Postcards from Dakar: New Clothes

I have new clothes. I few weeks ago I went shopping with Moussouba and Kiki and bought fabric to get clothes made. I got some wild African prints that I picked because I really liked the way they looked hanging on the walls of the fabric shop and not particularly because I thought I would look good clad in them from head to toe, which is probably something I will try to take into consideration next time.

The next week, I went with Moussouba to the atelier (workshop) where she works, which looks like it specializes in really fancy silk and bazin outfits (a rustling, shiny, almost papery fabric for more formal clothes), and not so much in the casual clothes I was looking for, but whatever. A guy named Ass (yeah) took my measurements, and Moussouba set me up with some catalogues of what looked like Senegalese wedding parties so that I could choose my modèles (styles). Most of the outfits were either too formal or completely ridiculous, so I gave a vague description of what I wanted and hoped for the best.

A few days later, I got what I had asked for: one dress, in a style that I would describe as “sack-like, but still cute,” and a two-piece outfit consisting of a tunic/shirt and a pagne, which is the African word for wrap-around skirt. I can’t even describe what the fabrics look like, except that the dress is mostly red and the outfit is mostly yellow, but they really need pictures to do them justices. I’ll try and get some up soon. I like them, but I think I will put a little more thought into it next time.