In Search of Ghana’s Appropriate Modern Dress Code

Abstract

The study sought to identify the changing trends in dressing among Ghanaian youth and assess the impacts of the Ghanaian textile industry on her dress culture. Questionnaire, personal communications and observation were used in collecting the needed data for the study throughout the country including rural, semi-urban and urban areas. Descriptive research methodology was utilized with the focus population consisting of general dress fashion consumers, students, fashion designers, tailors/seamstresses, cultural officers, traditional (chiefs and elders) and religious authorities from across Ghana. The study revealed that appropriate dressing in democratic Ghana is dressing without breaching constitutional liberties. It was also found that Ghanaian females are going wayward in their current dress styles while the males are generally not. The textile industry have had low positive impacts on the socio-cultural and economic wellbeing of Ghanaians as a result not meeting the demand of most preferred and needed ready-to-wear clothing accessories and dress styles.  It is recommended that Ghana must train more creative fashion designers, consider amendments of her dress fashion laws, policies and practices, as well as reposition her textile manufacturing industries to venture into producing, processing and finishing of her textile raw materials to satisfy local and global demands.

Keywords: appropriate dress, dress code, fashion, constitutional liberties