Challenges Hampering the Growth of Dress Fashion Design in the Ghana Fashion Industry

Abstract

Ghana's fashion culture is predominately bespoke. People approach their designers for custom-made dresses and other fashion accessories. This fashion system has its own merits and demerits. This study has the primary objective of ascertaining the major challenges hampering the growth of dress fashion design in the Ghana fashion industry in the perspective of both beneficiary and non-beneficiary fashion designers of the direct social intervention trade policies aimed at promoting fashion development. Narrative inquiry constituted the research design. Twelve (12) fashion designer-respondents, consisting of seven (7) beneficiaries of AGOA and five (5) non-beneficiaries constituted the study sample. Semi-structured interviews enabled the respondents to share their lived experiences in their fashion design careers. It is evident from the study that major challenges hampering the growth of dress fashion design industry in Ghana include influx of smuggled cheap imported dress fashion products from the Asiatic countries, Europe and America; and retailing of dress fashion products by foreigners. Government must, ensure rigorous enforcement of the laws on smuggled goods to protect Ghanaian dress fashion businesses, while the law that proscribes foreigners in engaging in petty trading be observed strictly.

The Lioness of African Music: Cultural Interpretation of Wiyaala’s Stage Costume Art

“…The playing of the local drum on stage and the hanging of the Ghana flag around my neck clearly communicate my Ghanaian identity. (Wiyaala, 2022) Consensually, studies affirm Wiyaala's claim that smock is an indigenous northern Ghanaian dress fashion (Navei, 2023;Atampugre, 2018;Acquaah, Amissah & deGraft-Yankson, 2017;Adjei and Osei-Sarfo, 2016;Essel & Amissah, 2015). The deployment of the smock costume by Wiyaala outside the confines of Ghana and Africa for musical stage performances contributes to projecting the indigenous Ghanaian (Sissala) dress cultural identity at a larger global stage.…”

The Prospects of TQM Implementation in the Design and Production of Slit and Kaba in Small to Medium Garment Production Enterprises: The Ghanaian Context

“…A silent heritage, the malleability of the Kaba and Slit has ensured its relevancy as a staple of Ghanaian female dress throughout the 20th and 21st centuries (Essel, 2019;Kuma-Kpobee, 2013;Gyekye, 2003), often reflecting the political and cultural shifts of specific eras. Whereas immediately following independence, the kaba and slit were transformed into a form of elite, nationalist fashion, during the regime and presidency of John Jerry Rawlings ; it functioned as a populist form of nationalist attire.…”

“…Immediately before and following Ghana's independence in 1957 and encouraged by Nkrumah's exaltation of indigenous forms of dress, the status of the Kaba and Slit was restored. It quickly became a symbol of Ghana's national heritage and a form of clothing that was debated, celebrated, and routinely worn by fashion-conscious Ghanaian women (Tranberg & Madison, 2013).A silent heritage, the malleability of the Kaba and Slit has ensured its relevancy as a staple of Ghanaian female dress throughout the 20th and 21st centuries (Essel, 2019;Kuma-Kpobee, 2013;Gyekye, 2003), often reflecting the political and cultural shifts of specific eras. Whereas immediately following independence, the kaba and slit were transformed into a form of elite, nationalist fashion, during the regime and presidency of John Jerry Rawlings ; it functioned as a populist form of nationalist attire.…”