Wax Shopping : Achats de tissu Wax

Hey,

Je voulais partager avec vous mon dernier shopping Wax. Il remonte à mon dernier séjour en côte d'Ivoire. Je pense que ce jour là, ma cousine a dû se maudir d'avoir accepter de m'accompagner au marché D'Adjamé, car j'ai pratiquement arpenter toutes les boutiques de wax, les unes après les autres, sans pouvoir m'en lasser.

Moi et le wax c'est une vraie histoire d'amour. Ma grand-mère l'aura bien compris et elle m'a fait le plaisir immense de me donner 4 morceaux de pagne de sa garde robe. Il s'agissait de pagnes datant d'il y'a très longtemps et plus rééditées... de vraies pièces de collection. A titre d'exemple, il y 'a le pagne rouge et jaune avec des yeux qui s'appellent "l'oeil de ma rivale" , qui est l'un des pagnes les plus vieux qu'elle possédait. 

Hey,

I just wanted to share with you my last purchase of Wax print.

I bought it during my last holidays in Ivory Coast. I think my cousin must had regret for having accept to come with me, because i couldn't stop to enter in  each boutique of the street of Adjamé's market.

Wax fabric & I is a real love story. My grand mother understood it and gave me 4 pieces of her closet. it was old and rare pieces of wax fabric, which are no more printed now... Real pieces collection. As for an example, the red and yellow one with eyes is called "my rival's eye", it was one of her oldest wax fabric in her ward robe.

 

First dress : The GIGI Model

3 meter at 10€ (Marché Saint Pierre)

My first dress

This is my first dress, i'm very proud of the final result. I used :

- 1,5 meter of the fabric

- one Zip (0,80€)

- some elastics (because i wanted the sleeves to be puffed)

A BIG THANKS TO My boyfriend's mother : she learned me how to use my sewing maschin and basics of sewing. She followed me at each step of this dress and helped me to put the zip and adjust the chest... yeah my measures were a bit false :-). 

Sewing World

I love Wax but most of time clothes made with Wax are very expensive, even when it's not real Wax! So I decided to make my own WAX-clothes! very ambitious for a girl who doesn't sew, but I really want to learn!! 
3 weeks ago, I went to the Marché saint Pierre with the mother of my Boyfriend to buy all my equipment. I already had  the old sewing machin of my mother, i just wanted to buy some sewing pattern and fabrics.

I found some African fabrics, it was not real WAX (the fabric was rigid and printed only on one side), but some were very nice.

what is WAX?

Wax, this magic word is just a piece of fabric, generally very colourful and known as "African fabric" because it is strongly ingrained into the African style and culture by the type of design used.

I remember when i was young ( i lived in Ivory Coast), maybe five years old, my grandmother always closed very carefully her Wardrobe because it contained she said  her most beautiful outfits : Wax Fabrics. Even today, the big wish of my grandmother is not to come to see Paris but that I bring her Wax Fabrics from France. And I did'nt understand why because in my mind the best Wax were obviously in Africa not in Europe! But i was wrong, Wax is produced in Europe (Hollande) and then distributed in Africa and it has always been like this...

The current market of Wax is dominated by the group VLISCO.  This Dutch firm operates since 1846 and its market share in 2003 was estimated to 75% in  West Africa, so there is no doubt that Vlisco is the undeniable leader. Today, the challenge Vlisco is facing is to compete with the invasion of Chinese products in the African market. Since 2007 Vlisco has adopted a new brand image by positioning itself in the "luxury" (or maybe premium) segment, so its products are synonymous of high quality and high prices. On the contrary, Chinese products have a mass market position with low quality and cheap products. 

Adding to the competition, Vlisco has to struggle against counterfeit, indeed most of Chinese products are just copies of real Dutch Wax. Just to give you an idea of the impact on the figures : according to Stéphane Lesueur (DG of Vlisco Africa) , the turnover of Vlisco in Burkina Faso has dropped to 50% in 2003 since the appearance of these "chinoiseries". 

Ok i think i'm going to stop here... it's not a course of Economy ;-)