Are you attracted to ethnic prints? Then, let’s start at the beginning …
Ethnicity: Group of people who share common cultural traits: language, religion, gastronomy, festivities, art or clothing.
Ethnic Belonging to or relating to a nation, race ethnicity … and yet, when we speak of “ethnic” motives in the fashion environment in general, we automatically imagine prints of Arab inspiration, with warm and spicy colors, but African prints are also ethnic , with bright and cheerful colors … they are fashion crazes.
Nature and culture and gastronomy at the origin of ethnic prints
Although you can use them in any season, summer is the most inspiring to “abuse” them, so let’s analyze their particularities and the best tricks to use them in a current way, making the most of their aesthetic potential, which is Huge and more varied than you think.
From the origin of man, nature is the first inspiration for the creation of any aesthetic motif: leopards, flowers, snakes, rocks, etc., are the direct inspiration of the creation of designs by different ethnic groups, which not only influence clothing, but also in architecture or in the way that the inhabitants of an area comb their hair.
The ethnic prints are always strong, with strong lines and personality, which gives them the fact that they have an aesthetic culture behind them and that they identify their origin. Powerful and with a lot of character, they reflect the culture, but also the character of the inhabitants of the area where they are born, hence the reason why they are so attractive and captivating, the culture of origin defines the characteristics of each ethnic pattern, This is indisputable whether we talk about African print or if we refer to a Tibetan-inspired print.
The printed motifs derived from each culture are conditioned by unique and exclusive aesthetic preferences of each ethnic group, of the climate and place in which that culture develops, of its religion and history, hence its beauty and its authenticity.
Color and fabric in ethnic prints, a characteristic born of climate and temperature
Independently of their origin, they all have in common the predominant presence of geometric motifs, although this not only owes to cultural aesthetic preferences, but also to technical needs, horizontal and vertical structure of the weft and weaving of the looms in which they are woven.
In cultures with a greater presence of plain fabrics dyed with pigments, organic motifs such as flowers have more presence than geometries.
I have already told you about the tendency of fashion to convert the definition of ethnic pattern into a unique aesthetic reference that encompasses only Arabic-inspired motifs, let’s talk now about fabrics and materials: there are also garments made with motifs of inspiration ethnic, made with other materials, for example, many sweaters with jacquard and Nordic designs …
Cotton, viscose skins, leather, all materials that come from nature are especially welcome in the ethnic world are easy to mix and use with plain fabrics in a multitude of colors, you just have to open your closet and play, explore the world of harmonies and contrasts, but above all, but do it without fear … Did you know for example that one of the most audacious harmonies you can create, comes from mixing certain shades of purple or lilac, with ocher?
It is very possible that everything you need is already present in your closet, you just have to look at it with different eyes, something like changing the perspective with which you are looking at it …
Mixing ethnic patterns with …
Long striped shirt, black tulle skirt, leather-trimmed clogs … imagination to power!
An overlay of inspiration garments and chaotic content, to suggest the fact that, with ethnic prints, you can mix clothes and fabrics that have nothing to do with the ethnic world, but with a modern way of understanding fashion and what that transmits about your personality and way of life.
The most important thing is actually to meet your practical needs, to say, look for an alternative to clogs if you have to drive, or cover the social imperatives imposed by your profession, for example, strict formality in the workplace, Or change the geometries by flowers because you work with people with visual defects that do not tolerate the effect of movement of many stripes together.
Although it is much more difficult to create them, and “manage them”, I personally love looks created by mixing prints with each other, even in their most complicated version, it means, by mixing patterns that belong to different worlds, for example, African with Tibetan. If you want to try it, a good trick is to choose common colors that make the task easier. Much easier to choose prints with the same ethnic origin, like in this image.
Explore different possibilities by creating overlays with garments and accessories of your wardrobe, keep clear a goal to not waste resources, for example, an outfit to go out to dinner or a work look. You will discover that the look changes with just changing an element of the look with similar functions: shoes by sneakers or skirt by trousers.
The limits and particularities you know only you, I want only to transmit to you that, in this game, the rules you decide. If you need help, you will find it in the Style Coach service of Md Personal Shopper, you will learn to create current and practical looks with the contents of your wardrobe.
Beauty in the ethnic world
We all have aesthetic references of each ethnic pattern: Tibetan, Korean, Nigerian, Mongolian, Japanese, Russian, Somali, Finnish, Hawaiian, Chinese … while reading the list you have been recreating in your imagination a mental image of each of them, right?
Of all of them you also have ideas about colors, hairstyles or accessories, and even the customs of each town, nowadays books and documentaries have helped us to know them, I invite you to use these elements in an absolute way, extracting it better from your contribution aesthetics for every occasion, also the situations in which that occasion of use, enter into contracts … What do you say of a summer party in which fabulous ethnic tattoos made with henna on arms and legs? There is no age (or physical) limit to choose something like that, choose the part of your body that you are most proud of and forward … it is a unisex idea.
On Md Personal Shopper’s facebook, you will find an inspiring album with images of different ethnic patterns, colors, accessories, objects, food, etc.