SLC-S25/W4 | Community World Tour: Folk Costumes and Arts

My country, Nigeria has lots of Ethnic groups with different tribes and cultures, they're lots of them that I don't recognize, even the one's in my state. Touring my state gave me that opportunity to see different cultures and see different costumes. What I love is the different delicacies from the state because people there can cook well.

Each costume speaks for a culture and they have a cultural meaning and representation. I have seen lots of stitches and lining in costumes but I don't know its cultural representation, this theme has brought that awareness to costumes.

In my school party in the elementary level, I was given the role of a banker which I wore a suit and a tie, while others had their own profession wears, what I can vividly remember is a princess, which had a cultural princess attire on, I was expecting something like the kind of princess we do see on magazines, but I appreciate the parents that took their culture to play.

Throughout my childhood I wasn't given a role to dress in a cultural attire, I didn't even join the cultural dance group, I believe I wasn't that strong to shake off those calories, but now I'm still not able to, lol. My junior sister was opportune several times to represent a culture. The first was the Hausa culture in my country, which she had;

• Hijab: which was used to cover the head and neck
• Beads: Different kind of beads were used.
• A long lining gown: which covered her to the toes
• A sandal: For feet.

What will amaze you is that no one will ask, what culture is she representing?. The costume will tell them already, some people on the road that didn't know about the event, confused her for a Hausa girl. This shows how cultural costumes represents our culture.

I will be fusing different costumes which represents different cultures together. Using my sister as the super model for this costume week.

As I said, my country has a lot of cultures with different but similar costumes, due to the theme of the week, I would love to fuse more cultures together and represent as one.

Fashion Fusion

Here is a proper cultural attire, a fused costume from different cultural groups. As you could see in this photo, this is a proper igbo girl but looking at it in details, you will know the costumes are shared and fused with other cultural groups. I will explain in details what each element represents.

An ibibio girl wears a wrapper with a top, with a shirt or something else, a Yoruba ties her wrapper(Buba) with a top too. A proper hausa girl will put on her lining gown with her hijab. An igbo girl will tie her wrapper above the chest with her cow tail.

How did I fuse this?
The beads is very common in the Edo, igbo culture. I took the beads from the Edo culture to represent them in my costume fusion.

The wrapper which is used in almost all Cultural groups/tribes in the country was gotten from Ibibio tribe which was given to us by our grand mom. I changed the style using the wrapper to show a proper igbo style but wrapper gotten from Ibibio.

The hand fan is an item of the igbo tribe which represents royalties for the men, I joined it too to the cultural costume.

Head Beads

This is mostly common in the Edo tribe, I admire every piece of their culture. Almost all the cultural costume in the country is similar to each other in some ways. The head bead is also used by the igbo culture.

hand Beads

The hand Beads are common and similar to many cultures in my country but I got this one from the Ibibio culture.

---

---

Beads

I have combined a lot of beads, from igbo, Edo and Ibibio. The big one which runs down was given to us by our grandad when we paid him a visit, my dad told me that the Ibibio culture was very intense then and women do wear lots of beads on their legs and huge rings on their hands, which I wasn't surprised to see royalties in my state wearing beads during cultural ceremonies. The other beads are from the Edo and Igbo culture which i fused them all.

---

---

Hand Fan

The hand fan is from the igbo tribe, as you can see the inscription there, it is for royalties. This fan has been in the house for years, I was born to see it. The inscriptions are special and it has a special meaning. As you can see, the nose, the eyes, the eye brows and then the crown. In a royal home, not everyone is qualified to hold that to a cultural event.

---

---

Type less, Smile more

Get rid of low self esteem, you are a royalty from your own space, a king/Queen, you're very special,...wear that costume and enjoy your days

---

---

_{An odogwu wearing a jersey with his achalugo} A photo of me and my The model(sister) with her Cultural attire to prove authenticity.

---

---

	Link: [//]:# (!steematlas 5.0025823 lat 7.9802328 long Home d3scr)

_{[//]:# (!steematlas 6.11767599 lat 6.80671692 long Igbo tribe d3scr)
[//]:# (!steematlas 5.0025823 lat 7.9802328 long Home d3scr)
[//]:# (!steematlas 6.31717174 lat 5.28246615 long Edo d3scr) link to all origins to the cultural attires listed in the post}