They discarded the Nigerian Traditional & Native Fashion.

I was in a restaurant to have lunch and beside me was a table with few older men. Suddenly, three boys came in to order some food but you cannot afford not to notice all of them having their trousers hanging below their buttock thus exposing their inner wears! I noticed the men beside me all shook their head in disapproval. 

Africa and indeed Nigeria has a very rich culture that is evident in their fashion outfits. Unfortunately the passion for native wears seems to have been destroyed by western civilization especially in the corporate world.

Many Nigerians including young and old have abandoned our local attires for foreign outfits. It is now common to see people walking through the streets half naked putting on micro-mini skirts, handless top, tight trousers or trousers hanging down their buttocks displaying the inner wears! These are not part of our cultural identity.

More so, it is mandatory in the certain organizations to wear suits or other corporate wears every day except on Fridays that you are allowed to wear native attire! How incredible.

Ironically, our native fashion gets admired by the foreigners when they see us wearing them. I have a couple of Europeans friends who visited Nigeria and got fascinated seeing our local attires. Most of them requested to have the attires made for them and they happily wore them occasionally. 

But it may not all be gloomy if we start now to revert the trend. I know a few men and women who always put on traditional wears every day. I admire their courage and admire them every day.

Nigeria and especially the Western folks (Yoruba) are known to have a flare for partying and merriment. It is always glamorous attending one of their events as you will notice different group of people with their unique native fashion attire commonly called ‘Ashebi’. Every ceremony seems to have its own fashion attire which is usually designed for beauty and attraction.

Designing, creating and fabricating our native attire and fashions is mostly done locally. There are many local fashion designers that produce neat, sharp and beautiful native wears. We can promote our rich cultural and traditional outfits so our local fashion industries can boom. Imagine that every Nigerian subscribes to putting local attires, if not every day, at least 3 days in week, it will greatly impact and boost the fashion industry ranging from those selling the raw clothing, to fashion designers and to those selling the finished products.

I have personally undertaken not only to patronize our local fashion designers but also to put on more local fashions per week compared to wearing foreign materials. What about you? Please promote our local industries. Get to fashion designer close to you for good designs.

You may also want to check some Nigeria local online fashion shops. Most of my local attires were sourced and designed by Jaccidoz Fashion Homes, a Lagos based outfit. They specialize in the design and production of native wears for men and ladies. You can also check out some online stores like Konga for suitable materials.