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The 3 Most Popular African Wax Print Fabric Patterns

Posted on by Juliet Ajaab

African wax print fabrics are celebrated for their vibrant colours, intricate designs, and cultural significance. Among the endless variety of patterns, there are three very popular prints that are iconic with African fashion: Kente, Dashiki (Angelina), and Tribal prints. Each of these patterns tells a story and is extremely beautiful and can be found all over the African continent and beyond.

Kente

Kente is one of the most iconic African fabrics, originating from the Akan people of Ghana. Traditionally handwoven, Kente is known for its bright, bold colours and geometric patterns. Each colour and design in Kente carries specific meanings:

  • Yellow signifies wealth and fertility.
  • Green represents renewal and growth.
  • Red symbolises political and spiritual moods.
  • Black stands for maturity and spiritual energy.

Kente is often worn during important ceremonies and celebrations, such as weddings, graduations, and other significant events. Kente prints are very popular in African fashion and are very easy to identify. Its intricate designs and vibrant hues make it a favourite for both traditional and contemporary fashion.

Dashiki (Angelina)

The Dashiki, also known as the Angelina print, is another popular African wax print fabric. This pattern gained international recognition in the 1960s and 1970s during the Black Power movement in the United States. The Dashiki print is characterised by its elaborate and colourful design, often featuring a large central motif with intricate detailing.

The Dashiki is not only a fabric but also a garment traditionally worn by men in West Africa. Today, it has become a unisex fashion statement, used in shirts, dresses, and other clothing items. The pattern is celebrated for its bold and expressive nature, making it a symbol of African pride and cultural identity.

Tribal Prints

Tribal prints encompass a wide range of patterns inspired by the diverse ethnic groups across Africa. These prints are characterised by their abstract shapes, bold lines, and a mix of vibrant colours. Unlike Kente and Dashiki, which have specific origins, tribal prints draw from various cultural motifs and symbols, creating a rich minimalistic design. Tribal wax print fabric gets its inspiration from mud cloth fabrics that are popular in Northerns Africa especially Mali.

Tribal prints are versatile and are used in a variety of fashion and home decor items. Their uniqueness lies in their ability to tell different stories and represent the myriad of cultures within Africa. These prints are popular all over the world.

Do you have any of these patterns in your wardrobe? If not, what are are you waiting for? Click here and shop from our store.

The Reign Collection

Posted on by Juliet Ajaab

During the Easter period, we launched a new collection called Reign. This beautiful collection of African-inspired clothes had a bold Christian feel to it with various elements of the passion of Christ. The main colours of the collection were red, black and white. Zedi has not had a redshirt in a long time and we brought one out with this collection. How daring right? The period of Easter does that to everyone. It makes us want to look back on the past and do more of the good things, change the bad things and just be better people in general. This was certainly what we did for this collection.

New fabric

The Reign collection came with two new fabrics. For our black and yellow shirt, we decided to pair the African print Ankara fabric with a twill polycotton instead of our usual polished cotton. We have been in getting requests to change our polish cotton fabric offering and we thought this would be the best time to do that. Another new fabric we introduced was a beautiful off-white brocade cloth. It had the perfect texture for the white dress we designed. We absolutely loved it.

Couple outfits

What is a Zedi collection without matching outfits that couples can wear? In the Reign collection, we have 2 perfectly matching outfits and one that is adorably complimentary. The red is certainly the one that stands out the most while the white is our most popular because in Ghana we love our white.

Lifestyle background

We did things a little differently this time when we were shooting this collection. The backdrop was wildly different from our usual grey or white. We added some props to have more of a lifestyle look. Still, on the Easter theme, we kept the colours earthy and solemn. The browns were sold and did not compete with the clothes at all. All in all, we loved it.

The Reign collection is available in our store. You can click here to order. We hope you like this collection as much as we do and you had an awesome Easter too 🙂

The Bolum Collection

Posted on by Juliet Ajaab

When I was designing the recent Zedi collection I had a lot of ideas but wasn’t too sure how to express them. I took my time and woke up one day to see all the pieces fit together perfectly. It was like I was trying to do serious work in the darkness and then a light appeared and showed me the way. The word Bolum means light in my native language Buli.

I felt like for a while now I had been missing my mark but with this collection, my spark came back! The collection had to be shown to the world in style so we decided to have a virtual fashion show. I have never done this before nor seen anyone do a similar thing but it sounded awesome. On Friday, 10th December at about 6:20 pm, we aired our virtual fashion show which is approximately 3 minutes long. The show is scheduled to run all weekend on the website but with the number of views it’s getting we will keep it on longer. You can watch the show using the link below. The cool thing about virtual shows is that everyone gets front-row seats!

The collection is made up of 11 pieces with 6 for men and 5 for women. All the pieces have a bold and bright spark to them. With the clothes, there was a combination of fun and classy colour blends with traditional African wear cuts as well as some western silhouettes.

One exciting thing about this collection is a particular fabric we designed ourselves! Chiffon tie and dye fabric are not very common in Ghana but we wanted to definitely make a pretty little dress with it. The fabric turned out very beautiful and so is the dress.

My brand always tries to do new and improved things every time we get the chance and even though sometimes we fail this time we didn’t and I am so proud. Please check out our collection in our store.

Fabric Shopping at Makola Market in Ghana

Posted on by Juliet Ajaab

A lot of designers find inspiration in lots of things. For us most of our inspiration comes from the fabric we use. The bold prints, the colours, the way they come together to form something beautiful is just so amazing. In Accra there’s no other place to shop for fabric than at Makola, the capital’s biggest market! Shopping for fabric in Makola is just an exciting activity for so many creatives. Trust me it’s not just me. The market sells a very wide range of fabric in any quantity imaginable. From 1 yard to multiple rolls you can get practically anything you want.

Photo credit : culturetrip.com

We love African Ankara print fabric and whenever we enter the market we get overwhelmed because of the options to choose from. We have an article about the names of many popular prints. Check that out here. Over the years we have figured out how to keep things in check and the word here is planning! A good plan is necessary before going to Makola to shop for fabric. We usually have colours and pattern types we are looking for. There’s no doubt that sometimes we go off the main plan a little but having a plan makes things lightyears easier. For our most recent collection, Flothes our main colours were black and blue. We wanted fun fabric but with a strong black presence. This guided our shopping activities.

Photo credit : https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_trader_at_Makola_Market.jpg

When it’s fabric shopping day we usually get to Makola market in the morning with a list. We have a number of sellers we usually buy from but we don’t limit our search to just them. It’s so much fun going around and seeing what is available. After at least an hour of walking we usually have all we need, certainly with some impulse buys here and there. The market is just so tempting. On our way back to our workshop we are always dreaming with ideas and designs. A shirt with the blue shell print fabric or a nice shift dress with the yellow Angelina Ankara print fabric will do.

ACCRA, GHANA – August 10, 2015: Informal worker Martha Kotey selling fabrics at Makola market August 10, 2015 in Accra, Ghana. (Photo by Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images) FULLY RELEASED – CONSENT NUMBER: ACC005

If you want more information about Makola Market you can read about it here. Have you been to Makola market to buy African print fabric before? How do you keep calm? 

Ankara African Print fabric names and meanings we love

Posted on by Juliet Ajaab

African print fabric often also referred to as Ankara often have very interesting names and meanings. Each cloth comes with a unique piece of history that is worth knowing. We don’t design or select fabric based on their names or meanings but sometimes the influence happens even unconsciously. Below are some of our designs and the names of the the prints we used to make them.

Obaaba

This is a word in Twi, a local language in Ghana. It means a good woman. We absolutely love this print. The pattern’s main symbol kind of looks like something in between a flower and the atom molecule symbol in science. Science and flowers are a weird combination but if you consider science to be the study of nature maybe we could have something here.

In our Zedi top on the right below, the print we used had a pretty feminine twist to it with one side being very floral and the whole thing being a bright pink and turquoise colour. Click here to buy this top!

Fish Scale

Just like the name this cloth if you look carefully you will notice some kind of scaly pattern. The name of this cloth is straight to the point and very visual. These type of names are easy to remember.

Our Fisa collection featured this cloth. Read more about our Fisa collection here if you haven’t already. The collection is a reminder to all of us to enjoy the little things in life. This inspiration came to us during the rough pandemic centered year, 2020. Since fish scales are rough it fits in so perfectly! Shop for this shirt here.

Hibiscus

This is an oldie but goldie. Growing up the hibiscus flower was very popular especially in Tamale in northern Ghana. This cloth also has a visual name like the Fish Tail cloth. Even though it’s not a modern print it has become popular over the years. My guess it’s because of its white background which is quite rare in African wax print cloths.

Our Zedi shirt dress is super fun and girly. It’s certainly pretty like as hibiscus flower and we gave it white raglan sleeves to accentuate the white background in the African print cloth. Click here to buy this dress.

Pepper leaf

The pepper leaf cloth is a very popular African Ankara print cloth. Like most of these prints it comes in a wide range of colours. The cloth has many leaf elements or symbols in different shapes and styles. Even though there’s no symbol of pepper in the cloth my guess it’s called the pepper leaf because of the size of the leaves. Pepper leaves tend to be pretty small.

Our shirt in the pepper leaf print is super simple but fun! We chose a friendly colour for men and chose earth tones. Isn’t it a spicy shirt? Order one here.

The household gravel

The household gravel is an extremely popular African print fabric and one of our favourites! This cloth is so versatile. We have used it for both men and women’s clothes. Like the name implies the print looks like gravel stones of different sizes all lined up nicely.

We love to design with this cloth and I honestly don’t see us stopping anytime soon. You can shop for our sky blue household gravel shirt here. Shop for our top here and our fun dress here.

Zedi Christmas collection 2020, Fisa

Posted on by Juliet Ajaab

Christmas is such a happy time. Even if you don’t celebrate it at least you appreciate the holidays right? We are so excited to announce that our new collection will be coming out soon! It’s no , it’s been a while since we released some fresh designs so we are giving you 8 really adorable pieces of clothing! We have a few things to share about this collection called the Fisa Christmas Collection.

Photo by KoolShooters on Pexels.com

The Fisa Christmas Collection

First and foremost it’s called the Fisa Christmas collection. Fisa in Buli, a language in the Upper Eastern region of Ghana means little. Don’t worry this doesn’t mean the collection is made up of 3 clothes. We called it Fisa because this year, 2020 has made us appreciate the little things in life we take for granted that truly matter. The pandemic and so many things that happened in 2020 was a big eye opener to everyone in the world.

We had take for granted things like being able to go out without lockdowns, breathing without masks, the ability to comfortably touch, hug and be close to people.

We are strong together

The Fisa Christmas collection is made up of 8 beautiful items of clothing with strong and confident prints! All over the world people have come together to achieve so much. One person is little but it takes many one persons to form a strong force. When there was a massive explosion we witnessed how many people came from all over Lebanon to help. These random acts of kindness is what makes us human.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Black lives really matter

When George Floyd was killed by Police in America the Black Lives Matter movement took to the streets to protest because they had had enough. It was heartbreaking watching the video of how Floyd was handled by the police officers. In our Fisa collection we couldn’t help but be influenced by this gross injustice! The one single colour that runs through our collection is black. Black lives matter and black is very beautiful and must be respected.

Photo by Life Matters on Pexels.com

Limited edition pieces

We have a number of pieces in the Christmas collection that are available in limited quantities and will not be reproduced. We strongly recommend buying anything you like immediately you see it on our shop page.

The release date of the Zedi Christmas collection is Monday 14th December, 2020. Also, for this month December we are offering free gift boxes and free delivery as well. Double awesomeness right?! Who is ready?

Top Ghanaian celebrities who love local clothes

Posted on by Juliet Ajaab

In Ghana dressing up in clothes and accessories made in the country was made very popular a few decades ago with the introduction of Friday Wear. This was an initiative to get Ghanaians so patronize clothes made locally. As a result, today the made-in-Ghana trend is still on! Therefore, a lot of people like to wear African prints also known as Ankara in various styles from shirts to dresses to bags. Celebrities are certainly not left out in this. In actual fact there are some top Ghanaian celebrities who love wearing local clothes and look phenomenal in them. These are our favourite three.

Okyeame Kwame

Okyeame Kwame can in a way be called an ambassador for everything made in Ghana. He almost always has on something bright and beautiful. And most times he bought it from a local designer or even designed himself! This musician also makes it a point to preach about the benefits of patronizing local products. His fun and funky style is one to be admired and he even gets his whole family to dress up in African clothes. This is one man who is pro colour!

Photo Credit – Ghana News

M.anifest 

M.anifest, one of Ghana’s brilliant rappers, loves to wear clothes made in Ghana. His kaftan and beads loving self is always hard to miss in any crowd. Manifest has a unique style and isn’t afraid to express it. He used to be the brand ambassador for Woodin. This is a popular fabric and garment company that produces locally. On the international scene M.anifest always carries Ghanaian fashion in a good light. He has been true to this for a very long time. 

Photo Credit – Efoclusive

Samira Bawumia

It is true that most wives of Presidents and Vice presidents in Ghana usually wear clothes produced locally. That being said very few rock it like Samira Bawumia, the second lady. Samira has been a fashion icon in Ghana even before her husband became vice president of the country. With this new appointment we honestly expected to see her in more foreign suits and blazers. Samira stayed true to her fashion sense and wowed us with her amazing clothes mostly made with smock fabric from Northern Ghana. Check out our article on smock fabric here. We love them! Samira has played a major role in the popularity of smock fabric inspired designs by many fashion designers including ours and we absolutely love her for this! 

Photo Credit – Bra Parucci Africa

Having Ghanaian celebrities wear local clothes is a good sign of the interest Ghana has for local fashion. We really hope more celebs fall in love with Ghanaian designs in the future. 

We are going on a break

Posted on by Juliet Ajaab

The world has been hit by a serious pandemic. With hospitals and clinics all over the world filling up to compulsory lockdowns with millions of people staying at home to stop the spread of the corona virus, COVID-19. Lots of businesses have to close for obvious reasons and our business is one of these. But don’t worry we have some interesting news to share with you. It’s not all doom and gloom, thankfully.

Even though Zedi will not be fulfilling orders our website and social media platforms will still be active throughout the lockdown period. You will be able to see what we have and what we are working on in the background. We just might even go live a couple of times! We hope you don’t forget us oh.

When the pandemic dies out and Ghana especially is Covid-19 negative we will celebrate with a massive sale on all our products! We understand that a lot of people may have suffered from loss of income during this period so it’s the least we can do to usher all of us back into our normal lives. This sale will be like no other you have seen and we know paa that you have seen some massive sales from us in the past. 

We are also rolling in a couple of new policies to make shopping with Zedi easier and much more enjoyable. We currently have a lot of time (thank you lockdown) and we are dedicating most of it into customer experience. We are not going to spill the beans at all. We think these are better experienced than heard but if we get too excited and can’t help ourselves we will definitely share.

So from all of us at Zedi we want to encourage you to stay safe and keep praying so we get rid of Covid-19 and get out of this in no time ! Have an amazing day. 

How to care for African wax print fabric

Posted on by Juliet Ajaab

So you have bought a beautiful African wax print or Ankara dress, top or shirt. It probably did not come with care instructions so how do you care for it? How do you wash and dry it? Can you bleach it? Is it dry clean only? Don’t worry too much, we have all the answers. You can learn more about African print fabric here.

Photo Credit – Voice of Nigeria

African wax print fabric is often printed on cotton fabric. This automatically means that caring for it is not going to break your bank. You can put your dry cleaning money away, or better yet spend it at our shop here! When it comes for caring for your wax print garment we will split it into three parts. That is washing, drying and ironing. Let’s start with washing, shall we?

Washing African wax print garments

Before you wash your beautiful bright garment test to see if the colour runs so you wash it with similar colours or separately. This is not necessary for quality fabric but it’s always best to keep it safe. Contrary to popular belief African wax print fabric can be washed with a washing machine. Don’t mind people who say otherwise. It is true that hand washing is a good idea but only because this way you can show more love to your garments and not over wash them. 

For machine washing keep the water cool and set the machine to a gentle wash setting. Remember that Ankara fabric is more of a t-shirt type of cotton than a pair of jeans. Always remember to use a very mild detergent when washing. Harsh detergents cause the fabric to fade a lot quicker over time. African print fabric is made using wax and soaps that are loaded with chemicals can easily cause the fabric to lose its colour so using bleach is an absolute no no! Don’t be that guy, use mild soap. 

Photo Credit – zegist.com

Drying your Ankara clothing

When the washing is done always rinse your garments thoroughly with clean water to get all the soap out. You can dry by hand on a line or by machine as well. A spin dry will never damage your fabric neither will tumble drying. The old fashion way of drying your garment on the line in the sun is just fine too. The only thing to note here is to avoid keeping clothes on the line in the sun for too long. The sun can be very harsh. Most African print garments will dry within 5 hours on a sunny day. 

Ironing African wax print garments

Ironing is the easiest part when it comes to caring for African print clothing. No special settings are needed. The cotton fabric takes heat pretty well because it is a natural fibre. With a little bit of steam your ironing will be done in no time! If your garment has applique, rhinestones or beads ironing can be a bit tricky but for normal clothing it’s a walk in the park. Creases smoothen out pretty easily and so you can comfortably do without fabric spray. Having a steam iron is a plus though. Most African print clothes can not easily be straightened with just a regular steamer so ironing is recommended. 

So there you have it, how to care for your African wax print or ankara clothes. We have heard some stories about this fabric lasting longer when salt is used in the water when washing garments? We can’t really tell how true this is though. Have you tried this before? What was the result? We would love to know! To shop at our store please click here!