Gowns are one of the main highlights of a wedding. When guests hear that the bride has arrived, one of the first things they do when they look her way is take her dress apart, piece-by-piece and examine every miniscule detail to the best of their abilities.
- Okay, that is not necessarily true. Taking apart the gown and examining it thoroughly is not as easy as brides-to-be think it is. But it does not matter what I say, does it?
- If you are worried about what you are going to wear to your own wedding now that you have picked a theme (the awesome option of an afro-inspired wedding) and now that your best friend has told you that you cannot go to an afro-inspired wedding in a western gown (and probably explained in excruciating detail just how embarrassing it would be if you did), then worry not! You, my dears, actually dohave some options you can pick from! You can either:
Get an entirely African gown!
Or
If that seems extreme for you, you can pick a modern African gown.
- Let us begin with the first option: a traditional African gown.
You should expect nothing western from these gowns (except, maybe, the fact that they were made with sewing machines). These, like everything African, vary with tribe. The Rwandans have the omushanana, the Baganda from Uganda have the gomesi, the Kikuyu have the leso, etc. - As you will notice when you do more research about these gowns, we Africans love bold, intense colors. So, when buying or making one of these gowns, pick a color (or, in most cases, colors) that suits you and you will be fine to go.
- Modern African gowns are a fantastic hybrid of African and Western designs. The good thing about these gowns is that by selecting this option you will be balancing the influence (African and Western) according to your preference: a dash of exotic on the new western designs or a dash of western on the African dress. Talk about an easy way of keeping with the trends!
- You could, for example, get a western design and have a dress made with African kitenge. Or, as mentioned before, you could just have some minor changes made here and there on a traditional western gown: a corset with the traditional fabric, a sash or belt made from the African fabric, etc. the good thing about this is that such a dress would actually work for a number of cultures.
What if you can’t make up your mind? That is understandable. With the lovely exotic African dresses on one hand and the alluring Western dresses on the other, it can be hard to decide.
- So why not have both! It is actually something else that is common in Africa and is becoming popular in the Western world: the use of two gowns. So you can pick one African gown and a Western gown, and no one will be after your head.
All in all, gowns are something brides worry about, though they shouldn’t. As Carolina Herrera said, “A wedding dress is both an intimate and personal for a woman – it must reflect the personality and style of the bride.” Follow that and you definitely will not feel
uncomfortable in your gown. If you do, no matter how beautiful the gown, you will not appear the way you want to.
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