African fashion history and future

 

Soon, Africans began using raffia to sew separate pieces of bark cloth together. In time, grass skirts were the rage. Likewise, they used accessories to adorn the uncovered parts of the body. This consisted of more intricate jewellery and headgear fashioned from seashells, bones, ostrich eggshell pieces and feathers. Fur, skins, bone, animal tails and hair, raffia, wood, grass, bells and pressed metal all contributed to a rich and embellished costume, used especially for ceremonial purposes. 

Colours and patterns, created in printed and dyed cloth; woven fabric strips; and beaded attire distinguished one ethnic group from another. Tribes prided themselves on the quality of their hand-made cloth. They used techniques handed down generation by generation for centuries.