All over the world, Africa is known and credited with a rich cultural heritage. People come from all over the world to identify with our festivals, cultural shows and more. Examples of which include the annual Eyo Festival of Lagos, the New Yam Festival and lots of others. At this junction, the important question to ask ourselves would be “if other people are aware of what we have and where we come from, why can’t we ourselves appreciate this fact? After all, as the saying goes “A man going for equity must go with clean hands” If we want people to continue to respect and remember our culture for many years to come, the onus lies on we ourselves to lift the mantle from our own end. Identify with our culture in every ramification and whenever the opportunity presents itself.
However, before I proceed further, it is important for us to take a close look at the word “culture”. According to Oxford Dictionary, Culture is a total way of life of a people. It encompasses everything they do. It includes the way they dress, eat, greet, live and even their language. It is also necessary for the purpose of this article to take a cursory look at the term “civilization”. Civilization could be described as an advanced stage of social development. Consequently, a country in a state of social development could be described as undergoing civilization. Civilization occurs when a country feels another country is still involved in what it considers ‘archaic’ and thus should be civilized. The specific characteristics of civilization are food, occupational specialization and the growth of cities.

As with most things in life, civilization is a two-edged sword. In as much as it has been able to make life easier in so many ways, it has, if I may be permitted to say push into near-oblivion, some of our cultural practices and ways. One of which include our way of dressing.

In our country today, some individuals have totally forgotten what it is to dress like an African. Dressing is a form of our identity and consequently depicts our rich cultural heritage and this is evident in the beautiful traditional fabrics available in different parts of Africa. Examples are the Kente cloth from Ghana, Aso-Oke from Nigeria. These African prints symbolizes Africa and makes people realize at first glance who we are and identify with where we come from.
Dressing up in traditional outfits doesn’t mean you have to be drab or lacking in style. Many fashion experts would define style or fashion not as what is in vogue but as looking good in whatever you feel comfortable in and also whatever suits your personality. At this junction, some critics of traditional outfits might be quick to say that dressing up traditionally might not give the desired results of looking good but I strongly disagree. You can make your traditional outfits to suit your personality and that is why today, we have seen international stars like Beyonce, Rihanna and Amber Rose appear at international events dressed up in African fabrics. Different designer companies all over the world are involved in using African prints to make different fashion items like shoes, bags, hooded jackets, dinner gowns and even glasses.
We at the House Of Joy Clothing Company concur to the extension of the rich African cultural heritage, we are available at your service to design for you beautiful cultural pieces that suits your style and personality thereby giving you an opportunity to make a bold statement in your cultural attires and thereby making dressing-up a fun, stylish and beautiful affair. If you can dream it, we can design it. Click here to see some pictures of our works, take a good look at them and you would see the creation of African fabrics brought to a whole new level. This is a revolution of African rich fabrics with artistic embroidered details and I invite you today to be a part of it. Step into the world of the House of Joy Clothing Today and have so much fun dressing up.