The new chic traditional hair wrap made its big comeback as Turbans; and we also see one of the oldest African tribe Maasai as great inspiration for Spring 2011. If there is ever a time to go chic; show off your ethnic side and enjoy the trends, it is this Spring-Summer 2011 because the turbans are making the trend buzz almost everywhere from runway shows to editorial shoots. This season for many fashionistas, turbans may have been the combination between creating a sense of traditional style and making a bold statement. During many catwalks from Milan, London, Paris and New York; fun and full of life, models were seen with different styles of Turbans. This means that we are reviving the movie "Coming to America" all over again but this time with a little more edge. A lot of our metropolitan designers' 2011 Spring-Summer collections were inspired by strong African and Middle Eastern looks.
Turbans or "Wrapped Headgears" as I will refer to them were mostly seen in places such as the Middle East, North Africa and some part of Asia. They were originally designed to keep the men's head cool in the desert. In addition, depending on the colors and the ways of wrap, they could also define rank or status in some societies. Therefore, one can say that Turbans are one of those pieces that has been around for decade but still turn heads in today's contemporary world of fashion where everything is chic and out of the ordinary. This is proven in the American Vogue Spring/Summer 2011 issue where a photo spread was created based on the turban look and ethnic prints with some famous models in the industry. This only shows that we can never leave the Motherland Africa behind. Another thing that makes this hair wrap so interesting and appealing to many this season are the different styles that were seen on many women from the runways to the street as well as on some Hollywood A listers such as Salma Hayek and Solange Knowles.
There are three main reasons for wearing turbans this season and they are: (1) to make a fashion statement, (2) to be trendy and (3) to express status or class. For glamorous and fashionistas who love a little theatrical and ethnic look in the metropolitan, turbans are worn to make a fashion statement and here are two of the most common ways of rocking them. - The front view Turbans which were seen at Issa and Peter Som fashion show, are traditional wear style and they are seamless and chic in their own way.
The full wrap Turbans seen at Jason Wu's show during New York Fashion Week, Missoni and Elke Kramer are known as "Safa." It is the most used style of hair wrap but also known to be the trend-setting turbans.
Both of these styles are well known between the North African and Middle Eastern men because of their function to protect and determine their position in society. As fashion evolves, we see more of what was consider to be traditional style unfolding itself to a chic trend to be rocked this season.
One of the tribes that is worth mentioning and making its connection this spring-summer is the evolution of the Maasai ethnic group of Kenya and Tanzania. It is obvious that the Maasai being a very distinctive tribe amongst many in East Africa, will have the cultural and traditional way of clothing inspiring the metropolitan culture in no time. This season as we see their inspirational bright colors all over the globe, designers at Lagom- the Swedish fashion brand, admitted to have gotten their 2011 Spring-Summer inspiration from Kenya. The Maasai with their strong interplay between masculine and feminine, the building of strong color palettes with well structured and wrapped elements inspired from this culture was not such a hard design decision for these creative heads. They make a bold statement as we see in their look-book featuring male models adorned in one of the kind structured outfits inspired by the Maasai. Another important evolution of this exciting tribe is the first Maasai fashion line launched in April 2011 in Madrid. Introduced by the well-known Slovakian model Adrianna Karembeu, this great gesture shows how fashion and social responsibility goes hand to hand as the new Maasai line will help promote sustainable development of the Maasai community but also raise awareness of the culture across the globe.
Fatim Bangoura