La Santera

Anytime one attempts to talk about religion, there's always hesitation ... especially when the religion in question is one that has so many misconceptions surrounding it. This is undoubtably true when it comes to the practice of Santeria.

Born out of the devastating slave trade, Santeria originates from the large number of Yoruba (Nigerian tribal group) African survivors which ultimately were brought to Cuba and forced to practice Catholicism in leu of their own religion.

Being the survivors that they were, these Afro-descendants, while practicing the new Catholic religion also incorporated several aspects of their african spiritual traditions into the faith. From this co-mingling of traditional worship and colonialism emerged the practice of Santeria.

Within Santeria a peace is made where similarities within both faiths are found. African deities and Catholic saints are prayed to equally without conflict. Within this new community, new initiates, called "Iyawos" wear white and undergo a yearlong rites of passage filled with ceremonies, restrictions, new practices. 

The act of wearing all white is a form of rebirth symbolizing purity, peace of mind, and spiritual clarity. Due to the unfavorable feelings at times for all things "Africano" on the island, particularly misunderstood religious practices and rituals from the continent, Santeria was not always welcomed and therefore continues to be practiced quietly within tight communities worldwide. 

Like so many of african descent living within the diaspora, there comes a point where a merging of cultures occurs ... The clash of two worlds is never an easy one. In the case of the Santeros/as (Santeria practitioners) in Cuba, they were able to find a home under assimilation, untimely like so many others, creating a beautiful new aspect of their culture ... something uniquely their own. 

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Fashion D.I.Y

Quick Fashion Fix post to showcase one of the newest fashion faves for my webstore Queen Adwoa's Closet ... along with this super easy wrap dress you can replicate in seconds!

First up, let's talk about this dress. Festival season is here and summer is right behind it. One of my "never fail" go to looks is without a doubt the wrap dress. Made famous in the fashion world by designer Diane von Fuerstenberg, the island wrap dress has been worn by stylish women throughout the diaspora for centuries.

Mastering the look a quick D.IY look with fabric is unbelievably simple and can be done in 3 simple steps.

1) Grab your Q.A.C body wrap or favorite piece of material. While in this example, mine has a bit if fringe, it's not crucial to the look. However, if you'd like to add a bit of fringe, using scissors to cut small slits, close together along the width works just as well. 

2) Wrap the fabric around your body and tie the ends into a knot around your bust. Tuck the loose ends into the top of your bust.

3) Secure the bottom open ends of the dress by either tying the fringes together or by using safety pins to secure the material. If you decide to use pins, use them to secure from the underside of your dress to hide them.

If you're like me and like a nice cinched waist, you can add a thin belt to highlight your shape ... And that's it! Your done! .... Super cute dress for the cost of approximately 2 yards of fabric.

Whether you're in need an outfit for a special event, work, or weekend escape ... Being able to create what I call a bit of "origami magic" with an amazing piece of fabric can me so clutch. This week's fabric of choice is a kente print body wrap coming soon to the Q.A.C webstore. Quality body wraps have been a long time closet staple of mine, as it allows me to create multiple styles from one great swatch of fabric, including: dresses, tops,  blouses, head-wraps, skirts, etc ... Something any budget friendly fashionista would love.

For a fun "how to" tutorial on how I created this dress with ONE piece of fabric, click here!

To top off my look I wanted to showcase the newest addition to my fashion house's accessories collection. In this week's "Cultural Beauty" section, we discussed the heritage of the Wodaabe / Fulani Tribe and the tradition surrounding their beautiful Kwottenai Kanye earrings. In growing my fashion house, I've partnered with artisans from Mali, W. Africa to offer these amazing one of a kind earrings within my shop. Handcrafted in brass then hand-dipped in 14 gold, these earrings are guaranteed to be show stoppers!

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Retro vs Vintage

The fashion world is abuzz with it's love of vintage. From major retailers to your favorite indie blogger, like myself ... the excitement over all this "old school" has never been higher. Even my own web fashion house Queen Adwoa's Closet has high quality selection of quality vintage pieces for purchase.

But, as the love for vintage pieces grows, and seemingly everything is being attached to the term "vintage," what exactly is it and what qualifies an items to be called vintage? The official rule of thumb is 20 years. Clothing items, accessory pieces, shoes, styles, ect originating from a time period of over 20 years can be considered authentically vintage. 

That skirt with a vintage feel, but manufactured 3 years ago is certainly not vintage. However,  that well crafted 60 year old dress from your grandmother's closet? Definitely vintage. As mentioned previously in my post on Learning to Shop Vintage, identifying quality vintage doesn't have to be difficult. 

Label tags, fabric texture, year of creation, stitching are all viable ways to identify vintage impostors with mislabeling from the real thing. Retro items on the other hand, are throwback pieces which have a bit of age to them, but have not matured enough to be called vintage.

To the contrary, retro items are quality pieces that are at least 10 years old ... wardrobe staples from yester - year that had the height of their popularity not long ago, but still too young to achieve iconic vintage status.

This weeks outfit is a mashup of vintage looks from various time periods. Case in point, this Adinkra symboled, scalloped shaped, silk wrap-dress is direct form my personal closet ... And I've worn it since middle school! Yes, you read that right. 

I've had this dress since middle school (I've been tall since forever lol). I love this dress and the look and style is absolutely timeless. The leather jacket if vintage from the 1980's. Pompadour hair-style is from the 1950's.

Again, these fashion points all derive from eras well over 20 years, yet when pulled together they all work effortlessly.

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Ghanaian Color Pop

Hi again fashion fiends! I'm back again sporting some of my favorite vintage looks this week, while offering quick advice on how to comfortably incorporate color into your wardrobe.

While scrolling my twitter timeline the other day, I came across women discussing a recent fashion post. More specifically? ... They were admiring the look, but feeling completely helpless on how they could pull off the style.

The picture in question showed a woman confidently posing in an outfit filled with color and looking completely fabulous while doing it. The consensus of the conversation? ... "I could never pull something like that off." 

Why? Despite popular thinking, incorporating color into your wardrobe can be really easy. One sure fire way to tackle this mystery is to master the skill of color-blocking. What's "color-blocking?" Simply put, its pulling together a group of solid colors that work well together and using them to create your look. Sounds good, but if you're like me, then you're probably wondering "where do I pull these colors from?" ... "How do I know which colors look great together?" To solve this problem, I advise people to grab one of there favorite accessories and take a look at the color scheme.

Like many African women, I absolutely LOVE incorporating color into my wardrobe. In my case, I decided to use one of my favorite kente headwraps. Not only is it bold and designed with traditional Ghanaian Kente patterns (you know I'm all about repping my culture), but it's also full of color options ... Perfect for pulling a few colors for my color block plan. In this case, I pulled green, burnt orange, blue, and brown.

Now, you might be wondering, why I would pull brown if it wasn't part of the colors directly seen in the wrap? Protip: Brown and "burnt orange" are pretty close on the color wheel and compliment each other very well. If you notice, I also used this tip this by pulling two shades of blue as well. You can pull off this trick too if you're looking to experiment or if you're missing a specific color from your wardrobe at the time. Just think, "what's the next best/ closest color to the one I need" and work from there. You'll be surprised the color combinations you come up with!

Once you have your funky base accessory and your group of solids selected, your new look for the day is ready to go! Ultimately, let's be honest. Stepping out of a fashion comfort zone and trying something new can be a bit of a challenge and somewhat scary. No one wants to leave the house feeling like the whole world is looking at them with a stifled laugh or a confused screw face ... but like the Ghanaian symbol of strength painted on the brick wall behind me ... all it takes is a bit of courage. Fashion and dress should be all about self-expression and like life, part of the fun, is the journey along the way to discovery! Good Luck and happy mixing!

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Ghanaian Glass Beads

"The devil is in the details ..." Today's workware ensemble accentuated by hand-forged brass rings, cowrie shells, and traditional Ghanaian glass beads. 

Within my Ashanti / Akan tribal culture, each color and hand-painted design has deep meaning and significance.

To learn more about the history of glass beads, how they are made, and it's renewed popularity in young Ghanaian culture ... view the following video from CNN Africa.

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