FASHION RUNWAY REVIEW: The Bridal Affair Collection: A Model of Africa’s Rich Heritage

Though everyone claims to be part of the ‘God, when?’ crowd – a.k.a. the association of single people – in 2024, wedding bells keep ringing every other weekend.

On different platforms, we see trendy challenges of couples dancing to the Fiancé Anthem by Alton King, and Forever Sweet by Dotti the Deity, and you begin to wonder, ‘Who exactly are the so-called single birds?’
Weddings are beautiful, and about a good percentage of the world’s population look forward to getting to that point in their lives; some even set it as a goal.

In the 1960 countries around the world, weddings are portrayed in different ways, showcasing mostly different cultures, traditions, and religions – in summary, their heritage.

Most of the world’s practices today are built on heritage. The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO] defines heritage as, “Our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations.

Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration.”
Weddings are the perfect occasions that showcase, preserve, and promote the richness of a person’s culture and heritage.
Africa as a continent is known for its rich tradition, and this is evident in the lives of Africans, globally.

This cultural heritage can be viewed from two angles; the tangible and intangible dimensions. The intangible shows the aspect of the beliefs and values they hold dear, while the tangible refers to their way of life.

Examples are the kind of clothes they wear, the food they eat, the music they listen to, their dance style, and much more.

As they say, the one thing that remains constant in life is change. Over time, people found some of these cultural practices and traditions rather inconvenient and began to tweak them to fit into a modern style.

Fashion came to the rescue like a superhero, with its innovative ideas in rebranding these wears to give it that cultural but trendy look.

This became a table-turner in the world of African traditional weddings, and made them the talk of the town globally, allowing even non-Africans to get a taste of the culture through these wears.

Allow us to take you through a quick story lane. Unlike Western traditions, white weddings and marriage blessings didn’t start until the 19th century and the 20th century when it became a popular practice in Africa.

Before then, Africans got into marriage through what is called a ‘traditional wedding’. These weddings took different patterns based on the region they took place. They varied from the cane flogging practice in the Hausa tribe of Nigeria to the knocking ceremony of the Ghanaians [kokooko or Oponakyi bo], to the Ethiopian knee kissing wedding tradition, etc.

After the European powers took control of almost 90% of Africa, some of these traditional practices dwindled. Although the Western wedding style soon became a normal practice, most African countries still decide to keep some of their age-long practices, including their traditional weddings, and that’s why today, African couples, most times, plan for two phases: the traditional wedding and the white wedding.

As a dynamic and growing sector, the fashion industry took advantage of this and made a name for itself by making the dreams of many couples come true with the rebranding of cultural attires into what it is today.

Intelligently, many fashion brands keyed into this groundbreaking development and began recreating these attires. One of the brands that took this opportunity is Fabric Etcetera, a brand dedicated to offering ‘Fabrics and More.’

The intelligent designer of the brand, Olamide Afsat Adams, is a Creative Director who is a lover of art and anything fashion. In line with keeping the African heritage alive, created a new collection of traditional bridal wear and called it The Bridal Affair.

This collection, filled with refined quality Aso Oke bridal dresses was specially launched on the Epic Show Runway by Fashion Finest Africa, a fashion event company that tends to celebrate and support up-and-coming fashion creatives in Africa and abroad.

Let’s dive into what you might describe as the Bridal A’s of the collection. Number one on the list is Dress Adunni.

The name, Adunni, is of African heritage. To be precise, a name originated from the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria. It’s a name usually given to a female child, which means ‘The precious one’ or ‘A gift from God’.

Dress Adunni is created from a red Aso-Oke fabric, which is a special hand-woven fabric that originated from the Yoruba people. This dress is an ankle-length straight gown with a sweetheart neckline and an A-line sleeve with a simple scallop at the hem.

The dress also has a corset design, which is heavily embellished with crystal beadings and studs alongside the skirt area of the dress, which makes the outfit more detailed, stylish and classy. You can decide to couple this dress with open or covered stiletto heels, depending on your preference.

Brides, if you are out to look like a Gift from God for your man, then Dress Adunni is for you.

On to the next one, we have the Dress Arewa.
Arewa, according to its Yoruba heritage, means ‘Beautiful’ or ‘Something of beauty’. Dress Arewa is an ideal model of the word ‘beautiful’. It’s a magnificent dress made out of stunning golden Aso Oke. It’s also a two-piece corset outfit, which features a bold zigzag design on the skirt, mapped out with crystal embellishments that make the dress look heavenly.

The top of the dress is designed with a deep sweetheart neckline that gives the dress an elegant appeal, while the sleeves are straight and fitted with little slits at the lower edge of the sleeves.

The combination of all these features, including the champagne gold colour, gives off that snazzy look.
To give the dress an all-round appeal, you can combine it with a pair of mid, high or ultrahigh cover or sandal heels.

Just like the name given to the dress, a bride with the Arewa look is nothing less than a beautiful bride.

Number three on the list is the gorgeous Dress Arike.

To be part of the one per cent, you must first look IT!

Beautiful brides of the ‘pepper them gang’ who are going for the snatched look, please look no further because the Arike look is just for you. Like the rest of the dresses in the Bridal Affair collection, Dress Arike is created with the Aso-Oke fabric. This glamorous and embellished bridal look is a two-toned Aso-Oke outfit made into a fauotherx wrap corset dress.

This Aso-Oke corset dress is an ankle-length dress with a plunging sweetheart neckline that was created using a combination of premium Chantilly lace, which is more visible on the sides of the corset top and shoulders.
The designer decided to give the sleeves a spectacular look by creating a detailed pleated cone on them. The outfit was carefully embellished with intricate and delicate hand beadings, which were concentrated mostly on the wrapped pleated waist, shoulders, corset cups, and sides respectively.
For preference, you can decide to pair them with or without a headgear popularly known as Gele.

The last but not the least of the four Bridal A’s is the Dress Amina.

This dress represents confidence, boldness, beauty and steeze. The beautiful dress is made out of a combination of Aso-Oke and a laser-cut fabric. Dress Amina is an ankle-length dress with a partial high-neck top and a long-fitted sleeve.

The upper part of the dress is made out of specially crafted laser-cut fabric, while the lower part was given a bra cup layered with the Aso-Oke fabric.

The laser-cut fabric is extended from the shoulder to the sides of the dress and lower sides of the sleeves.

The dress also features drape plates on the waistline, extending to the back with a subtle enhancement on the hip and butt region to give the curvaceous figure. The entire outfit has simple beading detailed on specific areas of the dress, like the drapes on the waist and the laser-cut fabric.

This laser-cut fabric also aided in giving the dress a floral look partnered with the carefully selected color green used on the upper bodice of the dress. The intricate beading done along the neckline and on the two little slits at the top added to the overall originality of the outfit.

The creativity behind these creations is simply praiseworthy. The Bridal Affairs collection makes for a demure but elegant bride.

Want to know more about this brand? Check them out at fabricetcetera.com