One important part of Nigerians is our wears or clothes especially the native/cultural clothes. Although we love to showcase our culture, the new and improved fabrics of today have caused us to create new ways of dressing but fashion designers still make an effort to not throw away in total our traditional outfits.
In this article, we’ll be talking about some of the clothes the Nigerian sisters for various occasions. Below are five of such traditional outfits.
Iro and Buba styles
For those who are not familiar with Iro, this is a wrapper that can function as a skirt. The ends of this wrapper and tied together to form a knot or they are tucked into the side of the waist. Buba on the other hand, is an extended blouse that has wide sleeves. Light stream as well as well-cloaked fabrics are used for sewing the Iro and Buba clothes. The palettes of this particular kind of wear can be of any colour, be that as it may, you might be better off making use of pastel tones, blue, red, turquoise, and yellow colours since they are trending.
Ladies out there not having Iro and Buba, it is in your best interest to include this style in your wardrobe because it has a lot to say about your image and person.
Senator wears
The most reticent and strict style among the traditional fashion wears in Nigeria is the Senator style. This wear is comprised of long narrow trousers that is combined with short or long sleeves. The design that is sewn with this particular style is definitely ascribed to the classic clothing options.
Tunic and trousers in Senator style is most likely to be sharing a single colour and it make up a suit. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that one cannot put two different colours together, besides it is your choice of wear that the fashion designer will produce, but, it is advised that even if they are to be of different colours, one colour should be restrained.
The Senator style is hardly decorated, in fact, it is most preferred if left plain. But if a decoration is to be included, a little embroidery or ornament should be placed in the upper part in the front of the tunic.
Agbada for ladies
The Agbada style is also comprised of a tunic and pair of trousers, however, the difference is that this style combines a large robe with the outfit. The Agbada style is very popular in Nigeria and it is so conventional that it can be used for any kind of event; a wedding party, a birthday party, a naming ceremony, for religious functions and so on. The Agbada robe is at all times decorated with a lot of embroidery. Most ladies prefer to make the robe contrast and then make use of more bright colours as well as tortuous patterns. Suppose the Agbada outfit is sewn in traditional white, blue and ivory colours, the embroidery that is sewn to it is usually in red, lilac, or fuchsia.
The robe can be folded in multiple ways that are attractive to look at.
Ankara styles
Ankara is mostly the fabric that is used for Aso Ebi (matching outfits among ladies whenever there is an occasion) in Nigeria. In most cases, short sleeves or long sleeves that are flared are mostly used for Aso Ebi wears. Though what is in vogue these days are large long sleeves often referred to as lanterns. Every recent fashion style in our world today is included in Ankara wears used for Aso Ebi. There are a vast variety of patterns provided by Ankara and floral, geometric and abstract prints are all over the place. Some of the colours in the Ankara palette that are the favourites of the ladies include, white, pink, blue, coral, turquoise, and yellow.
The Ankara fabrics on their own are a beauty so therefore sewing the fabric into a skirt and blouse style or a dress holds no difficulty at all, however, adding a chiffon or lace frill (insert) into the dress will give you a dazzling clothing. The lace or chiffon insert could be in same colour as the main Ankara fabric or you could use black or white colours but in any case you are unable to make a choice, go with a classic.
Among the favourite styles among Nigerian ladies is an Aso Ebi style that is straight or made narrow and flared to the helm of with maxi or midi length. Another is the mermaid style, and gradually dominating is multi-layering style. The multi-layering style is like this – flounces are made on the sleeves and at the bottom of the skirt or dress into multiple layers of varying lengths – and it is advised to make use of a chiffon or lace. Open shoulder is also popular but sometimes an insert of transparent material or lace is used.
