Key Sentence:
- A new generation of politically active pushes the boundaries of style and uses a technique to challenge the country’s conservative stance.
- It is often easy to determine young Nigerians’ social or political affiliation just by looking at the clothes they wear.
It’s no exaggeration to assume that someone is a feminist or body positivity advocate to see them in an ArtxJuju shirt with the words “Member, coven feminist” printed on them. More everyday items such as ankle chains, outdoor tattoos, or radical paintings also denote someone committed to promoting equality between women and the LGBTQ+ community.
Those who look like this show courage because public identification as a feminist in Nigeria means identifying. As a member of a growing antagonistic social movement despite cultural and institutional disapproval and sometimes even violence.
While the Nigerian Alté movement members don’t necessarily have accessories splayed across their chests. The style is easy to spot once you know where to look. It is also linked to the duplicate threads of freedom that underlie fashion in the Nigerian feminist movement. This spirit underlies the Alté movement, a team that has been an integral part of Nigerian youth culture since 2014.
Coined by alternative words, the Alté movement is a concept that thrives on the fact that people exist. Through various creative outcomes and even in their existence – beyond conventionally or socially acceptable. Music is a particular genre that experiments with sound and combines living musical styles into entirely new forms. Think artists and bands like Santi, Odunsi, DRB Lasgidi.
However, fashion is first and foremost about challenging and expressing style with no rules other than those set by itself. This is an exciting concept because Nigerian institutions’ methods to enforce conservative values improve the way young people dress. Anything beyond that can cause problems ranging from criminal profiling to limited social access percentages. Therefore, Alté Fashion celebrates an individualistic approach to style, not the communal expectations of it.
“Alté Fashion started a life of its own. It transcends our boundaries, culture, and even our time. However, I see people getting scared to express their most authentic self through the clothes they wear,” advisor. And creative director Dunsin Wright told Dazed: “People are having more fun with it now and not taking it too seriously – which I think is a prerequisite. to find your true style.”