Saturday, October 18, 2008

New Natives

This week, I finally got my other natives that I ordered with my "seafoam" outfit.  I picked the style out of a Nigerian fashion magazine.  These are their own oddities, usually just pages and pages of photos of ordinary people at weddings and funerals.  For both these occasions someone picks out a fabric and everyone gets their outfit made of the same fabric.  So the magazine will have two or three page spreads of many different styles of dresses, all in the same, usually hideous, fabric.

Although it's a little more Jane than Elizabeth, I still like it.  And I really like the color and print.  But just so we're clear, this is a Nigerian dress.  People stop me and say, "ah yes, you are wearing our clothes now," or "our clothes look very nice on you."  And I try not to smirk at the absurdity of this style being "their clothes."
I think there are two truly Nigerian aspects to my new natives.  One, you can see: the onion print on the fabric.  The other is hidden: the way the garment was put together.  It sort of reminds me of when I was first learning to sew and tried to make Barbie clothes from scratch.  I can't wait to get home and show Mommy.  I'm sure she'll say, "that's an interesting way to do that."
pride and prejudice natives cropped

4 comments:

Jeannie said...

Very pretty, "Jane". It'll be interesting to see how it's constructed when you're 'home'. :) Guess you won't need a new dress for Christmas! ;)

goldenrail said...

Is it Christmas yet? No, I don't think so. Therefore, this cannot be a Christmas dress. Additionally, it was not made by you or me. So even if it was Christmas-time, this dress would not qualify for the honor of Christmas Dress. :P

Jeannie said...

lol :p

MaryRuth said...

Wow, what a cool dress! The seafoam one is really nice too--I like the headdress thingy. The bit about everyone using the same fabric for an event is pretty freaky.
When I lived in Hawaii, we had the same sort of deal--Aloha Friday. Ladies wore muumuus and men wore aloha shirts. This was mostly done by office workers. I had to wear a uniform most of the time for my job, so I never got to do it.
I did have a few muumuus though. They are definitely the thing to wear in a hot climate. My only problem was that I actually "grew" into mine. How sad. =)