In almost all African tribes, styles of dress are representative of one’s cultural identity. And in the case of The Gambia, various tribes have their unique styles of dresses, which make them easily identified in society.

In today’s Africa, styles of dresses or fashion are rapidly evolving, often reflecting changes and modifications of taste of fashion. The emergence of foreign fashion designs has had a lot of bearing on African fashion, thus compelling the people, especially the young generation to partly shift their taste.

This influence has been momentous in the 19th and 20th centuries. Thus, the typical African cultural dresses gave way to accommodate more relaxing and ‘sexy’ dresses. Women clothes in particular, which were considered to be restrictive and purely designed to preserve female modesty and sexuality, became freer and more appealing.

In most African societies, the reputation of women whose sexuality is treasured as sacred, lies in how modestly they dress themselves at home, social functions and in the streets.

This external influence came about following Africa’s contact with outside civilisation, especially the West. Africa’s proximity to Europe makes its values and diversed cultures vulnerable to Western influence, owing to tourism.

However, in some African countries, including The Gambia, there have attempts to maintain the Africanity of cultural dresses. But the foreign influence still continues to creep into not only fashion dresses, but every aspect of human life, with the young generation being the most affected.

The proliferation of fashion boutiques in the country has wielded a new wave of competition in the fashion industry, which used to be an isolated sector. The industry is considered lucrative and more and more Gambians, especially women constitute the trailblazers.

This industry has seen the emergence of talents in modelling business, which is a complementarity to any successful fashion industry in the world. But what is more gratifying is that African fashion designs are central in their trade, which runs to preserve African identity in the booming fashion industry.

Pictures: Courtesy of Lady i Design and Creations. No 1 Garba Jahumpa Road Fajara