It’s not a new trend to see fashion designers going nuts with Ankara these days, I call West African designers avatars and they sure can bend materials with some crazy precision, especially the Ankara. But how did the exodus from those boring looking “iro-and-bubas” and those very distracting “geles” that look like they want to morph into the cast of ‘scary movies 2’, to today’s Ankara skirt suits and hand bags, how did it start? Just as I thought, you don’t.

Anyway, Ankara was invented in Europe and top quality ones are produced in Austria, The Netherlands and India, so it is not appropriately a local attire considering that contact with the west is less than a thousand years old. Dutch Wax from Holland, now known as Ankara, only became known as “Ankara” when the Turks began to produce cheaper versions of this material, then West Africa caught the bug. The Ankara then became the in thing, you know, like it was the “blackberry” of the fabric world, the skinny denim pants of the fabric world, the…the!!…never mind the crescendo, am sure you understand what I mean; the in thing… good.

Due to the popularity of the light-weight and colorful nature of the Ankara fabric, local manufacturers decided to key into the Ankara vision. Then competition and constant craving for the fabric, particularly along the West African coast forced the local production to accelerate. But as always, unfair trading and smuggling by individuals as well as companies forced the suffocation of local production. Ankara was then relegated to the lower divisions, division ‘wardrobe bottom’ while other materials especially the lace material took its place in the fabric premier league. It was the fabric for the poor; it was dresses made with Ankara and its sister like ‘adire’ that people wore to lowly parties. It was also the fabric reserved for cultural festivities that did not come near a red carpet event. It was the fabric that people felt were too flowery, too busy, sometimes too colorful and not at all glamorous. If anything, it was considered too local to be reckoned with.
 Thanks to the timely intervention of our ‘avatars’, fashion designers like Tiffany Amber, MoMo, Lunar e.t.c, who bent the material back into the lime light.

Ankara was the western rival to the ‘adire’ cloth but because the dye was faster and did not stain as much, the locals dumped their own fabric; their first love, in favor of the more colorful version from Europe, causing the ‘Adire’ a heart break she has not fully recovered from. The Ankara gradually evolved into a regular party wear. From being used as ‘aso ebi’ to ‘aso oku’’. These places happen to be the spots where fashion ideas spread mostly, as everybody is dressed for competition, just plain show off. They almost caused trouble by making laws like “o wo ankara o je semo” (you are not wearing an Ankara, you don’t get to eat semo), thank God it was not enforced or I would have filled a lawsuit against every caterer and event planner in Nigeria to court.

One very amazing thing about the Ankara is its versatility, it can be formed to all sorts of designs, and African designers are creatively exploiting these great attribute. This age, you rarely see the normal iro and buba made from Ankara anymore, designer have being able to create sassy designs that can be worm anywhere from these ones humble material. Now you see evening dresses made from Ankara, Ankara wedding gown, Ankara jackets and lots of them, am sure somebody is probably working on Ankara lingerie, Ankara school uniforms, Ankara diapers(like we didn’t have those before) and who knows, maybe Ankara contact lenses, which would be pretty good, it’ll make the user understand what Coldplay meant by seeing ‘life in Technicolor’.

We’ve being able to amazingly develop the Ankara from a material worn by local people with only one boring design, to an international material that can be made to several designs. West African fashion designers are so creative they scare me. Some of their works look only fit to be worn as Halloween costumes, while some should be on cover of every fashion magazine; I guess that’s what happens when creativity meets versatility.
Beautiful designs made from Ankara material are featured on almost every runaway show that has a mix of black designers. The quality of the material and the supercharged creativity fused into each design is petrifying.

The hard work of our designer over the years is now very visible in each design. With designs that show pure creativity and versatility, they have not only carved a niche for the Ankara in the fashion industry, they have chiseled out another Mount Rushmore with a big face of Ankara, creating a perfect fusion of western/modern designs with the fabric.
It’s refreshing to see the designs being created, but the refreshment stops for me when they decide to enforce the no Ankara no semo law, besides I could use some Ankara myself, maybe I should ask Denrele Edun for some design ideas come Halloween next year.

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“IF I HAD JUST ONE IDEA”

In a creative mind ideas come in droves, making difficult for a person to choose, but if I had just one idea to be applied in the country, in the company or personally, I’ll pick “Personal Development”, which I translated to mean boost sessions.

Development according to the English dictionary is the “process of change: the process of changing and becoming larger, stronger, or more impressive, successful, or advanced or of causing somebody or something to change in this way”. So I can say personal development is the art of advancement, the process of mastering certain skills so as to stay abreast with you chosen profession.                

Personal development is like mining deeper into the earth of your creative mind in order to stay tops in your chosen profession. So if one develops himself, he’s simple making himself a very valuable material in the labor market. One can develop himself personally, if he takes it upon himself to read book, research or in some case try out new things. Every day, we come across a whole lot that we can learn from, thank God for the internet and its wealth of information, now you shouldn’t go online just to poke your 1000 friends on facebook, quality time can be spent gathering upgrades, so while you are updating your facebook status, you could use a side dressing of reading blogs or downloading materials as required by your profession. Becoming a professional these days is pretty easy with everything you want already online, all you need to do is just utilize your time and you are there.

Quality of service rendered is also affected when employees upgrade their knowledge database, at that point, the company only gives professional service which is easily recognizable as professional in their industry. The company can sponsor upgrades, most companies do, by sending employees for trainings and seminars, but one should not wait for the company as their not training you would not stop them from giving you the ‘pink slip’ if you begin to slip in your job delivery, after all, whatever you know stays in your head, and can only be visible by your total output. No company is going to lay off a productive and versatile employee, because you are not just an asset, you are an asset other competitors want aboard their ship, you are the reason they come second place.

If 70% of the citizens of a country constantly upgrade their skills, we would not only have surplus jobs, we would have job offers outside the country too as we are a country filled with professionals who know their onions. To me, the only difference between a professional and a novice is that, the former continues to crave for knowledge, the later craved and stopped, it’s your choice which you choose to fall into

Knowledge gained they say cannot be lost, why not just gain it then? There this quote that says “get a job doing what you love doing, and you’ll never work for the rest of your life”, even at that, you’ll still be laid off if you stop delivering. A man not willing to move with change is like a man, who’s given the choice of using a hoe with a small farmland and a tractor with a big farmland but opts for the hoe, if you acquire the skill of operating a tractor while using the hoe, it won’t be long before you get a tractor you can actually master you skills with. Practice stages are usually the most productive as you open to so many ideas.

Test your limits (sincerely, I don’t believe in limits), push your creative strength, stretch your capabilities, “study to show thyself approved”, then harness that skill and use it to produce unmatched service, and you’ll see, you’ll not only be helping yourself stay relevant, you’ll become a material to your employer, an asset to the nation and a national pride, plus your take home will upgrade too, since its valued at how productive you are. 

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