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.
