I decided to ask my housekeeper Jatou to buy my material. She washes my clothes by hand, folds them and irons them, so I figure if anyone knows my taste in clothes, she does. I gave her money enough for material for 3 outfits and the only thing I told her was, "Nothing red!". In Wolof, red can mean red, orange, pink or even a bright yellow, so I figured I was safe. So she went to market and I stayed home. That afternoon she brought me her purchases for inspection. I thought she did a great job! I was a little uncertain of the one with the green splotches, but it turned out okay.
Next, I called my tailor. Yes, he makes housecalls. He has been making my Gambian clothes since 1993 so he know what I like. Most of the time I don't even tell him what style I what. I might direct him toward the kind of trim, but mostly I give him the material and say, "Make me something nice, but not too fancy."
So here is the final product. The tailor happened to bring the outfit on an afternoon when Jatou was working, so I handed her the camera made her take the picture. Not bad for someone who has probably never even held a camera before!
One of the pieces of material I decided to have made into a tubaab dress (Western style) and so I chose a different tailor. I am still waiting for that to be finished. The tailor's teenage son was killed in the bush last Sunday when a tree fell on him, so the tailor hasn't been working this week.
5 comments:
nice work! I probably would've gotten you something too flashy, so its good Jatou went instead of me (plus it could've cost a lot to cover my expenses there and back!) And did Jatou like being involved?
Thanks for the pics and the info, now you'll probably never go to the luma again!
I think Jatou was flattered that I trusted her to pick things out for me. You're right, I may never go to luma again (at least not this term!) I would have loved to had you as a shopping consultant, but I can't afford you!
Now that sounds like the best way to shop, find somebody else to do it! I like that. (mumsee here, anonymous as usual since I cannot remember how I signed up the last time)
very good blog, congratulations
regard from Catalonia Spain
thank you
Here (and probably there) at a wedding everybody buys similar cloth and makes a "uniform". Last weekend there was a wedding in Tera. We now live in Niamey, but we said we'd go up for the wedding. So our friends there bought us the uniform cloth and we HAD to pay them back. It is something I would NEVER have chosen for myself, but now we're stuck with it. LOL! It's at the tailor now, so we'll see if it's wearable or not. Interestingly, in Songhai there are three words, traditionally, for color: black, white, and red. So brown, yellow, gold, red, pink, orange, etc. are all red. Sounds like the same thing there.
Post a Comment