Chimamanda Adichie Gives Reason why she Wears Nigerian Designers to Public Events

Chimamanda Adichie says she uses her fashion sense as a political statement.

Widely acclaimed writer, Chimamanda Adichie, has stated reasons why she always chooses to wear Nigerian made designs for her public appearances.

This was in an interview with i-D Magazine’s Earthwise Issue where she spoke to Candice Carty-Williams on her choice of career and more. According to her, she chose to pick writing over medicine because writing gives meaning to her life. She also gave reasons behind her feminist ideas and more. On her fashion sense, the writer revealed that she wears Nigerian products to promote them.

Excerpts below;

On taking up a writing career despite studying Medicine and Pharmacy:

“It’s the thing that gives meaning to my life, really.

I have the good fortune to be published widely, to be read, but if I didn’t have that good fortune, I would still be writing, because it matters so deeply”.

On Feminism in Nigeria:

“I should say, in Nigeria, there’s a lot of hostility around feminism. This is from both men and women. So by taking on a public case of feminism, the response is always combative, and there’s a refusal to engage.

With that said, there’s a young man, not yet a father, who just got married, who said to me that it was so important for him to read that book because it’s made him think about the kind of father he wants to be. Though of course, I’ve heard of men who have said, ‘How dare you tell us? You now want us to become women. You just say nothing to that. You move on.”

On Fashion and culture: 

“When I first started writing, I pretended not to like fashion, because I wanted to be taken seriously. I decided to use fashion as a kind of political statement. Which is to say that I made the choice to wear mostly Nigerian designers to public events, because obviously, I want to support an industry that’s full of talent, but also to make a case for how fashion can tell a story. Fashion and culture are intertwined in very interesting ways.”

Source: BellaNaija