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: Trends to Watch in 2025, +233 Jazz Club & Grill Bar, Ugh, more smoke from the BBQ, and 9-year-olds to be married

Trends to Watch in 2025. As we step into 2025, the world of fashion promises to be a vibrant tapestry woven from the threads of past influences, technological advancements, and a growing commitment to sustainability. This year, we anticipate a blend of innovation, nostalgia, and practicality that reflects consumers' changing attitudes. Let’s explore some of the key fashion trends that are set to dominate the scene in 2025.

Eco-Conscious Chic: Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword; it's a movement reshaping the fashion industry. By 2025, we expect a significant rise in eco-friendly materials, with brands increasingly adopting practices prioritizing the planet. Expect more collections from organic cotton, recycled fabrics, and innovative biomaterials like lab-grown leather. Additionally, fashion rental services and second-hand shopping will continue to grow, encouraging consumers to embrace a circular economy.

Tech-Infused Fashion: The intersection of fashion and technology is set to expand further in 2025. Wearable tech will integrate seamlessly with daily outfits, offering functionality and style. Imagine stylish fitness trackers, smart fabrics that adapt to temperature changes, or clothing that can change color or pattern with a button. Brands might also leverage augmented reality for virtual fitting rooms, allowing consumers to “try on” clothes before purchase, enhancing the shopping experience while reducing returns.

+233 Jazz Club & Grill Bar (Dr. Isert Street, North Ridge, opposite GBC, Accra), on a Thursday evening, is still one of my favourites with no entrance fee and Chris and his Zoom band doing Evergreens with T. J. Amartey and his silky voice, through a very good sound system. They have excellent beef kebabs, at GHC 70. That sounds expensive but in fact, it is almost a full-quality beef steak for which one would pay an easy 150 GHC in any restaurant. But this time I tried their fried chicken which was surprisingly soft and tasty, almost like tokkytays. That's what they call them in Nsawam, but the official spelling is turkey tails. At one time a Minister of Health banned the importation of tokkytays because they are fat and supposedly unhealthy, but the only thing that happened was that the price went up. Let's see what our new Minister of Health has in store for us, the previous one was full of surprises and really played with people's lives, shortages of children's vaccines, overpricing of Covid vaccines, shortages of HIV suppressors (there is still no treatment for HIV and the half a million people in Ghana living with HIV, that's about the Tamale and Tema populations combined, will have to continue taking HIV suppressing tablets all their lives or develop full-blown AIDS and die), and a few more scandals.

Ugh, more smoke from the BBQ. After HE John Dramani Mahama stated that he would rather install core Ghanaian values into youngsters in school than revive the BBQ bill, and was immediately seconded by his Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Her Excellency Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, our Speaker of Parliament, The Right Honourable Alban Bagbin has vowed to get the LGBTTQAP+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, asexual, pansexual, etc) law through Parliament within 3 months or so because he claims to be a man of God and stands for his principles. Know that more wars have been fought over religious principles than over money or women and that the Cape Coast Castle church was right above the slave dungeons. Right? They were right, right?

9-year-olds to be married. These days you don’t know what is real news and what is fake news, with all sorts of idiots publishing anything, but I think I heard that in Iraq the minimum marriage age for girls has been lowered to 9 years old. I once heard “when a girl has had her first flow she has become a woman and thus can marry”. And the girl herself? Well, if her parents can tell her that Father Christmas is real they can also tell her that the ultimate aim is to get married, and the sooner the better, and that schooling is only for children of the devil. I even heard that in some countries the girls look forward to being circumcised, so they become real women. And knowing that today even in the USA women on average earn 16% less than men for the same job, then we have a long long way to go.

Lydia...

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