By Ogova Ondego
Published February 6, 2021

Najib Balala, then ministr for tourism, in sunlight kenya's national dressThe pastor freezes on the podium as 400 heads and 800 eyes turn to the entrance. An usher, looking bewildered, approaches a young woman who has just entered the worship sanctuary and is making her way to the front pew. Dressed in a short, low-cut and transparent blouse and equally short, skin-tight pair of trousers with her ears lined up with studs and rings, the youngster appears to be gliding into the room on high heels, showing off the waist beads, navel-ring and a tattoo on her provocative cleavage, thanks to the blouse that can barely cover her flat stomach.

“Why are you stopping me from attending the service?” the woman, opening her mouth to reveal a studded tongue and two pairs of golden molar teeth, says as the usher beckons two bulky bouncers in black suits, white shirts and black ties over. “What’s wrong with the way I am dressed? If any one feels offended by my fashion-consciousness, that’s their own problem. I find it strange for anyone to disapprove of my style when my parents have no problem with it.”

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For centuries, people have debated whether it should be any one’s business how they dress. Whenever the issue of dressing comes up it often tends to focus on women as their style changes with fashion unlike that of men that tends to be conservative.

In the Third Century AD, it is said that Titus Clemens, an early church writer, drew up a list of rules to govern dress and grooming. Those rules forbade women from using ornaments and colourful fabrics, dyeing their hair or smearing their ‘faces with the ensnaring devices of wily cunning’.

John Calvin, a Protestant Christian leader, enacted laws specifying the colour and type of clothing his followers were to wear. Discouraging the use of jewellery and lace, a woman, on the basis of these laws, could be jailed for arranging her hair to an ‘immoral height’.

In 2021, Christian institutions of higher learning like Daystar University, Catholic University, Strathmore University and Africa Nazarene University in Kenya, Kenya Police and Government of Uganda have a dress code for students, female officers and civil servants, respectively.

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Dressing is both an art and a medium of communication which talks about individuals and places them in certain categories.

While some women are branded ‘easy’ or ‘loose’ because of their dress, men may be labeled as either ‘nerds’, ‘homosexuals’ or ‘devil worshipers’

Age, sex and status are some of the factors which determine how one dresses.

When choosing clothes, one looks at the style’s cultural appropriateness. This is especially so in Africa–Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana–where cultural values and norms must be adhered to to avoid controversies and misunderstanding like the one highlighted in the introduction of this article.

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“Your clothes should accentuate who you are. If you are uncomfortable in them, they are going to get in your way,” writes Kerri Dowd in Youth 93, a US magazine for young people. “If your style will offend others, skip it.”

Dowd notes that discretion should be exercised as some people are offended by almost anything and that seeking to please everyone may be almost impossible.

In choosing a certain style, is one doing it to compete with friends, attract the opposite sex, create sensation or just attract attention to oneself?

One must choose an outfit that looks good and is appropriate for one. An outfit that looks good on someone else may not do a thing for another as not all figures are the same.

Most clothes are designed for slim figures which make ample-bodied people look bad in them.

Papa Wemba, the late Congolese musician, led a cult of youth known as Le Sapeur whose pride lay in elegant clothes and perfumes.

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Paying tribute to Papa Wemba in Congo-KinshasaWhile advising girls to ‘dress decently’, Barry Chant, author of Straight Talk About Sex, writes, Dress which suggests nakedness is highly provocative, in fact, even more so than nakedness itself.”

Chant argues that men are easily aroused sexually by the way women dress.

Clothes like minis, Chant contends, were originally designed for their suggestiveness.

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Dress not only indicates occasions but also moods. While brides wear white and other light colours because they indicate joy and happiness, mourners wear black clothes because that is the colour associated with death that brings grief and darkness in people’s lives.

There was widespread criticism and condemnation in 2018 when Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) disqualified candidates with bleached skin, stretch marks, tattoos and dreadlocks from its recruitment exercise.

Superintendent Michael Amoako-Attah, Head of Public Affairs Unit of GIS, told BBC Pidgin the action was neither ‘sexist’ nor ‘discriminatory’ but had been taken out of the realisation that people with bleached skin or surgical marks might bleed during its rigorous and strenuous training and work. GIS had received 84 000 applications for just 500 job vacancies it had advertised.

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A Zimbabwean Student charged in court for modelling without underwearFashion specialists like Wamuyu Mahinda of Nairobi advises people not to wear ‘clashing’ or ‘screaming’ colours to the office. Women, Mahinda says, should avoid large, dangling earrings and screaming or pungent perfume and lip-stick.

When going to a job interview, Mahinda told us some time back, people are advised to go easy on the jewellery and accessories, avoid too much perfume or cologne and dress appropriately for the job they are being interviewed for. For instance if they are looking for a job in a financial institution they should not dress casually. On the other hand, if they want to get employed as mechanics they should not wear executive suits. Formal occasions like cocktails also have their own dressing codes. And so do institutions of worship.