The MAG weekly Blog by Lydia, every Friday at 1700 hrs. Nr 112 9th August 2024

Lydia's Weekly Lifestyle blog is for today's African girl, so no subject is taboo. My purpose is to share things that may interest today's African girl.

This week's contributors: Lydia, Pépé Pépinière, this week's subjects: Colour Blocking Silhouettes in 2024 Trends, Ghana Fashion Shows, and Beefburgers and the state of the economy

Colour Blocking Silhouettes in 2024 Trends. Welcome fashion enthusiasts, trendsetters, and style seekers! This year the fashion world is abuzz with a vibrant and exciting trend that is here to stay – Colour Blocking Silhouettes. Combining the art of mixing and matching bold, contrasting hues with contemporary cuts and designs, colour blocking has become a dominant force on the runways and in street style. In 2024, fashion designers have taken the classic colour-blocking trend to new heights by experimenting with innovative silhouettes that breathe new life into this age-old technique. Whether it's oversized blazers with contrasting lapels, asymmetrical hemlines on colour-blocked dresses, or unexpected colour combinations on statement sleeves, this trend is all about making a striking statement with your style choices. One of the key reasons why colour-blocking silhouettes have captured the imagination of fashion enthusiasts is their ability to create visual dynamic and eye-catching looks. By juxtaposing bold colours next to each other, designers are able to play with proportions, create optical illusions, and craft outfits that are both contemporary and timeless. In 2024, we are seeing a resurgence of 80s and 90s-inspired silhouettes that have been given a modern twist through the use of colour blocking. Think power shoulders on blazers in vibrant hues, wide-leg trousers with contrasting side panels, and A-line skirts with geometric colour blocks. These silhouettes not only celebrate the nostalgia of past eras but also embody the spirit of experimentation and individuality that define contemporary fashion.

Ghana's main 2024 Fashion Shows. The big dates are out, RODR (Rhythms on the Runway) is on 30th November and Accra Fashion Week is in the week climaxing on the 22nd December. The dates are even further apart than last year, international spectators who come for business will definitely not stay over to see the 2 shows. A bit of collaboration here might have done wonders. I've been writing about the French restaurants in Accra, that is mainly la Chaumiere, le Magellan and le Tandem. As these guys are trying to promote French cuisine but also want to take a holiday, they coordinate, and make sure that one of the 3 is always open. And look what happened in Dade Street, Labone. There was the Dutch pub and the Zanzi bar. Dutch Pub was reasonably successful (with mainly non-Dutch customers), Zanzibar was a rather quiet and unsuccessful restaurant. Then some of the key customers of Dutch Pub took over the Zanzibar, turned it into an “open outside” place and renamed it Smoke and Barrel. Dutch Pub of course, but wrongly, was very unhappy. But what do we have today? Dade Street is the nr 1 street in Accra with at least 6 bars and restaurants, cheap, chique, local, international, there's something there for everybody. And you really can't park your car on that street anymore. And it's spreading towards 4th Circular Road. Work together and we will all be successful. And what do we do in Ghana? We have 3, 4, more fashion shows, spread over the year. It’s like advertising your product over the 45 TV stations we have in Ghana, you can’t spend money on all of them, so all the TV stations are suffering, and so are the advertisers. The big fashion shows in our part of the world are Lagos and Dakar, where the entire thing is squeezed into one week, everyone gets his turn, the buyers know they’ll see it all, and the designers know they have a bigger chance that the buyers will see them. Take Dakar, the capital of a mainly Muslim country where they like to cover themselves, their show is so well organized that even Chanel took part. I pray our next minister of Culture will sanitize issues.

Beefburgers and the state of the economy. A country's economy is often expressed in the average income of the people living there, typically expressed in Dollars. But is this relevant in a country like Ghana, where one can still buy a bofrot or small bag of groundnuts for 2 or 3 GHS, or about 18 Dollar cents, which in the USA no one carries? So a very reputable international magazine, the Economist, introduced the hamburger comparison, the Big Mac index. They chose the beef burger because it mainly contains local ingredients, and its price thus does not depend on the exchange rate. It was originally meant to see if a currency was overvalued (and would thus devalue). But it shows more. So what is the cost of a hamburger against an average salary? In the USA you could possibly buy 1,000 beef burgers a month from your salary, with a beefburger costing about 2.90 USD (May 2024). And in Ghana? About 4.30$ (70 GHS), the average income Ghanaian can buy about 80 burgers only, less than one % of what the American can buy. So Americans are richer, but we knew that. But why is a burger in poor Ghana one and a half times more expensive than a burger in rich America? Taxes? Lack of competition? Too many rich people? In my view, a burger in Ghana should cost less than what it costs in the USA, maybe 30 GHC. There is something very wrong here. Junk food for premium prices?

# Lydia...

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