When JLo said we're going to Afri-cah I took her seriously.

I don't know about y'all but I'm about tapped out on my ability to look at another austere black, white and brown Scandinavian-esque interior. Not that my freshly finished kitchen might be in that same family or what my living room is probably going to look like when I'm done painting it but whatever...  

via Our Afria but I wish I knew where this originally came from

Yep.  Kinda how I feel.  BRING ME SOME COLOR AND PATTERN!!!!  Preferably lots of it.  At the same time.  If it's African, even better.  Seriously, I'm addicted to Africa right now.


At the risk of reducing an entire spectrum of cultures into pretty shapes, colors and patterns um well... that's kinda the part I'm addicted to.  This also happened during my Cross Colours phase back in 1991 but I was only eleven and didn't actually wear any of it but I really only watched BET back then so you can't really blame me.  You can laugh at this because even though I'm like Stephen Colbert in that I don't see color, I can say with all confidence that I'm the whitest person imaginable.  I say that not just because I look like a cheerleader made a baby with a snowman that turned out to be the giant Stay Puft marshmallow man from the end of Ghostbusters (except with more glitter, of course), but also because I'm "White" in the sense that the majority of Stuff White People Like is most likely a transcript of my life.  I think this post is actually #127 on the list.

Wodaabe boy from Niger. Photography by Steve McCurry from here

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You can never have enough bangles no matter what continent you live on.

photography by Seydou Keita via Fly

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Earrings show this Masai woman is married. here

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You think friendship bracelets are hot right now?  Try showing up at the coffee house with a cuff like this.  Dare I even say that Africa is trendy?  It makes me cringe when marketers or retailers describe things as "tribal" or gawd-forbid "ethnic" so whatever this post is, its intent is not that.  I'm just desperate for something to look at with personality!  (I just made myself cringe by using a reductionist word like "personality" but there really isn't a way that I come out the other side of this not looking like an asshole.  So let's just carry on.)

Billy Kidd has this stunning series of portraits of Samburu warriors in NYC.  These two pictures are of Lesiit.  He's killed two lions so says the caption.  Purchasing prints helps the Thorn Tree Project which provides funding for education to regions of Northern Kenya.  See?  It's not all about shapes and colors!

Samburu woman ready to be married. Photography by Eric Lafforgue 

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via Cool Hunting

Hair salons photographed by Simon Weller for the book South African Township Barbershops and Salons.

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The Hyena Men - street performers - of Lagos, Nigeria photographed by Pieter Hugo.  I almost shat my pants when I realized that's what size hyenas really are.  That's what I get for getting my basic life skills from The Lion King.  Next you're going to tell me honey badgers DO give a shit!  [MS sidebar: apparently Beyonce wasn't scared because I'm pretty sure she appropriated some hyena wrangling for her "Run the World" video. {In an Inception-style sidebar within a sidebar: I almost shat my pants a second time when I just recently saw the original video for the track Beyonce sampled for her song.  The fuck??  After the donkey punch, it really ruined whatever grrl power anthem B was aiming for in using that sample... }]

Back to things that make me happy:

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Shilluk woman, Sudan - from here

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pinterest via kira-cph

PATTERN!! PATTERN!!  PATTERN!!

Oroma Elewa in Vogue via Fly

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Who needs a shirt when you have so many BANGLES??!!!!!!

Fabricadabra via jubella 

We have reached maximum saturation on Ikats and Suzanis and I'm desperate for patterns that haven't been bastardized with butterflies and pastels.  Enter wax prints!!  One wax print pillow is for pussies, though.  You have to commit because they look better in groups.  Pattern on pattern on pattern.

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Ok unless you're the type of person who can do a headwrap and then you just do one because that's hawt.  I can't do this and make it look good in any way possible so if you can please go for it.

compilation from here

Fair trade textiles, jewelry and crafts from Ananse Village.

here

via Fly

Colorful Rambunction from Stephanie C. Mathews

bags made my women in Ghana for Della via Modish

What about a bag?  Could I do a bag without looking like an asshole?  Probably not...

Kimberly Sumner via Time Out New York

This is how cool people in New York dress and where my obsession with pattern will be in a few months when I've then reached my threshold of outrageous colors and bold patterns.  But somehow when I mix patterns - even in neutrals - I look like a homeless hipster cat lady and not fun and eccentric.  Being a marshmallow offspring sometimes has its disadvantages and I'm not even talking about campfire season.

Iyadede via Fly

She says "wheeee" for color and pattern too.  


My eyes feel positively reborn after looking at all this.  Emmas designblog who?