FASHION : Swathed in African Pride
State Sen. Diane Watson wears a smart business suit edged and color-blocked with authentic African Kente cloth. The bright-colored jacket by L.A. designer Ahneva Ahneva can be a distraction, though. Often, Watson says, her constituents are more intrigued by what she is wearing than by what she saying.
“If I don’t want to hear, ‘Where did you get that?’ then I wear something else.”
In her travels, Watson says she sees more and more women wearing African-influenced fashions. At Mayor Tom Bradley’s brunch for Winnie Mandela, for example, Watson says many women wore current fashions made of traditional African textiles.
While the traditional dashiki is still popular for showing African allegiance, contemporary suits and dresses made of textiles from the old country are becoming even more popular. The appeal of these fashions seems to lie in the subtlety of their message. Wearing traditional African dress was once considered a militant gesture. It is now perceived as a badge of honor.
“Women who 10 to 15 years ago would never wear an African dress are wearing them now, and men are putting Kente cloth around their shoulders,” Watson notes.
The change in perception over the last 20 years has come from within the black community, says New York-based designer Therez Fleetwood.
“Back then being militant was what our struggle was about. Now people are becoming aware of who they are through an inner acceptance. They’re more at peace, but they still want to bring their heritage or Afro-centricity to the forefront.”
Fleetwood, who designs the Phe-Zula Collection in New York, is among a growing number of African-American designers who are incorporating the colors, symbols and fabrics of their heritage into contemporary designs. Kente cloth, the handwoven tribal fabric from Ghana, and fabrics printed to look like Kente cloth, are used in trims and in blocks. Handwoven fabrics from Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Mali and Somalia are also popular, as are animal shapes and batik prints.
These clothes appeal to an older generation of African-Americans who have come to terms with their past and to teen-agers looking for self expression.
The dusty denim jeans and soot-colored jackets designed by Carl Jones and T.J. Walker of Cross Colours look as if they were cut from the cloth of the urban landscape. They are splattered with graffiti and scribbled with manifestoes and anti-gang messages.
While jackets and pants from the Los Angeles-based line are fast becoming the favorite uniform of the inner-city cognoscenti, they are also worn by Stevie Wonder, Paula Abdul, Shari Belafonte and the cast of Fox’s “In Living Color.”
The graphics are bold, the colors are bright, and the shapes are very hip. The jeans aren’t just large, they’re huge. The requisite stylin’ pieces--baseball caps, overalls, extra-large shirts, bomber jackets and jean jackets--fill out the line.
Although women wear Cross Colours, it is technically a menswear line and is sold in mall chains such as Oak Tree and Merry-Go-Round and in the young men’s areas of May Co. and Bullock’s.
Jones projected annual sales of $5 million when he and Walker began Cross Colours in the spring of 1991. After nine months, they had sales of $15 million. This year, Jones says he expects that figure to double.
Cross Colours’ unexpected success, according to Jones, comes from teen-agers looking for statement-making clothes, made by a company that speaks to their generation and their concerns.
Jones and Walker back up the anti-gang stance of their clothing with financial and hands-on community support. The designers make forays into the Jordan Downs housing project in Jones’ shiny black Range Rover with ski rack. They talk earnestly, like junior Jaycees, about the benefits of staying in school. The kids are attentively mute.
The hands-on public relations and the more than 500 free T-shirts they have donated to Common Ground--a project run by Fred Williams to keep kids in school--have spread William’s message and that of Cross Colours.
“It’s dangerous and it’s a lot of work,” Jones says, “but if we help a little bit, if we can be role models . . .,” he trails off, shrugging his shoulders.
Less than a year ago, Ahneva, who has been designing custom fashions for several years, opened Designers Network International, a small store in Leimart Village Park, south of downtown Los Angeles. It stocks clothing for children and adults priced from less than $20 to more than $1,000.
Ahneva uses bright Kente cloth from Ghana, deep brown and white mud cloth from Mali and handwoven textiles from Senegal to make bomber jackets, trench coats, bustiers and evening gowns. Because she uses handwoven African textiles, her prices start at more than $100 and run to $2,500 for a trench coat. Ahneva’s designs have been bought by actress Marla Gibbs and jazz singer Diane Reeves.
Fleetwood’s collection for men and women is more modestly priced. Her crowns, the toque-like hats, start at $35 and her dresses, swing coats, empire-waist suits, and robes rarely top $200. She sells her pieces, made mostly of African cloth printed with traditional graphics, through a catalogue called the Phe-Zula Collection.
Another East Coast designer who has tapped into African-inspired clothing and sells through a catalogue is New Jersey designer John Webb. His Our Men collection combines African, Rasta and American street styles. He uses Kente cloth prints, leopard-printed suede, batik fabrics and denim. Baggy overalls of imported African fabrics are shown side by side with hooded black leather overalls. His pants range from $55 to $5, shirts from $50 to $90, and leather garments top $400.
In their own ways Webb, Walker, Jones and the others are using fashion to bring two cultures closer together. Their collections seem to represent a slogan on one Cross Colours T-shirt: Unity.
