The new normal? — Why married, single women are closing fashion gaps 

By Genevieve Aningo

Culture is time-bound. It’s flexible and can adapt to trends, habits, events in a society. The same can be said of fashion. The way people live and dress is transient.

Before now for instance, Nigerians — like many other Africans — always distinguished the married from the single by titles, lifestyle and mode of dressing due to how much they cherish family life.

This may not be a universal conformity but it’s common phenomenon in African culture. Family life is treasured, prioritised and flaunted. 

But westerniaation seems to be eroding most of the Nigerian family emblem in the manner married women dress nowadays.

In the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000 the head wear (gele), wrapper blouse and beads were the common fashion piece that belonged to wives and mothers. 

A married woman is identified by these traditional items. It was prideful to always dress in the Iro, Buba, George and Hollandis wrappers. Then, the wearing of these traditional pieces indicated that a woman is no longer on the ‘shelf’ but has been ‘acquired’ by her husband.

Also, the grade and quality  of the wrapper reflected the class and status of the married woman, almost giving a cue of her husband’s wealth. 

Back then, these women hid the fashion treasures in the archaic luggage echolac; a hearty metallic box for keeping expensive wrappers, head tie, blouses with matching purses and sandals. 

It’s interesting to know that in contemporary times, these cultural pieces are set aside for august occasions such as weddings, funerals, native meetings etc.  

Most women’s dresses are now universal. Years back,  jean outfits , T-shirts, sexy gowns, cropped dresses and extravagant makeup were left for spinsters who are still on the quest to fetch husbands. 

This shift makes married or single ladies unidentified easily; of course, except for the wedding ring which may give a clue after a dallying look. 

It’s obvious that globalisation, change in living patterns and added responsibilities are also factors closing the gap between how married and single women dress. Presently, married women hold positions in corporate firms, government offices and establish flourishing businesses that may not entertain them always flamboyantly or conservatively dressed in wrappers. 

Miss Ifunanya Okafor told CRISPNG that her Generation X mother still has her echolac with the wrappers and attires but it’s almost a decade since she abandoned them for simpler wears. 

“Maybe, living in the city influenced my mum, my mother of more than 50 years wears trendy clothes like me,” she said. 

Onubah Jennifer Chinyere, a mother of two boys, said women are now more confident in trying to curb their husband’s infidelity unlike in the years when they were expected to be quiet and follow societal norms. 

“I guess women are beginning to become more confident In themselves and women are now trying to stay sexy for their husbands due to the increase in this side chick saga”, she said. 

Chinyere also mentioned that husbands of this generation also encourage the alteration in dress sense among married women. 

She added that “most men are actually encouraging. They want women not  to fully divert into that wife role. They want you to wear the same clothes, hairstyles, makeup you wore when they first met you, because that’s what attracted them to you in the first place”. 

Also commenting on the development, Enebechi Nnenna opined that married  women dress for two reasons: to make themselves available for other men or to keep their husbands.

“When you talk about married women, there are the wayward ones who want to go back to being single. These ones compete with the single folks who will look hotter because they want to appear younger and hotter in order to please their lovers,” she said.

“These ones are the cheating partners. Then there are the I want to look good for myself and hubby married women. These ones in this category just want you to look good for themselves and partners, who said a married woman can’t look clean, sexy and classy for herself and partner in a good way?”

Nnenna also blamed westernisation for the closing gap in the way married and single women dress.

According to her “the western culture contributed a lot to this and also insecurity in some marriages. Some women want to look sexy and all that to match their husband’s side chicks because most of these men’s pricks won’t stop misbehaving. So, no woman wants to tie the wrappers or hollandis so they won’t appear local in their husband’s eye”.