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, Titi, this week's subjects: The convertible future of fashion is now, Accra Fashion Week 2024 (AFWK24), Stylists, and Malaria is up by 4.3 %

The convertible future of fashion is now. Reversible Clothing has become a staple for those embracing the convertible trend. From tops to dresses, from trousers to jackets or to handbags depending on the weather, place or mood, the ability to wear a piece in two different ways not only maximizes your wardrobe but also adds an element of surprise to your outfits. Look for reversible designs that incorporate contrasting colors or patterns, allowing you to switch your look without needing to change your entire outfit.

Tips for Styling:
– Choose a reversible top with a bold print on one side and a solid hue on the other for maximum versatility.
– Layer with versatile outerwear to create a cohesive look that can adapt from day to night.
Convertible Jewelry: Jewelry is no longer just an afterthought; it’s become an essential means of self-expression, and convertible jewelry is leading the charge. Pieces that can be transformed—like necklaces that can be worn as bracelets, or earrings that can be adapted from studs to dangly accents—allow fashionistas to mix and match according to their mood.

Accra Fashion Week 2024 (AFWK24) takes place this coming weekend at Ghana Dubai, Circle Roundabout, Accra for the 11th time. Kudos to the organizer, Nana Tamakloe, who managed to have this show yearly, sometimes twice yearly, and after a few years this show started to get international recognition, with 9 foreign designers showcasing this year.

Pity that the Ghana Fashion World is still at loggerheads with itself and no one coordinates with no one, rather competes, sometimes undermines. Senegal on the other hand has its act together, with Dakar Fashion Week running its 22nd year with 2500 attendees, and other shows, like the Dakar Art Biennale coinciding with it, rather than competing with it. The result of this collaboration is a high foreign attendance and broad articles in magazines like Vogue with titles like “African Fashion is Innovative, Spontaneous and Unpredictable”. 2 Years ago Chanel held its Metier d'Art show during Dakar Fashion Week, putting Dakar even more onto the map. Ghana, when oh when.

Stylists. I recently visited several events, some supposedly high-end, and it is sad to say that too often ladies spend good money on poor dressing. In simple terms, their dresses are too wide or too tight, they have the wrong shoes or bags, non-matching styles and colours, and so forth. Not every person can be a musician, a teacher, or a saleswoman, and if you can accept that, then also accept that not everybody is a stylist. Don't listen to the girl in the shop who will always say you made a very good choice, no matter what you choose. Rather take a (male?) friend who dresses well and tells you in your face that something does not fit or suit you and helps you to choose the right thing to go with the right thing. Or pay for a stylist. Assuming your total outfit and hair and nails for that day cost you 1200 GHC (or 450 GHC for thrift), then spending 250 or so on a stylist (and learning from him/her at the same time) is not a bad investment.

Malaria is up by 4.3 %. If we take off the population growth of about 1.9% then that's a real increase of about 2.4%. Why? I think we care less, there are medicines, so we don't do the sanitary anymore like clearing out gutters and old car tyres and all those places where mosquitoes like to breed. When was the last time they came to inspect your compound? But we are overlooking 2 things. All medicines have side effects, sometimes little and short-lived, sometimes long-lasting. Like anxiety, depression and hallucinations, heart rhythm disorders and liver damage for the artesunate and artemether-based treatments. And then there's the children. In 2020, 40,000 children under 5 years old died in Ghana. It is not clear how much of that is because of malaria, but at least a third, I would think. And that figure is 4.3 % up, or an extra 570 children dying of malaria. Still don't care? Anyway, the chance of your under 5 dying of malaria is about 15 per 1000. Your chance of getting involved in a car accident is about 30 per 1000, a little more.

Hotel food. Generally I prefer to eat in a good restaurant whose sole objective is to provide good food, rather than in a hotel which divides its attention over rooms, swimming pools, events, bars and food. In some cases, they only provide some of such services because they have to. But things are changing, and the bigger hotels are now putting more effort into Sunday buffets and breakfasts. A friend of mine has done all the bigger hotel Sunday buffets and rates Labadi Beach Hotel as best, (No. 1 La Bypass) followed by Lancaster (former Golden Tulip, Independence Avenue). Personally I recently had a snack in the Lancaster, a huge croissant, bigger than a king-size prawn, it could have served as a complete lunch. A croissant normally is just baked, with still a bit of the flour taste in it, call it under baked, or al dente. Tasty, but because of its size I ended up eating the equivalent of half a loaf of undercooked bread, and my stomach ended up protesting. I'll try their meat pie next time.

Lydia...

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