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Designing the Perfect African Wedding Dress |
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One of the most fascinating aspects of the continent Africa is that you find a balance of modern and ancient. Many regions in Africa are ultra modern and fast-paced whereas in other regions, people still live in the bush, cooking over open fires, and following traditional rituals and traditions.
If you are getting married and you want something different, a wedding that everyone would remember, perhaps an eclectic mix of old and new in the form of an African wedding dress would be the ideal choice. To make your wedding even more special, you could actually design an African wedding dress so you end up with something unique and extraordinary.
For the modern lifestyle of the African people, you would  find the African wedding dress to be very similar to what you would find in westernized countries. However, often an African wedding dress will incorporate various design features that capture this culture. Remember, this is your wedding and if you want to do something unexpected, you can and what better way than to design an ethnically-inspired dress.
Now, when it comes to designing an African wedding dress, you have several different possibilities. For one thing, you could take pieces of the African culture and incorporate them into the overall design. Remember, the African people love rich, bold colours, vibrant patterns, and cultural silhouettes. Therefore, you could use any of those, as well as natural resources when designing an African wedding dress. If brave enough, you could even add a little or a lot of animal print fabric for the wild beast inside.
As mentioned, fabrics used for traditional African fabrics and patterns are vibrant and rich. The most common colours include red, orange, yellow, blue, green, and black. The amount of colour used when designing an African wedding dress is up to you. If preferred, you could add colour and character by using only slight embellishments or go all out and use vibrant patterned and coloured fabric for the entire gown. Just imagine designing an African wedding dress that features ivory, various rich colours, and even wild animals to include the tiger, lion, and elephant.
Of course, when designing an African wedding dress, if you prefer to avoid the vibrant colours and impressive patterns and silhouettes, you can come up with something spectacular using natural resources. In Africa, semi-precious and precious gems are mined. Along with diamonds, gems include amethyst, tanzanite, garnet, tourmaline, emerald, and topaz. With this, you could use actual gem embellishments that mirror mined gems or the colours of the gems to include purple, deep blue, red, pink, green, and blue or gold, respectively.
Another consideration when designing an African wedding dress is to incorporate any of the many exports coming out of Africa. Both gold and silver are also natural resources from Africa and with careful design techniques, you could create a dress from scratch or add ribbons of gold and/or silver to a store bought wedding gown. If your wedding is formal, this would add another element of luxury to this special occasion.
Designing an African wedding dress could also be accomplished by using a variety of accessories associated with this part of the world. As an example, cowry shells, which were actually used as money in ancient times could be applied or added to embellish the dress. Let us say you and your soon-to-be husband have planned exchanging vows on a white sandy beach. With cowry shells being beautiful but also representing good fortune, what better way to celebrate this special day?
Beads are also a big part of the African culture so when designing an African wedding dress, adding beads would be the perfect design element. You can find beads in all different shapes, sizes, colours, and even materials. Although you can be as creative as you like, some recommendations for using beads when designing an African wedding dress would be to make the straps from beads, add beads to the hemline, design a special waistband, and to complete the look, design a coordinating headpiece. For a more formal wedding, you could always swap out beads for Swarovski crystals.
Although you can take all types of cultural and resource ideas when designing an African wedding dress, you might want to consider looking at what Zulu brides wear. These brides actually wear three different dresses, each of a different colour. The Zulu wedding is more detailed and with three changes of clothing, the bride looks stunning. If you wanted something extremely tradition, then you could follow the steps of the Zulu, which means designing an African wedding dress not once, but three times.
Another group of African brides that know how to dress for a wedding is the Ndebele. Prior to the wedding ceremony, this bride would wear a Pepetu, which consists of a stiff, beaded apron. Then during the ceremony, she wears a Jocolo, which is a five-panelled beaded apron that symbolizes that she is now married. To complete the occasion, the bride would add a Nyoga, a snake-like wedding train that is actually a part of the overall costume. As the bride dances after the wedding, this train moves like that of a snake.
You could also consider designing an African wedding dress similar to the one worn by a Sotho bride. Her traditional wedding attire is a Dintepa, which is beautifully constructed from cowhide. Additionally, African women traditionally wear a Yoruba, a piece of fabric that has been hand dyed, woven, and then cut into four parts. The Dintepa consists of a loose blouse with long, flowing sleeves known as Buba. The skirt portion wraps around the bride and can be worn short or long. To finish the look, the Sotho bride would have a beautiful head tie and shawl.
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