Migration and its innovations on Igbo women dress fashion: A clothing and textile encounter

Abstract

This paper is predicated on the fact that migration of the Igbo to other countries has brought about positive and negative changes in clothing and fashion. The Igbo’s excessive penchant for migration has occasioned innovative and creative ideas in fashion designs thereby creating new mercantile networks for the clothing industry. In this industry, individuals are trained as fashion entrepreneurs and a cycle of entrepreneurial system sustained. This is a qualitative research. It uses observations, interviews and photography as research instruments to collect some data with a view to highlighting the kinds of innovation that migration has brought about in Igbo women’s dress culture and its resultant effects. I argue that migration of the Igbo to different parts of the world has served as a catalyst to the fashion industry in Igbo land and contributes to a global intensification of Igbo dress ideas. I contend that migration has its virtues, shortcomings and imperfections on the migrants and the society at large. I conclude that although the foreign fashion the Igbo adopted as theirs during the process of migration hold significant prospects, they should not be allowed to undermine the modernity of Igbo ‘traditional’ dress.