First of all let me say that I’m not a journalist. I’m a chemist. What I do here is called blogging. Blogging gives me more latitude to cover whatever crosses my mind hoping somebody will read them.
For the past few weeks, I have been writing heavily on malaria, Robert and Grace Mugabe, poverty in Africa and the responsibilities of developed nations towards Africa.
I would like to digress today. I’ll attempt to talk about fashion.
As we say, ladies first. I’ve being observing this one shoulder bandwagon for a while. As a disclaimer, let me say that I find them cool, cute, and flirty- all at the same time (in fact, most of the time). I always thought this one shoulder thing was an American trend until I visited Ghana in March/April this year. I was there for a few weeks but I had the opportunity to attend a funeral one Saturday. By the way, if you’re uniformed, Saturday’s are for funeral in Ghana, unless you’re an Adventist.
]It was at this funeral that I realized how mistaken I was. As a scientist, I hate to give unsubstantiated percentages unless I have the figures to calculate them. However, from my ‘guesstimation’, l can say that half of the women I saw at the funeral were one-shoulder moms. So it wasn’t an American thing, after all. Another surprising observation I made was that, this one-shoulder phenomenon is no respecter of age. I could easily spot one shoulders among teens, twenty somethings, thirty somethings, all the way into the seventy somethings.
“Ok so this one-shoulder trend is a global phenomenon”. I accepted with some childlike guilt.
And those women 5000 miles away even know how to make it extra youthful and classy than their western counterparts. I never knew you could combine a one-shoulder dress and a head scarf and blow it up with a bold belt. What a new twist. I saw it live and they looked kind of neat. What they probably need is some tight strapless bras to go with their one shoulders, and they’ll surely be unstoppable.
If air tickets down a little bit, I”ll repeat my adventure next spring. I’ll report back what I see. No shoulders? You bet. Perhaps, it no new thing over there.
I love them too. Can we set up a photo gallery here and showcase different african wear in different styles? that will be really cool, also help to sell the culture
Actually I've a kaba in one shoulder and I can't remember the number of times people ask who design it. I'm dissappointed that you didn't get pictures of what you really saw in ghana and are showing only dresses here.
I mean leave ghanaian women alone
Kwabena (or kiby or whatever), you're driving me crazy. I read your blog every morning but this is the 1st time I'm commenting. I just love it. but Please leave ghanains alone, ok?
I think you're doing a great job. I hope you get more help. And you say you're a scientist and you write on fashion and entertainment with such skill?