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Aissata Cisse, African Fashion

Isn't it ironic that people who are into fashion are always flabbergasted by the way Africans dress ? As soon we as enter the outside world with our tribal clothing you get admired such as "Oh you guys look so beautiful" or "WOW! I love the colors" like as if they expected us to dress completely different from their view. Even we teenagers now are getting into the new African tribal clothing, and we're not alone though. Famous fashion designers and their clothing lines like Burberry, H&M, American Apparel, and even Duro Olowo a famous Nigerian fashion designer are getting into the next big thing of fashion. But, now we teenagers make this African fashion into an evolution of style over time. So how has African fashion influence teenagers today ?

In my opinion, fashion and being African can go together like peanut butter and jelly or butter and toast. We came a long way and now one of our sacred belongings has caught everyone and their mother's by surprise. In the New York Times, Fashion & Style section they mentioned a whole page called ' Designers Take A Fresh Look At Africa' ; this magazine describes the African style and the satisfactory it has brought to fashion industries. As of what Nigerian born designer said "Africa has always been used as a reference point but, not as a valued source of serious fashion". Last year in a New York Public Library guests packed the room to hear Ms.Jennings and a group of fashion designers discuss their work of the next big thing of fashion. Mimi Plange also a designer born in Ghana and raised in San Francisco quoted " I think a lot of times when we think of African culture, we just think of fabric". And I thought of this comment as ' She could say that again', because Africa's just not a country, It has most of our past which made the future. "There are other ways to interpret our culture" Mimi Plange quotes again. Mimi Plange is one of the best African fashion designers alive today. In Africastyledaily.com Mimi Plange review on one of her dresses they said that her clothes never fail to impress.

African fashion has become such an influence that even online fashion has included that category into their sales. New online boutiques are arriving with exciting new trends that we youngsters are walking around about with. But with different patterns and textiles sometimes depend on what tribal you come from. So some fashion designers focus on one country and tribe. Although the clothes may look the same, the colors and designs show differently towards other people. For example:

Some of Mali's Designs One Of Nigerian's Fabric Clothing Colors

When I introduced to you about American Apparel's Afrika line taking rise, which is the new clothing store trend for us teenagers today. This new line caused many controversies. Although it is not the real African tribal color wearing that comes from the 'Motherland' but, it is the faux tribal and animal print that really stirred some peoples idea on the line. But me honestly I really enjoyed the line because at least it's different and appealing. Even though I'm getting too off point, these issues is one of the reasons that people doubt the way Africans dress.

My last opinion on African fashion rising is on how African's combining different fabrics into creative and cultural clothing. Disu the daughter of World Cup soccer player was browsing through Aldo shoes and seen their latest summer wedges which had yellow and blue African textile prints. The young lady took some pictures and had them sent to her family in Nigeria, she quoted these " I wanted to remind you how powerful our culture is and how others around the world are using it to make money". She said she didn't want them to feel ashamed of claiming their culture and that our dresses should be picked from their homeland like the way they are picked from department stores. Today in the world around us, we think of it just as a new phase of fashion. But, its more than that because it has life and brings us closer to knowing where we came from and that our culture or style still lives on today.

So how has teenagers been affected by this? Well, where always being sucked into the next big thing and especially of fashion. We mostly set our views like the media world. Who had those jeans? Who had those sneakers or shoes? And was it wavy? So when the media comes with something appealing then we're going to chase after it so we can be known as the fashionable or innovative one. When you look at H&M they have diversities of clothing for all shapes and sizes, American Apparel is the same. American Apparel is so appealing to me because they have clothes from back in the days where some of us wasn't born. They have it into a fashionable trend with bright colors and new ideas which we haven't seen in no clothing department stores so far.

In conclusion, fashion has came a far way from beginning in having just plain colors to having many different patterns and colors. This new idea of theirs brought many people into the fashion industry from many countries and especially from Africa. Everyone around the world is getting into fashion and us teenagers persuade them.