Yay or Nay? Designers such has Celine and Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton have glamourized the infamous Ghana Must Go print and put it on the runway! First glance I was amazed! I have never envisioned such, I’ve seen it done with shopping bags, but that was not in the name of fashion but quite cleverly to create
awareness and promote recycling. But back to the Ghana Must Go print.
I’m fascinated by it all and think it’s so debatable. I’m seeing the GMG print in high street stores now and I must say it makes beautiful clothing. The only thing I must say I’m disappointed in is also what I feel is the debatable part; is that somewhere along the line the history and controversy behind this print has been lost or what I really meant to say; stolen!
To me the print will always tell a story about Ghanaians in Nigeria in the 80’s and the saga at that time, which led to the bag being coined as the “Ghana Must Go” bag. Not only does this print have historical value but for any African around the world, you would have grown up seeing this bag/print at some point in time! For me it was around the house, too many memories of mum storing something inside this bag lol, so yeah it has some emotional value to it too!
Would I have felt the same way if an African designer treated the GMG print this way? Probably not. Because I’m pretty sure an African designer would of paid homage to the history and incorporated it somehow…
Hands down Celine has executed the print so so well! But they could of at least done a huge campaign for the use of this print and it’s collection in Nigeria or Ghana, or even used Ghanaian model, the controversy would have created such a buzz! This would bring so much attention to African and are beautiful textiles! But hey this is one of the most ruthless industry’s in the world! This is Fashion!
I feel passionate about this because this is the part of Fashion I love most! Behind every print is a story and in some cases designers will act as story tellers and tell the tale with pieces or be it a collection! Can you say that this is the case here?
I understand that we are not all Africans and are not all familiar with the connotations behind the print. So the print has been casually generalized as tartan or plaid. Smh! Another great design from Celine! I love that Celine love this print! I seriously admire what they have done with it! I mean nobody else was, they took initiavtive and the advantage to be honest.
I’m looking at the GMG with my third eye! In all it’s beauty! I just might carry the small version out one day! Ha! Would love to see how that goes down!!
So now, what are your thoughts?
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