A little Fashion Advice

"NO, no, no, no!" Nalamai exclaimed. Disapproving. Not O.K. This would never do! You must have "olokesena". I had just ventured into the complex world of Maasai fashion.

Previously, I never felt it quite the right time for me to try to assemble the components of the traditional Maasai dress and put them on myself. But, with the approach of our "Enkomonolesere", goodbye prayers, event, I am thinking it might be the right time. After three years, perhaps I've earned the community rapport, the "right" to wear the shukas together with my friends. I also happen to know it would tickle everyone pink.

Over the last few years, I've collected a few cloth wraps (lessos) that had patterns and colors that I liked. I've observed the combinations of colors and patterns worn by most of the women around me and I felt I was ready to call in the advisors.

After consulting my neighbors Nalamai and Helen and learning that I absolutely must have the "olokesena", the underskirt, I promised I would get one. So, on Monday, we went to the market and stopped by one of the shops I've been to a few times before.

Upon presenting my request, the lady began asking me what colors of lessos I had and I knew I was in for some more advice. "I have red, blue and yellow," I explained. Ok, well then you should probably get this color. To my horror, her hand grabbed my least favorite color from the stack of fabric- a bland full pink!

 Inside I started chuckling, howling, in fact. All my life, pink has been my least favorite of all colors. Before I could stop myself, I exclaimed, laughing, "But I hate pink!" Oh, she said, you hate pink. Well, let's see... And on went my fashion consult, till I convinced her that a dark blue would do me just fine!

Here's what I've learned about Maasai Fashion:

1. The more contrast, the better.

2. Each clan is partial to certain colors of certain pieces of the many layered outfit. Some tend to go with pink, others blue, for the skirt that is worn underneath showing only a band of 5 or 6 inches at the bottom of the entire get-up.

3. Substitution is not o.k. My homemade lesso skirt would not look good enough in place of the olokesena even though it would provide lots of contrast and only show a little at the bottom anyway!

Our Modern Maasai clothes, tailored and beaded.

4. For men, its best to wear certain type of tie shoes for a special event and socks a certain height. They need larger fabric pieces (not lessos) and generally blue and red are the "smartest" combination. Then you need a large piece of lighter fabric to swoosh about your neck and shoulders. Not the heavier one for colder evenings/mornings.

5. With men, anything goes a lot more than women. Combining the traditional wraps with the modern fancy tailored and beaded shirt or suit jacket is no problem. Beads of any sort are also a plus.

6. Groups of ladies and men, but especially ladies love to have matching lessos. "Uniforms" are a favorite.

7. The words shuka, olkarash, and lessos are all used variably to describe different fabric wraps or combination of wraps, aka outfits.

8. Despite all these wraps, clothes, and styles being called "traditional" Maasai dress, most of the current items are made in China- from beads to cheap fabric wraps, to plastic shoes and sandals and blue canvas shoes. Previously, they dug red ochre from the dirt to stain themselves and their wraps made of skin. And I'm sure with Kenya's trade port of Mombasa, and large Indian and Swahili population, beads may have been imported from eastern places for a long while.

**In another month, there should be some pictures to document my Traditional Maasai Fashion experiment. Stay tuned.