I have experimented with Nigerian fashion. This was after we'd been here only a couple of months. Men at church asked Levin if he could leave me behind when he had to move on from Lagos. Well I shrunk my first two dresses in the dryer. Turns out you should pre-shrink your fabric BEFORE giving it to the tailor. The next two my tailor got a job as a house keeper (which is more reliable income) so she got to busy and outsourced the work and they came back too small (much too small I hadn't just gained a lot of weight) and then I was pregnant so . . . I finally decided to get another dress made after a special trip to this HUGE fabric market. It had to be special because we had to go in Consulate vehicles and as a group. I got fabric I loved, found a tailor, described to her kind of what I wanted based on pictures of a Nigerian fashion magazine - maybe I'll post about that in the future. Anyway . . . this is what she brought back.
I tried it on to make sure it fit while she waited downstairs. Levin said I looked like . . and I quote . . "a deranged peacock." Of course my feelings were hurt, what girl's wouldn't be? That's not to say it wasn't true, but tact was needed because I'd been so excited and was now so let down. She even used my fabric to cover buttons on the front of the dress. Anyway, I paid her the money I owed her and didn't have her sew the second dress I'd been planning. I don't blame her . . she's in fashion design school and made it just a little too frilly for me and I guess I would get an F in fashion design school for not describing it well enough and not picking out the right style for my body, right fabric, right coloring for my skin . . . . SO . . I have thrown in the towel on fashion. I guess it's back to jeans, a t-shirt, and OldNavy.com and a prayer that when I go home in July I can buy new clothes and won't only find the trashy tank tops on clearance.
Personally I think it is totally fashion forward, not that I would wear it! haha. I showed my sister who is a FASHIONISTA and likes to design clothes and she was quite impressed. I say wear it!
ReplyDeleteI think it's way cute :D I would totally wear it!
ReplyDeleteWEAR IT!!!! :) Be Brave!:) Just Once... If not, have another one made! I am VERY envious that you get to wear their beautiful dresses in the first place! I hope you'll come home with a few traditional dresses. I didn't bring hardly any home from Hawaii and I REALLY regret it!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Wear it for you and be confident as if nothing in the world is out of sorts and Levin will have to act the same.
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to look like a deranged peacock, do it in Nigeria where no one (I'm guessing) will really care, as opposed to DC where you might get picked up by the animal control and put into the National Zoo! I personally think it's a really cute suit, and that color would probably look fabulous on you, unless my computer's colors are way off.
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