Regal Dadaa Steven models in a Mustafa Hassanali creation at the Zanzibar Serena Hotel. Hassanali’s ethnic collection will be exhibited at MEDMODA Fashion Show in Italy. Pic by Frank Wenga

As Kenya’s Sh50 million national dress melted into a receding mirage barely 30 days since being launched, a Tanzanian designer was the only African invited to exhibit at an Italian fashion show. Mustafa Hassanali will showcase his ethnic collection at MEDMODA 2004 (Mediterranean Fashion Event) in Caltanissetta, Sicily, Italy, in the two-day (October 27-28, 2004) event that began in 1994.

Hassanali will be among exhibitors from Italy, Turkey, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Serbia at this annual show. Although the Dar-based Hassanali has dubbed his collection Proudly Tanzanian, it could well have passed for East African as it is a blend of costumes and accessories from various tribes ranging from the simple two-piece kanga to the elaborate traditional Maasai garments found in Kenya and Tanzania.

Meanwhile, it is feared that the national dress project in Kenya could have become a cropper after Kenyans have obstinately clung to their Western wear. But this is hardly surprising as commentators and designers had cautioned against hastily rushing into presenting a national garb to Kenyans. As the momentum for the launch of the so-called national dress went into frenzy earlier in the year, designer Lucy Rao of Rialto Fashions was one of the people who raised concern over what she described as the haste with which the project was being implemented. As we write this appraisal of the national garb six weeks after the September 14, 2004 launch of the national dress, the project appears to have become a white elephant as hardly any one dons it. This was particularly evident on Kenyatta Day—October 20—when dignitaries arrived for the national celebrations at Nyayo National Stadium in their Western and various African wear but no Kenyan national dress.

Designers Lucy Rao and Mustafa Hassanali in Nairobi

Rao had told ArtMatters.Info in June 2004 that statement on dress by the public—not designers—should take the lead in determining the direction of the national dress. An agricultural engineer who stumbled into fashion design as a hobby but turned it into a vocation, Rao said locally designed clothes could not beat their second hand counterparts from the West that sell for a song in Kenya where almost half of the 34 million population live on less than Sh80 (US$1) a day. Some of the reasons Rao had advanced for this non-competitiveness were that unlike mitumba or Marehemu George clothes that come cheaply by ship, locally designed clothes are more expensive due to the high cost of production, labour, rent, and non-readily available fabrics in Kenya. Coupled with low purchasing power, the award winning plough champion Rao said this area needed to be addressed for people to afford locally made clothes like the national dress.

“Although we need the national dress for identity,” she said, “I am worried at the way it is being rushed. A national dress should not be uniform but should be something that comes from within the people themselves. Designers and the government can only follow the public trend and not try to impose anything on the people.” The sentiments of Rao, whose Rialto Fashions will hold a fashion show in Rome in December 2004, are proving true. She had expressed fear that the rush was aimed not at benefiting Kenyan masses but certain individuals from the hefty Sh50 million (about US$625,000 dollars or 515,000 Euros) national dress budget.

Prof Wangari Muta Maathai, while opening an exhibition on mountains at Goethe-Institut in Nairobi on September 15, had noted in jest that the reason she was not in a national dress was that she had washed hers and she had only one as the national design team had given her only one pair. Indeed, the only time Vice president Moody Awori, Roads minister Raila Odinga, Industry minister Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, Culture minister Ochillo Ayacko, National heritage minister Najib Balala, and Environment Assistant minister Prof Maathai put on the national dress was on its launch a day before the Nobel Laureate Prof Maathai opened the Facing Mountains exhibition. It was during Balala’s tenure as Culture minister that the Unilever-sponsored quest for Kenya’s national dress was launched in April 2004. A nationwide vote through short message service (SMS) and road shows were said to have been used in the selection of the national dress: the wearing of a cloak over kitenge-like outfit for men and a flowing dress for women.

I have washed my national dress and am waiting for it to dry,” Prof Wangari Matthai appears to be telling inquisitive journalists and admirers

The cloak bears the red, black, green and white of the Kenyan flag, complete with beads that are said to be integral to most cultures in Kenya. The search for the national dress took seven moths at Sh50 million budget that, critics contend, could have been channeled to other areas of pressing needs like public healthcare, education, and food production. Although Ayacko was hopeful that Kenyans would now don their national dress—that does not even have a name yet—instead of the Western suit, Ghanaian Kente, or Nigerian Agbada, his dream is like a mirage the recedes with passing time. Declaring their creation public property “to be used by any Kenyan, at any time and anywhere,” the National Dress Team appealed to local designers, tailors and other manufacturers of clothes to adopt the concept and “make it in colours, sizes or materials that they prefer to use.” on design as a hobby but turned it into a vocation, Rao said locally designed clothes could not beat their second hand counterparts from the West that sell for a song in Kenya where almost half of the 34 million population live on less than Sh80 (US$1) a day.\par

Some of the reasons Rao had advanced for this non-competitiveness were that unlike mitumba or Marehemu George clothes that come cheaply by ship, locally designed clothes are more expensive due to the high cost of production, labour, rent, and non-readily available fabrics in Kenya. Coupled with low purchasing power, the award winning plough champion Rao said this area needed to be addressed for people to afford locally made clothes like the national dress." Although we need the national dress for identity"she said," I am worried at the way it is being rushed. A national dress should not be uniform but should be something that comes from within the people themselves. Designers and the government can only follow the public trend and not try to impose anything on the people".

The sentiments of Rao, whose Rialto Fashions will hold a fashion show in Rome in December 2004, are proving true. She had expressed fear that the rush was aimed not at benefiting Kenyan masses but certain individuals from the hefty Sh50 million (about US$625,000 dollars or 515,000 Euros) national dress budget.

Their press statement explained that the cloak concept had been derived “from the way communities across Kenya wear wraps such as the kikoi, shuka, blanket, leso and the kanga." the National Dress Team said, mentioning typical garments. The said cloak “is designed to be wrapped around the shoulders, around the waist or over one shoulder as is the case for men." VP Awori expressed hope that the national dress would not only help promote Kenya’s diverse cultures but that it would also give life to the doomed textile industry. Really?

The National Dress Team had unveiled six concepts based on sash, cape, apron and cloak for public scrutiny during the Kenya Fashion Week in July 2004. Although musicians, emcees and beauty pageant contestants appeared in the apron concept in the run up to the selection of the national dress, it was the cloak concept that Kenyans were said to have selected. But why they are reluctant to don what they chose—if indeed they voted-- is what is difficult to explain.

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