbolism: gold = status/serenity, yellow = fertility, green = renewal, blue = pure spirit/harmony, red = passion, black = union with ancestors/spiritual awareness.
What are traditional African colors?
The Pan-African flag’s colors each had symbolic meaning. Red stood for blood — both the blood shed by Africans who died in their fight for liberation, and the shared blood of the African people. Black represented, well, black people. And green was a symbol of growth and the natural fertility of Africa.
Where do African patterns come from?
Produced by the Kuba people of the Congo, this popular African pattern is created with the leaf of the Raffia tree. Each leaf is hand cut and then dyed using natural resources such as indigo and mud. Once the patterns are created the fabric is created using an embroidery technique that weaves fibers into strips.
What type of clothes do people in Africa wear?
In East Africa, the kanzu is the traditional dress worn by Swahili-speaking men. Women wear the kanga and the gomesi. In Southern Africa, distinctive shirts are worn, like the long dresses they wear. For instance, South Africa is known for the Madiba shirt, whereas Zimbabwe is known for the safari shirt.
What is African clothing called?
The dashiki is a colorful garment worn mostly in West Africa. It is called Kitenge in East Africa and has been a dominant wear in Tanzania and later Kenya and Somalia. It covers the top half of the body. It has formal and informal versions and varies from simple draped clothing to fully tailored suits.
Why is African clothing important?
It also explored the influence of African clothing on modern day British Fashion, and the influence of modern fashion on contemporary African clothing. Wearing African clothing is a wonderful way for many to celebrate our cultural heritage and to commemorate the beauty of our motherland.
How can you tell real African fabric?
Avoid Poorer Quality Items, Ankara Fabric Is Made From 100% Cotton. Simply touching the fabric can give you a really good indication of the type of quality. If the fabric feels soft and flexible then it could well be authentic wax.
What is African print called?
African wax prints, also known as Ankara and Dutch wax prints, are omnipresent and common materials for clothing in Africa, especially West Africa. They are industrially produced colorful cotton cloths with batik-inspired printing.
How are African prints made?
The method of producing African wax print fabric is called batik, which is an ancient art form. The designs are printed onto the cloth using melted wax before dye is applied to add usually 2 or 3 colours. The crackling effect displayed on the cloth is caused by the wax-resist dyeing technique and special machinery.
What inspired the first kente cloth?
Kente cloth comes from a textile practice that originated in Ghana centuries ago. The fabric has come to symbolize cultural affiliations from West Africa across the diaspora, but legend has it that a spider spinning a complex web inspired the earliest kente techniques and designs.
Is it OK to wear African print?
I’ve heard African designers in the U.S. say as long as people don’t wear printed pieces like an “African costume,” but instead, incorporate them into their own style, it’s fine for anyone to wear these prints.
Why is kente cloth so special?
Originally, the use of kente was reserved for Asante royalty and limited to special social and sacred functions. Even as production has increased and kente has become more accessible to those outside the royal court, it continues to be associated with wealth, high social status, and cultural sophistication.