This year’s event was unique because it did not only put Ghana on the spotlight of the globe, but it also attracted people from far and near around the world to Ghana, to witness the VGMA which seeks to reward talented Ghanaian Musicians and honour people with rich experience in the music industry who have contributed their quota to the development and sustenance of the Ghanaian music industry as well as our culture and tradition . Therefore, through the VGMA domestic and international tourism was boosted as well as fashion. This is because all those who participated in the event were clad in beautiful apparels they bought purposely for the VGMA red carpet.
During the 2019 VGMA, the red carpet was hot, interesting and competitive as every celebrity wanted to appear outstanding for the cameras to capture them in order for them to trend in the news. As a result, celebrities spend a fortune to purchase the best clothes for the red carpet annually. The motive behind this is to showcase who they are, what they have, sometimes launch different inventions of fashion and show off their unique sense of fashion.
Infact, the 20th anniversary red carpet of the VGMA; featured fantastic appearances of celebrities, public figures, music lovers and fashionistas with many elegant designs as they took their turns on the red carpet. However, only a few of the clothes featured on the red carpet prompted and protected the Ghanaian clothe culture (the local textile industry) when monitored by Mr. Wear Ghana. It was sad to notice that, the number of celebrities who clad themselves in clothes made from the local fabrics or had elements of Ghana in their apparels can be counted amongst the thousands of people who attended the event that night.
I ,(Mr. Wear Ghana), am aware that each of us have our preferences and a unique sense of fashion. But, I am pleading with well-meaning Ghanaians so that on such occasions, we should be patriotic enough to promote Ghana through our choice of clothes.
We should have taken advantage of the 20th anniversary of VGMA to boost trade in fashion products produced in Ghana. This is because we had many tourists who flew to Ghana to witness VGMA but we did not give them a reason for them to know us through our culture.
Our choice of clothes did not communicate that we are different from them and have a unique culture as Ghanaians.
Assuming all our celebrities who attended the VGMA had clothes designed with the Kente cloth and the fugu fabric or the adinkra symbols in their apparels. Would there have been any impact? Certainly yes! It would have influenced a lot of the tourists who travelled around the world to witness the VGMA to purchase some of our fabrics before leaving and also influenced their followers across the globe. Unfortunately, because the foreign audience saw that we had dressed like them, they were not motivated to do so.
Sadly, we spend thousands of dollars and millions of Ghana cedis to import foreign fabrics and clothes for the red carpet at the expense of our local designers and local textile industries annually. Why can’t we spend these huge sums of monies in Ghana ?,in order to promote the Ghanaian fashion industry. Importing clothes from other parts of the world boost other economies and create employment for foreign fashion industry players while we kill our economy gradually and worsen the unemployment problem in Ghana.
I want us to kindly reflect on the issues I have raised in this article for us to find an antidote to it. I, therefore, plead with everyone of us to use such platforms like (VGMA) to showcase Ghana to the world by wearing Ghana always. Use our local fabrics like the Kente cloth, the fugu fabric, the Fugue itself etc.in our designs in order to promote, and protect our clothe culture for that matter fashion industry. Either than that, it will go extinct after some time.
In conclusion, the music and fashion industries are “bedfellows” in the creative industries and as such, they have the potential to impact the Ghanaian economy greatly so, let’s support it. I will also use this opportunity to plead with everyone of us to support the Wear Ghana campaign bywearingGhana to protect and revamp the textile manufacturing companies in Ghana.
Let’s wearGhana to create a revolution in the fashion industry.
Let’s wear Ghana to promote our indigenous fabrics.
Let’s wear Ghana to help create employment and boost our economy.
#letswearghana
By:Mr. Wear Ghana.
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