Costume Research

The initial part of the brief that captured my attention was the ladies African Headdresses. To start I have been doing some basic research into the different styles and head pieces commonly used in African clothing. The main scarf style headdress is called a Gele and consists of a length of stiff or starched fabric which is very simply tied and pin in place around the head.

 I have also been looking into how these Gele are actually tied. I found a couple of useful video demonstrations on youtube. This video shows you exactly how the Gele is tied:

There are many very exotic materials used for gele, here are some of them

• Brocade material which is 100% cotton material that usually comes with the outfit. This material is usually soft and sometimes not big enough to do the creative styles. 

• Hayes original- These are beautiful hard material sold as a piece specially to wrap the very creative styles. It is usually very colorful and does not come with a shawl 

• Damask- This material is usually used for special occasions like weddings, damask comes with its shawl called ‘iborun’ and can give any outfit and the wearer a million dollar look. 

• Aso-oke- These are hand woven materials made usually with silk. Kente is a very popular type of Aso-Oke . Aso-oke comes with the shawl and are also very colorful. They really add beauty and style to the outfit