Screen–printed Adinkra symbolic fabrics in the production of female fashionable office suits

Abstract

Adinkra symbols are visual symbols among the Akan in Ghana. These symbols represent objects that encapsulate evocative messages conveying traditional wisdom, life and beliefs. The Akan mainly use the symbols for producing funeral cloths or other fabrics as wrappers for men and women (especially the elderly class). There have not been much creativity and innovation regarding the use of the adinkra cloth for female fashionable wears. Black and indigo hues are employed for printing adinkra cloth and these hues are associated with mourning among the Akans. Thus, using adinkra cloth for fashionable wears pose many challenges to fashion designers due to the characteristics of the cloth. This research is anchored on Vygotsky’s creativity theory and Baumgarten’s aesthetic theory. The study employed mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) research approach. Purposive sampling technique was used to draw a sample size of three hundred and ninety-one from the estimated population of eighteen thousand. This study seeks to employ selected adinkra symbols for the production of fashionable office suits for women. The objectives were to use the Akan adinkra symbols to meet the contemporary demands of the fashion industry, apply screen printing technique to produce adinkra clothes with synthetic pastes, develop innovative fabrics with adinkra symbols that can withstand different tailoring processes and produce fashionable office suits from the redeveloped adinkra cloth. The findings revealed that designing adinkra to meet different cultures would be the best way to promote the cloth and the symbols. Fashionable office suits made from adinkra as redesigned will promote the local textile and fashion industries in Ghana. This study recommends the need to educate and encourage people to patronise the locally- made clothing with indigenous symbols in order to help build and promote the fashion industry.