Nigerian Gele Fashion

By Jenni Gate

In Nigeria, women’s fashion has included the gele, or head wrap, for at least 400 years, and most likely longer. It’s thought that in the days before slavery, head wraps were used as a display of wealth when worn by men, and a sign of social status and spirituality when worn by women. The word gele (pronounced gay-lay) is a Yoruba word used by people of southern Nigeria. Other regions of Nigeria also use head wraps. In Igbo culture, the word used for a head scarf is ichafu, The trend for women wearing head wraps has spread across Africa and is also a tradition being passed down in African American communities. A head wrap is not only beautiful, it can also cover a bad hair day, protect the head from the sun, and express creativity.

Browse through gele styles on Pinterest for stunning examples of the art:

http://pinterest.com/smilesparty/nigerian-brides-gele-styles/

Tying a gele has become an art form, and the Yoruba women tie them in the most flamboyant way. The Yoruba, especially, believe a gele makes even an ordinary woman look like a queen. They can be tall, turban-like, intricate, or simply elegant. Geles have become a necessary part of a woman’s outfit for social occasions such as weddings, christenings, funerals, even birthday parties. Because a poorly tied gele can ruin an outfit, there are gele specialists in Nigeria, similar to celebrity hairdressers in the US and Europe, who are known for their fantastic head-wrapping skills. Traditionally, the hair is completely covered by the wrap, leaving just the face exposed. Modern styles often leave a strand or two of hair at the side of the face, or hair gathered to spill out of the back. Prices for tying a gele can range from the equivalent of a few dollars to several hundred for popular gele masters. In Houston, Nigerian Segun Otaleye, also known as Segun Gele, offers tying classes and personal appointments commanding $650 for brides and their wedding party plus $1,000 or more for special occasions outside the Houston area.

Watch Segun Gele work his magic here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI-xfeCrRf8

The wrap, one-half to one yard in length, is usually folded in half lengthwise several times until it is about 6 inches wide. The longer the fabric, the larger the head wrap will be. The fabric is wrapped around the head and tied into a knot under the hair at the base of the neck. Depending on the length, the design may start with the middle at the nape of the neck and the ends first tied at the top of the head. The ends are pulled up and wrapped, sometimes twisted and tucked into the folds at the top of the head or tied into a bow at the side. A gele master can wrap and tie various shapes and textures into the design. Professional designs can be formed into a fan, hat, flower, or other shapes. The end result may even look like a dish or beehive.

The fabrics used to make a gele are called aso-oke. The best materials to make a gele are usually stiff, such as damask, taffeta, cotton, or thickly-woven silk. Lace and velvet and other fabrics can also be used, sometimes as a secondary fabric adorning the gele. Colors are bright, reflecting the personality of the wearer.

To see how popular the gele is in Nigeria, watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivXbutxjRO4

The satellite dish analogy is somehow apt to so many of these designs. From the simple to the ornate, they are stylish and fun.

The Cloth That Changed History

By Supriya Savkoor

Author's Note: We ran the following post on October 12, 2011, but it fits perfectly with our topic for this week.


One of India’s most popular crafts is also its most visible symbol of patriotism, independence, and freedom, part of every fiber of the nation’s being – from its flag to the enduring fashion among its politicians, and a part of its history’s most important chapter.

Khadi is a type of handspun or handwoven cloth – usually cotton but also sometimes silk or wool – that is made from organic, raw materials (as opposed to synthetics) into a coarse, stiff fabric that is typically starched to keep its shape. Not surprisingly, it was Mahatma Gandhi, known as the father of India, who started the Khadi Movement in the 1920s as part of his non-violent freedom movement. 

Mainly peasants and artisans wore khadi earlier, but Gandhi latched onto the idea of the Indian public boycotting, even burning, machine-made British cloth sold in India and only wearing homespun cotton khadi as a way for the colony to assert its independence from its colonizer.

If you couldn’t spin the individual slivers of yarn at home yourself, using the spinning wheel known as a charkha, you’d buy the material from locals in your own community rather than from the British.

Gandhi’s goal was two-fold: one, to create employment for the locals and, two, to get the English out of India through economic means rather than by fighting them. In fact, the entire “non-cooperation movement” was the beginning of the end of the occupation. Gandhi convinced Indians at all economic levels of Indian society to stop buying British products, boycott their courts and schools, resign from government service, and foresake any British-imposed titles or honors. Surprisingly, it met with huge success, even among the elite classes, and the movement shook up the entire economic and political structure of the British government. It would be another 25 years or so before the British finally ceded, but it was a turning point.

The main source for cotton for the British prior to India had been the United States, but once the American Civil War broke out and supplies from the former British colony began to dry up, the British Raj began exploiting Indian cotton. Literally exploiting, that is. The Brits went so far as to ship cotton from India to England to be stitched in their mills (providing both material supply and employment in England) then shipping the finished products back to India to resell there at a premium. Not a bad deal for the colonizers. This practice continued for about 60 years, during which time, Indian soldiers fought alongside the British during World War I. Soon after the war ended, the British, reacting to agitation for independence in various parts of India, enacted a law that allowed them to imprison any Indian without a conviction or a trial. By the time the Prince of Wales made a visit to India two years later, the Indian public was outraged, and Gandhi’s non-violent movement had begun.

When some of his followers complained that making khadi was both too expensive and too labor intensive, Gandhi began wearing the loincloth to make a point that no sacrifice would be too much to shake off its imperial shackles. Today, the flag of India is supposed to be made only from the khadi fabric (though you’ll find knockoffs made from synthetics outside India). In the initial design, an image of the charkha, the spinning wheel, was emblazoned in the center of the flag to symbolize India’s goal of self reliance. However, just a few days before Independence, the Constituent Assembly replaced the emblem with a different wheel, the Ashoka Chakra, to symbolize both the eternal wheel of law and the dynamic wheel of change.

A decade after its 1947 independence, the Indian government formed the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, which allows only micro, small, and medium artisan businesses in rural areas to develop government-sanctioned khadi products. There are only 15,000 such businesses in all of India today, and they sell mainly through government-owned outlets called khadi bhandars, or cotton bazaars, which sell a large variety of artisanal products other than just khadi – from soaps and stationary to traditional artwork, brass lamps, and handmade furniture. As well, these rural entrepreneur-artists are the only ones legally permitted to produce Indian flags. 

Today, what was once a political statement has made a comeback as a fashion statement. “Ethnic” clothes are all the rage in India again, especially among celebrities and the young and urban who admire its casual elegance. Khadi cloth is even a much sought after commodity by the country’s top designers, sold in upscale shops and exported to new markets. In some cases, khadi has again become too costly for many Indians. Kind of a reverse khadi movement, you could say. (What would Gandhi think of that?)

I recently learned that own my great grandfather used to obtain cotton yarn from his local khadi bhandar and sit under a tree in his yard, spinning cotton each day just like Gandhi himself. The womenfolk, mainly my great grandmother and one of my great aunts, would then use the cloth to make shirts and pajamas for the household. For a time, the family didn't purchase these garments from shops, wearing only the ones stitched at home. More work, yes, but talk about independence.

New York City: Skip The Clichés

Boy, oh boy, where do I begin? Every New York corner hides a culture adventure of some sort. Some of them are well-known, some really aren’t. So I decided to share a few that a typical New York City travel guide may not list.

Skip the Empire State Building – all the hype around it is not worth the thirty bucks and a dozen lines you’d have to stand in to get onto its observation deck (or fifty dollars, if you want the express elevator). You can leisurely observe that same Manhattan skyline from the 42nd floor of Marriott Marquis Lounge with a Manhattan in your hand. And if you long for that speed-elevator experience, the Marriott's glass elevators will whisk you 48 stories above the city in seconds, literally and physically taking your breath away. The lounge is revolving so if you pick out a spot by the window, you will be taken on a 360-degree, one-hour city tour, floating by such famed landmarks as the Chrysler Building, Carnegie Tower, MetLife, or The Intrepid. And by the flocks of the unhappy tourists shielding themselves from the wind on the Empire State Building deck.

If you love art and fashion and are torn between going to a museum and attending a fashion show, kill two birds with one stone and visit The Fashion Institute of Technology Museum – the most fashionable art collection in New York City and perhaps on the planet. It may not compare in size and grandeur to the Metropolitan, but it owns the largest collection of costumes, textiles, and apparel in the world, dating from the 18th century to present times and counting more than 50,000 objects that include garments, shoes, and accessories. The costume collection features Christian Dior, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and Vivienne Westwood. Its millinery medley boasts 3,000 hats, and its handbag collection includes purses, pouches, clutch bags, and portemonnaies by Gucci, Coach, and Roberta di Camerino. However, because the museum is small, the exhibits keep revolving. There are also special exhibitions. The latest one covered eco-fashion, featuring clothing items made from bio-degradable fabrics such as organic cotton as opposed to polyester. The show also explored the challenges of sustainable fashion delving into issues such as natural leather, which requires disposing of salts in the process, versus its synthetic, oil-made cousin, revealing that neither approach was particularly planet-friendly. The admission is free, but there are no fitting rooms. And no sales!

Horseback riding is certainly not the first activity that comes to mind when you are planning a trip to New York City, but you may be surprised to know that every borough maintains stables and bridle paths. Out-of-town visitors are often amazed to see equestrians in Central Park, where horseback riding is actually permitted year round. The recently rebuilt Central Park bridle path is more than six miles long and goes around the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as well as the North Meadow. In Brooklyn. One can rent a horse or take lessons at Kensington Stables, which was built in 1930 as the last extension of the Brooklyn Riding Academy. A part of it was torn down to build the foot bridge over Ocean Parkway, but the rest survived. Bronx offers the Pelham Bay Park Trail with its beautiful vistas of marshland and woods, as well as the Riverdale Equestrian Center in Van Cortlandt Park.

Forest Park in Queens boasts a four-mile equestrian path that meanders through 600 acres of magnificent oak woods, up and down the hills. The path was opened to horse lovers in December 2002 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony as a gorgeous gray horse pulled a surrey through blankets of sparkling snow – New York had just been hit with its first winter storm of the season, but horse enthusiasts made it through the drifts to show their support for the project.

The time when New York City was nothing but horses pulling coaches, milk wagons, and carts is long gone, but city horsemanship is far from dead. So when you visit the Big Apple the next time, you can skip the cliché carriage ride around Central Park, get yourself on a real horse, and gallop through its woods instead.