Exploding colours hmm? Yeah I know that doesn’t seem right. I’m not the sort for exploding colours, regularly. However, that’s just the magic of Ankara and mix that with the sights of a Nigerian market, you get a color explosion.

African wax print fabric is commonly called Ankara by Nigerians.

So how did little old me find herself in a color explosion with Ankara and the market? If you haven’t already guessed it from the feature image, then… Here goes, this is a collaboration with Sarah Audu and I.

Sarah is an avid promoter of Made in Nigeria clothing and even more so of Ankara. You can find all her Ankara loving at Princess Audu. Late last year Sarah put up and IG Story looking to collaborate on a post on Ankara and she wanted to shoot in a market that had just inspired her; Garki Market, Abuja. I know right, how often does Garki Market inspire anyone, if you live in Abuja you know what I mean.

I had wanted to shoot in a market for the longest time and shooting with Sarah was also one of my short term goals. So this collab was a no brainer. As someone who rarely wears Ankara, styling my look for this wasn’t as easy as I thought. Debating making myself something new or looking through my closet for something. I remembered then that I had started to make more Ankara clothing in recent times for myself. So why not look through some of the stuff I had made.

When you think about it, my dress was sewn by me, my head wrap is a material designed and produced by a Nigerian brand. How much more Made In Nigeria could you get.

An Ankara Collaboration

Let’s get to the collaboration, shall we?

For my Ankara look I styled an Ankara wrap dress with a head wrap. I know that Sarah is a lover of color and so I wanted to contrast that. My color palette featured; grey, blue and black. I threw in a shot of color with my head wrap which was purple and yellow.

Coincidentally Sarah’s Ankara look featured yellow as well and so we bounced pretty well off each other. This contrast was amplified by the red and blue of our dresses.

This market shoot was not without its challenges, we had to contend with Abuja’s weather, some angry traders who apparently didn’t like photography? However, it was a resounding success. We got to show off two spectrums of Ankara colours and bask in the magic of a Nigerian Market.

P’S : Don’t forget to go to Princess Audu for Sarah’s take on our collaboration.

Photography by Kelechi O