Fabrics fabrics fabrics. Africa is full of them. To suit all your needs. Colour and vibrancy, intricate patterns, soft silks and tough mud cloth. Regions, country’s and even tribes have their own unique styles. They each have a different array of geometrics and colours and type of fabric; the diversity is amazing. There’s the famous ones... Kente, Ankara, Batik, Ashwaybi... and then there’s the traditional tribal fabrics... Kitenge, Mud Cloth, Aso, Barkcloth, Shweshwe, Ukara and many more. Fabric shopping is a daze and bewildering joy of hectic markets and vibrant prints. We love it.
We shop for, and use many different kinds of fabrics. Our business is mainly based in West Africa. So from our collection, those of you in the know will see that we mainly use Ankara (African Wax Prints), Dashiki, Kente and sometimes Ashwaybi.
Dashiki fabric is perhaps the most iconic African fabric in society today. Dashiki represents a deep rooted cultural connection to Africa and a pride within its community. Originally “Dashiki” literally meant loose men’s shirt. It became a symbol of Black Pride in 60s and 70s; African Americans wore Dashiki as a means of rejecting Western cultural norms.
To this day, Dashiki fabrics still represent a huge cultural connection to Africa. They are worn in so many ways, from loose fitting shirts, to dresses, to bikinis and everything in between. Take a look at just some of the ways we have chosen to represent African Culture in our huge collection of #DASHIKI #CLOTHING
Kente cloth used to be the clothing of Kings, and it was only worn in times of extreme importance. Kente has become one of the most popular types of fabrics in Africa for celebratory purposes. It is a woven clothing and each colour and patteren has very different meanings. Given its woven nature, it is an extremely expenisve material, which is why we only use real Kente on request. In our normal collection we use a Wax Print version, so you get the amazing colours and patterns at a fraction of the coat.
Ankara is our favourite fabrics to use, and commonly known as African Wax Print. The colour and geometrics are amazing and are inspired by Batik printing. They are our favourite because of the HUGE variety available. This means we can give you the huge collection we currently have availiable. An inside tip to everyone who reads this, one that I personally use... check the inside of your non lined clothing. Ankara fabrics are pretty much identical from front to back- a reality in the fabric world- soooo.... You can wear them inside out if you ever get one side dirty.
There are also many tribal fabrics that are equally as beautiful and very different from the 3 main ones we use. Mud Cloth is our favourite, it’s a Malian cotton fabric and sybol of Malian cultural identity. Its actually dyed with fermented mud, hench MUD cloth. Kitenge and Shweshe are more favorites of ours. They come from Tanzania and South Africa. They focus much more on the geometrics rather than the vibrant colour of West African fabrics.
We are planning extending our business to South Eastern Africa soon so be sure to keep an eye out for much more Kitenge, Shweshe and Mud Cloth.
What’s your favourite African Fabric??? Send us pics of you wearing your Continent Clothing or any other African Outfit for your chance to be featured on our social media.
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