Mother Nature; Fashion's Greatest Couturier

Since the beginning of time we as humans have been using a variety of elements for fashion. Of course the obvious reasons for clothing began simply for the purposes of keeping warm and dry. As cultures began to develop it also became the method of covering up one's private parts. That is when man and woman decided they needed to have a sense of privacy and sexual separation. But I didn't post this to start a lesson on the history and mystery of why people began wearing clothes. Actually I wanted to bring attention to a particular kind of fashion and style that still culturally pervades today in Africa.

What was originally intended for protection from the sun's rays, many tribes in Africa have developed unique and stylish ways of decorating their skin. I, having been to Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa, have a particular fascination with the people, their style, traditions, languages, food, and history. Africa is such a vast and anthropologically rich continent with several dozen countries, a myriad of languages, tribes, and regions.

There is a particular area of the lower valley of the Omo which I find really stylish and rich in tradition. This valley borders up with Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan which is home to the Surma and Mursi tribes. This region has vast flowing rivers that run throughout the driest and even desolate landscape. These rivers provide the surrounding land with unique and abundant wild flowers, papyrus and wild fruit trees. The tribe's people in an amazing spectacle, like in most parts of Africa, use nature's fruits and plants to not only eat but also adorn their bodies with. They create a body paint made with plants, berries, powdered stone, and river mud. After the body painting is complete, they use all of nature's splendor to create an infinite wardrobe of accessories ranging from head pieces and earrings to footwear and anklets. Flesh becomes a blank canvas to create extravagant living art. This to me is so fascinating and also serves as proof that it's a humanistic desire to dress (or not) and style however you see fit. Fashion and styling has been around for millions of years in one form or another and constantly evolves. It goes to show that the most well established couture fashion house in the world is indeed Mother Earth.

Photographs are courtesy of Hans Silvester

If you are interested in Hans Silvester's work, I would greatly recommend his book: Natural Fashion, Tribal Decoration from Africa