Style-conscious Africans turn compulsory masks into fashion accessories

By Angela Ukomadu
LAGOS, May 15 (Reuters) - Nigerian fashion designer Sefiya
Diejomaoh likes to wear bright, bold clothes to match her
personality. She believes a global pandemic should not get in
the way of her sense of style.
The mask she wears, which has become compulsory attire as
Nigeria tries to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, is
the centrepiece of her ensemble. Gold-coloured and studded with
sparkling diamante jewels, it matches her floor-length dress.
"When you come out in a stylish mask or with an accessory
such as this, it doesn't seem as though we're fighting a war. It
seems more fun," said Diejomaoh, as she dresses at her home in
Lagos to meet a client.
Many African countries have made it compulsory to wear masks
in public to prevent the spread of the sometimes fatal COVID-19
respiratory disease.
Fashion lovers in the continent's biggest cities are
combining style and safety by donning colourful masks, sometimes
coordinating the fabric with their outfits.
The push to make masks stylish has taken off in other parts
of the world. In places like Lebanon, businesses have switched
from the production of furniture and clothing to striking masks.
In Africa, the trend is proving a boon to local tailors and
designers who are making the masks.
Fashion designer Sophie Zinga, based in Senegal's capital,
Dakar, said she decided to create masks from organic cotton
after realizing that some form of protective clothing measures
could be needed for the next two years.
"We are going to have to adapt and live with this virus,"
she said.
"As a fashion designer I think we are going to have to
integrate each outfit with fashion masks," added Zinga, who
created a digital platform, fashionfightscovid19.com, for the
masks.
Far from Dakar, in South Africa's commercial hub of
Johannesburg, upmarket leather accessories store Inga Atelier is
creating masks.
In a country that has imposed some of Africa's most
stringent lockdown measures and has been left reeling from the
economic impact, the company's creative director said the move
made sense.
"My business has been heavily affected in such a sense that
the retail is on lockdown," said Inga Gubeka. "There was a big
shortage, we realised, of masks that can be usable every day
without having to throw it away."
Her company's masks combine leather with multicoloured
fabrics including traditional South African Ndebele prints.
Back in Nigeria's Lagos, as she adjusted her glimmering gold
mask before setting out into sub-Saharan Africa's most populous
city of 20 million people, Diejomaoh said a small piece of
fabric had become a way to express herself.
"People going around in surgical masks is depressing," she
said. "I have to maintain status quo and who I am despite the
situation."