Welcome

Editor’s Note

In our first issue we featured European fabirc. I wanted our readers to see the diversity of African fashion.

Africa is a large continent with climate ranging from scorching hot to desert dry heat. In some countries like Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Namibia, the temperatures freeze from June to August. Therefore, the traditional ware for many African countries varied. However, historically, our ancestors created clothing by hand-woven nature materials made from cotton, silkworms, bamboo, flax plants, and the hair of certain animals. The dyes used to color materials were made from leaves, tree barks, roots, other plants, and animals. Today, due to European influence, the world at large uses chemical dyes and synthetic materials to create the clothes we wear.

“In 1856, an 18-year-old English chemist, William Henry Perkin, accidentally discovered one of the first synthetic dyes. In search of a treatment for malaria, Perkin experimented with coal tar, a thick, dark liquid by-product of coal-gas production.”

-Smithsonian Libaries.com

A fashionable person is not considered stylish without accessories such as jewelry and shoes. In many African cultures, jewelry was made from wood, tree barks, precious metals like gold, silver, diamond, and natural gemstones. In the early 1900, Europeans introduced Africans to jewelry made from glass and plastic. Today, most African jewelries are made from plastic and other synthetic materials.

I am a huge fan of natural fabric, precious metals, and natural stones. It is my desire to see Africans revert to the production of natural woven fabric, and transforming natural stones and precious metals into beautify work of art. I believe that nature creates these things for our use and since they are a natural part of our planet, by using them we should be able to protect the planet for future generations.

Mackleine Wilson Gibbs