“The Models for Africa” - Specialized Research AI at MIT

“The Models for Africa”
Accra’s Independence-Era Fashion Culture

and the Creations of Chez Julie

Christopher Richards

On January 14, 1961, a fashionably dressed

young Ghanaian woman was photo-
graphed arriving at the Accra airport (Fig.
1). The accompanying headline, “Julie—
Th e Girl from Paris,” announced the return
of “twenty-eight year old Juliana Norteye,
a recent graduate in fashion and dressmaking from the Ecole
Guerre-Lavigne in Paris, France” (“Julie” 1961:8). Norteye, later
known by her designer label “Chez Julie,” became Ghana’s fi rst
professionally trained, post-independence fashion designer.1
Her stylish garments captivated fashion-conscious Ghanaians
from the late 1950s until her death in 1993. Throughout her
career, Chez Julie reimagined historical forms of dress, fusing
local styles and fabrics with globally recognizable trends to cre-
ate fashionable garments that appealed to Accra’s cosmopolitan
elite by encapsulating their global, yet decidedly local identities.
Her designs encouraged the continuation of local dress prac-
tices, albeit in revised and oft en unexpected forms, becoming
eye-catching garments that refl ected the nationalist ideologies
fostered by Nkrumah during the post-independence period.

This article will begin by documenting the complex and
vibrant fashion culture of Accra during the 1950s and 1960s, a
largely unexplored yet critical time for the revision and expan-
sion of Ghana’s visual culture. Th e dynamism of the indepen-
dence era and its emphasis on experimental and cross-cultural
fashions primed the runway for the introduction of Chez Julie.
A summation of Chez Julie’s career and an analysis of her sar-
torial contributions to Accra’s post-independence culture will
illustrate her importance as a fashion designer and innovator of
Ghanaian dress practices. Th e interconnectedness of Chez Julie’s
garments to specifi c political ideologies, their ability to challenge
gender roles, and their encapsulation of a nationalist and cos-

mopolitan Ghanaian identity will demonstrate the potency of
fashion as a form of African artistic expression, continuing the
movement led by scholars such as Victoria Rovine, Suzanne
Gott, and Karen Hansen, to incorporate fashion designers and
specifi c forms of fashion into the canon of African art history.

Th e majority of historical information for this article was col-
lected through extensive research at the archives of Ghana’s
national newspaper, the Daily Graphic, which holds physical
copies of both the Daily Graphic and the Sunday Mirror news-
papers from their inception through the present day.2 Due to
both periodicals’ focus on the activities of Accra, and particu-
larly the Sunday Mirror’s extensive documentation of Accra’s
elite citizenry and popular culture, these periodicals provide a
rich and critically important account of Accra’s mid-twentieth
century fashions. Information regarding Chez Julie’s career
was initially gleaned from interviews with her family, primar-
ily her sister Edith François and her daughter Brigitte Naa-Ode
Kragbé. François wore her sister’s fashions throughout her life
and actively documented her sister’s designs as part of a larger
photographic project on the historical and contemporary dress
practices of Ghana. Although I readily acknowledge the poten-
tial biases of familial recollections, the majority of François’s
and Kragbé’s memories are supported by archival findings,
and together allow for a more nuanced, complex, and personal
re creation of the career and legacy of Chez Julie.

DEFINING THE FICKLE: AN EXPLORATION OF FASHION
In order to fully engage with a discussion on the signifi cance
of Ghanaian fashion, it is necessary to explicate several concepts
that are fundamental to understanding Accra’s fashion cul-
ture, the most important of which is fashion itself. Fashion is
an essential, yet limited, subcategory of dress. Dress, as defi ned

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1 A fashionably attired Chez Julie returning
from Paris in 1961, featured in “Julie: The Girl
from Paris,” the Daily Graphic.
Photo: Unknown photographer, courtesy of the

Daily Graphic archive

2 Emily Asiedu wearing a kaba that includes
all three pieces: a tailored blouse, skirt, and a
wrapper draped over the left arm, 2014.
Photo: Christopher Richards.

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by Joanne Eicher, is “visual as well as other sensory modifi ca-
tions (taste, smell, sound, and feel) and supplements (garments,
jewelry, and accessories) to the body” (Eicher 1995:1). Fashion
is oft en narrowly defi ned as a Western phenomenon linked to
the rise of capitalism in Europe and America (Allman 2004,
Steele 2010); however, several scholars (Allman 2004; Gott
and Loughran 2010; Roces and Edwards 2007; Rovine 2001,
2010; Steele 1998, 2010; Hansen and Madison 2013) have chal-
lenged this description of fashion, inspiring my own concep-
tion of the term. I defi ne fashion as a form of dress frequently
associated with elite status in a given culture, which embodies
change through the innovation of existing and historically sig-
nifi cant materials and styles of dress. Fashion is also an inher-
ently cross-cultural phenomenon. Fashion designers continually
look beyond the confi nes of their own localities for creative
inspiration in the hopes of designing original and avant-garde
garments that blend global styles, materials, and dress practices
with familiar and established elements of their respective dress
systems. An inclusive defi nition of fashion does not preclude the
existence of additional categories within the fi eld.

Th is article focuses specifi cally on designer fashions: garments
created by known and recognized individuals who champion
innovation and whose creations are oft en associated with elite
status. Designer fashions can include garments created specifi –
cally for runway shows and garments sold in boutiques that are
part of seasonal collections. Designer fashion garments are also
synonymous with their creator. In many instances, the knowl-
edge and ability to recognize that a garment was created by a
specifi c designer is more important than the individual artistry
or quality of the garment itself. Designer fashions are distinct

from the more widely recognized category of haute couture
fashion; haute couture emphasizes garments that are meticu-
lously craft ed by hand, with an emphasis on expensive materials,
detailed and complex construction, and elaborate embellish-
ments (Saillard and Zazzo 2012). Th e materials used for designer
fashions are not always expensive, nor are they subjected to
the same exacting precision of haute couture. In the context of
Ghana, designer fashions must be further distinguished from
the custom-made garments of seamstresses and tailors and
imported clothing, as both are accessible to a broad population
of Ghanaians and are not typically associated with elite status.

In a pre-independence context, the fashion trends of Accra
can be broadly categorized with three terms: world fashions
(Eicher and Sumberg 1995), local fashions, and international
fashions. World fashions are styles of dress unfettered by geo-
graphic and ethnic limitations, particularly Western-centric
fashions that have been readily adopted by people from around
the world (Eicher and Sumberg 1995). Local, distinctly Ghanaian
fashions are amalgamations of global and local styles rooted in
a historical past that have become synonymous with established
traditions of Ghanaian dress. Th e most notable of Ghana’s local
fashions is the kaba, a garment created from six yards of fabric
that includes a tailored blouse, a sewn or wrapped skirt, and an
additional piece of fabric for a wrapper or shawl (Richards 2015)
(Fig. 2). Th e earliest documentation of the kaba can be traced
to 1831 (Gott 2010), providing the garment with a degree of his-
torical depth that belies its European origins. As one woman
explained to Suzanne Gott, “kaba is our national custom. It’s our
real Ghanaian dress” (Gott 2010:19). In contrast to local fashions
are international fashions: garments that blend two or more dis-

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ful events in Accra in recent times” (“Glamour …” 1957). Th e
event attracted a diverse crowd of elite Ghanaians, including
three women described as “not contestants at a fashion show.
Just spectators at the offi cial opening of the Ambassador Hotel”
(“Glamour …” 1957). The accompanying photograph docu-
ments the women’s elaborate world fashions (Fig. 3). Adjacent
to this photograph is an additional image of women’s fashions
that includes a kaba sewn from kente cloth, a historically signifi –
cant, strip-woven material that became synonymous with a pan-
Ghanaian identity during the late 1950s (Fig. 4) (Ross 1998). Th is
literal juxtaposition of world fashions with local, specifi cally
Ghanaian fashions captures the coexistence of these two realms
of fashion in Accra, particularly in relation to women’s dress.

Th e Jaguar, one of the many possible variations on the kaba
form, provides the strongest evidence that Ghanaians were
highly attuned to the rapidly changing styles of specifi cally Gha-
naian attire. Th e Jaguar fi rst appeared on the front page of the
December 20, 1953, issue of the Sunday Mirror. A photograph
captured two women casually strolling in matching outfi ts com-
prising a wrapped skirt and a matching peplum blouse (Fig. 5).
Whereas the wrapped skirt was relatively simplistic, the blouse
featured a variety of innovations, including a scalloped v-neck-
line, scalloped sleeves, and a dramatic, exaggerated ruffl e along
the bottom of the blouse. Th ese stylistic elements resulted in an
ensemble that exposed the upper chest and back, while creating
an exuberant hemline that exaggerated and drew attention to
the wearer’s hips. A second photograph displaying the back of
the garments—likely included to facilitate copying by women’s

4 Women’s world and local fashions at the 1957 opening
of the Ambassador Hotel in Accra, including a woman wear-
ing a kente kaba (center left), the Sunday Mirror.
Photo: Unknown photographer, courtesy of the Daily Graphic

archive

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individual seamstresses—was published with a caption stating
that this new style of kaba “has been hailed with every mani-
festation of delight by women of society and fashion in Accra”
(“Jaguar” 1953:10) (Fig. 6).

By 1955, the Jaguar fell out of favor with Ghana’s fashion-
conscious women. In an article from the Sunday Mirror, the
photograph of the two women was reprinted with a starkly dif-
ferent caption. Th e fashion contributor recognized that the Jag-
uar originally “set the fashion tongues wagging,” but further
stated that “the ‘jaguar’ is being superseded by the ‘Opera 4.15’”
(Wuver 1955:6). Four months later, Wuver’s account of the Jag-
uar was expanded by an unknown author, who described it as
“an ugly and objectionably looking design. It is not designed in
conformity with an acceptable theory with regard to warmth,
modesty, or elegance” (“Jaguar Is not Decent” 1955). Th e author
argued that the style “aff ords very little opportunity for variety
and gives a very bad impression of the women who wear it,”
ultimately concluding that the Jaguar represented “a remark-
able deterioration in the dress of our women” (“Jaguar Is not
Decent” 1955). Its revealing neckline and profusion of ruffl es
likely led to the Jaguar’s demise—the features that initially made

it so distinctive and celebrated. Th e Jaguar ultimately attests to
the existence of a specifi cally local, Ghanaian realm of fashion
that was an active and important part of Accra’s vibrant and
capricious fashion system.

In addition to world and local fashions, Ghanaian women
were active purchasers and producers of international fash-
ions. Th e most prominent international fashions were inspired
by Asian dress styles, such as the fl uctuating popularity of the
Indian sari. On the cover of a 1953 issue of the Sunday Mirror,
a photograph depicts a woman identifi ed as Florence Mettle
wearing what the newspaper headlined as “A Sari Style” (Fig.
7). Th e caption stated: “Indian wrap is a special Indian fashion,
but Florence Mettle of Accra has given it a Gold Coast touch (“A
Sari Style” 1953). Th e “Gold Coast touch” is presumably Mettle’s
choice of fabric, a wax print cloth.

Ghanaian women were also inspired by East Asian styles of
dress, particularly a variation on the cheongsam or qipao.3 In
1956 and 1957, photographs of Chinese women wearing the
qipao were featured in issues of the Sunday Mirror, with one
image accompanied by a clear description of the garment’s
overall tailoring (“Travel Goods Change Fashion” 1955) (Fig. 8).

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By 1958, a photograph of two Ghanaian women dressed in “the Eastern look” graced
the front page of an issue of the Sunday Mirror (Fig. 9). Th e contributor noted that “a
touch of Eastern style and it makes all the diff erence to Ghanaian women’s traditional
way of dressing.” Th e contributor continued: “they take your mind to China and other
Eastern countries, but are still essentially Ghanaian” (“Th e Eastern Look” 1958). As this
quote indicates, the garment’s Asian inspiration did not detract from its identifi cation
as a Ghanaian form of dress; attributing it to Asia, while simultaneously classifying it as
“essentially Ghanaian,” indicates the existence and importance of international fashions
as part of Accra’s pre-independence fashion culture.

Th e coexistence of these forms of sartorial expression demonstrates Ghana’s complex
and vibrant pre-independence fashion culture that consisted of world, local, and inter-
national fashions. Th ese fashion realms, which championed a degree of inventiveness
and fusion in terms of their styles and materials, encouraged the continued experimen-
tation and expansion of Ghanaian fashion following the country’s independence, result-
ing in a new space in Accra’s fashion culture, for garments that existed on the seams of
world, international, and local fashions while invoking cosmopolitan and nationalist
identities. Th ese hybrid fashions, which blended established categories of dress with
new modes of thought, encouraged the introduction of Ghanaian fashion designers and
their innovative approaches to fashion, exemplifi ed by Chez Julie.

“HER THINGS ARE CLASSIC … EVER-GREEN”:

THE CAREER AND CREATIONS OF CHEZ JULIE
Chez Julie was born Juliana Norteye in 1933, one of twelve children. Her father
worked at the post offi ce in Nsawam, a town in the Eastern region of Ghana located 40
km outside of Accra. Chez Julie was taught sewing by her mother, but her interest in
fashion was sparked by her domestic sciences teacher Eleanor Sam. Sam served as Chez
Julie’s role model; Chez Julie’s sister Edith François recollected that Sam was a “fash-
ionable woman,” who dressed in the style of a “British lady … hats, gloves, stockings,
everything”4 (Fig. 10).

Chez Julie’s parents highly valued education and ensured that all of their children
attended school through standard 7. Following the completion of her education, Chez
Julie began working at the Ministry of Education, where she continued to sew gar-
ments to earn extra income.5 It was during her time at the ministry that Chez Julie made
her fi rst appearance in the Sunday Mirror, in a 1958 article that highlighted a dress she
named “the Hall and Chamber frock” (“Th ese New Fashions” 1958) (Fig. 11). Th e colum-
nist praised Chez Julie for her creativity, stating she “has hundreds of [fashions] in her
head” (“Th ese New Fashions” 1958). As one of Chez Julie’s earliest documented designs,
the photograph further attests to her active creation of world fashions inspired by Brit-
ish designs.

Shortly aft er her premiere in the Sunday Mirror, Chez Julie was awarded a par-
tial scholarship from the Cocoa Marketing Board to further her education abroad.
Although the offi cial reasons for her scholarship are unknown, it was likely part of
Kwame Nkrumah’s initiative to develop a highly educated group of Ghanaians that
would contribute to his nation-building and the “modernization” of Ghana. At the
age of twenty-six, Chez Julie departed Accra for Paris to attend France’s oldest fashion
school, Ecole Guerre-Lavigne. Th e school emphasized highly skilled, technical training
through courses in fashion design, pattern making, and sewing. Chez Julie completed
her four-year degree in three years, partially due to the diffi culties she encountered as
a non-French speaking African in Paris.6 Aft er graduation, Chez Julie embarked on
a journey to visit several dressmakers and fashion designers in Germany, England,
Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland before returning to Ghana in 1961 (“Julie” 1961:8).
Following the announcement of her return to Accra, Chez Julie’s latest designs were
featured in a two-page spread in the Sunday Mirror (Fig. 12). Th e dresses illustrated in
the article were European in style, yet the author asserted that “when I visited Julie at
her Christianborg home, I observed not only dress styles typical of each of the countries
she visited, but Julie had started working on several new creations to suit the African
personality” (“Julie” 1961:8). Shortly following the Sunday Mirror’s feature on her lat-

7 Florence Mettle wearing a “sari style” with a
“Gold Coast touch,” 1953, the Sunday Mirror.
Photo: Unknown photographer, courtesy of the Daily

Graphic archive

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est fashions, Chez Julie moved her workshop from her father’s
garage to a small building she rented on Oxford Street in Osu.
As her daughter Brigitte Naa-Ode Kragbé recollected, it was at
this location that “Chez Julie was really known.”7

Sometime during the mid-1960s, Chez Julie was recruited by the
newly founded Ghana Textiles Production (GTP), Ghana’s fi rst
state-owned textile manufacturing company. Th e introduction of
a locally produced wax print fabric attests to the expansiveness of
Nkrumah’s nationalist eff orts and the continued importance of
specifi c textiles in creating a post-independence identity through
dress. Chez Julie created fashionable garments for their ad cam-
paigns and promotional calendars and designed garments for
their annual fashion shows held at the State House in Accra. Chez
Julie recounted her initial collaboration with GTP: “I remember at
that time, we were calling all the material ‘cedi cloth’ because it was

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8 Chinese women wearing the cheongsam or
qipao, 1955, the Sunday Mirror.
Photo: Unknown photographer, courtesy of the Daily

Graphic archive

9 Two Ghanaian women wearing the “Eastern
Look,” 1958, the Sunday Mirror.
Photo: Unknown photographer, courtesy of the Daily

Graphic archive

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to a location closer to Danquah Circle on Oxford Street, where
it remains to this day. Chez Julie hosted annual fashion shows
through the 1990s, occasionally making trips to New York City
and Los Angeles to showcase her designs at various trade shows.
In 1991, Chez Julie celebrated her thirtieth anniversary as a fash-
ion designer with a special fashion show at the Golden Tulip
Hotel (“Chez Julie” 1991:13). Instead of organizing a retrospec-
tive of her most important designs, Chez Julie chose to feature
garments from her fashion label that received less coverage in
Accra’s popular media, including garments of batik, tie and
dye, and screen-printed fabrics, the material of which she pro-
duced herself (Fig. 13). Two years aft er her thirtieth anniversary,
Chez Julie passed away suddenly, sending shock waves through
Accra’s fashion community. Despite her daughter’s attempts to
run Chez Julie’s business from Côte d’Ivoire, the venture proved
unprofi table and the boutique remained vacant for almost ten
years. In 2002, Kragbé returned to Ghana and reopened the
boutique, which remains open to this day. Even though Chez
Julie’s passing was over twenty years ago, her legacy as Accra’s
fi rst fashion designer lives on; when Kragbé fi rst reopened her
mother’s boutique: “people would come and cry to me ‘Oh, you
kept your mother’s shop. I still have the clothes in my wardrobe;
they don’t go out of fashion’.”8 Kragbé’s recollection attests to
the enduring appreciation of Chez Julie’s designs, garments that
were highly innovative during their time, but created with a level
of sophistication and visual appeal that ensured their longevity.
As François stated: “her things are classic … ever-green.”9

“A NEW STYLE OF OUR TRADITIONAL COVER CLOTH”:

ACCRA’S NATIONALIST AND COSMOPOLITAN

DESIGNER FASHIONS
Although Chez Julie created a diverse array of designer fash-
ion garments, her creations “to suit the African personality,”
which were informed by Nkrumah and Ghana’s post-indepen-
dence culture, remain the most important expressions of Gha-
naian mid-twentieth-century fashion. In order for Nkrumah to
maintain his position as leader amidst opposition from politi-
cal factions, he embarked on a mission to create a homogenized
population through the careful and calculated presentation of
specifi c cultural practices that represented his own vision of a
modern African nation. A crucial aspect of creating this image
of a newly independent Ghana was through the promotion of
specifi c forms of dress that blended global styles and aesthetics
with Ghanaian forms of visual culture (Hess 2006, Biney 2011).
As a further indicator of the nationalist importance of fash-
ion, the subject was regularly discussed and debated in the Daily
Graphic and the Sunday Mirror, particularly fashion’s ability to
assert a distinctly Ghanaian, post-independence identity. With
remarkable foresight, the author August Bruce stated that “with
the granting of Independence to the Gold Coast, new vistas for
the development of our national cultural identity will be opened
up. And it may no longer be prudent or wise for us to continue
apeing our white benefactors particularly in their mode of dress-
ing” (Bruce 1956). As an alternative to Western dress, Bruce sug-
gested that “our dressmakers will have to evolve a new style of
our traditional cover cloth for those of our working girls who
wish … to still dress in the traditional style” (Bruce 1956).10

10 Photograph of Juliana “Chez Julie” Norteye
(middle) and her sisters Edith (right) and Gladys (left) in
Kumasi, 1950. This photograph illustrates Chez Julie’s
active emulation of British fashions at a young age.
Photo: Unknown photographer, courtesy of Edith

François.

being sold for one cedi a yard. Not many people were interested
in African prints then. Th ose who did preferred the imported
ones from Holland” (“Chez Julie” 1991:13). Chez Julie’s partner-
ship encouraged the incorporation of wax print textiles into her
own designs and likely contributed to the burgeoning popularity
of locally produced wax print fabrics. Her wax print fashions were
distinctive because she skillfully combined GTP’s fabrics with
innovative and bold designs that refl ected global fashion trends
of the era, resulting in designer fashions that boldly asserted Gha-
naians’ nationalist and cosmopolitan identities, a realm of fash-
ion that continues to resonate with Accra’s current generation of
designers and consumers.

In addition to her collaboration with GTP, Norteye orga-
nized annual fashion shows for her Chez Julie label. In 1965, her
fashion show was described as a “full-scale one-night interna-
tional fashion show, featuring [the] latest designs from many
parts of the world … held under the patronage of Madame
Fathima Nkrumah” (“Big” 1965). Th e sponsorship of Nkrumah’s
wife attests to the political significance of Chez Julie’s fash-
ions and how her career and designs were inextricably linked
to Nkrumah’s post-independence policies and his concep-
tions of nationhood. In 1973, Chez Julie moved her boutique

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Ghanaian fashion is also constitutive of cosmopolitanism: a
global phenomenon localized by specifi c groups in particular
cultural settings (Turino 2000). In the context of Accra’s fashion
culture, cosmopolitanism describes the phenomenon of blend-
ing and borrowing cultural elements and materials to create gar-
ments that are the result of global interactions, yet identifi ed as
local forms of creative expression. Beginning with the designs
of Chez Julie, Accra’s designer fashions have consistently served
as a product, as well as a barometer, of the cosmopolitan nature
of the city and its residents. Th e fashions of Accra’s elite citizens
indicate their belonging to a global fashion system while main-
taining their rich and vibrant historical dress practices, asserting
a transformable conception of nationalism that indicates their
inherent power as independent and autonomous Ghanaians.

It is within this post-independence context, a time of intense
creativity and the coalescence of a vibrant, yet essentialized
Ghanaian identity, that Chez Julie created two of her most
culturally and historically signifi cant fashions, the akwadzan
and a kente kaba. She constructed these garments through the
careful interweaving of global and local styles, resulting in gar-
ments that refl ected the values of a majority of Ghanaians in
Accra and the values and governmental policies of Nkrumah.

11 A photograph of Chez Julie modeling her “Hall and
Chamber Frock,” 1958, the Sunday Mirror.
Photo: Unknown photographer, courtesy of Edith François

and the Daily Graphic archive

12 Edith François modeling one of Chez Julie’s world fash-
ions, as seen in the article “Julie: Girl with Ambition,” 1961,
the Sunday Mirror.
Photo: Unknown photographer, courtesy of Edith François.

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It was this collective desire to uphold Ghanaian historical dress
practices, but to suggest a more internationally aware nation,
that ultimately imbued Chez Julie’s designs. Th ese garments
represented Chez Julie’s creations for the “African personality”
and indicate the naissance of Accra’s nationalist and cosmo-
politan designer fashions.

“FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY …”:

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHEZ JULIE’S AKWADZAN
In 1968, Chez Julie introduced her groundbreaking akwad-
zan, but it would remain unmentioned in popular media until its
unveiling at Ghana’s 1971 annual Trade Fair. A Daily Graphic col-
umnist celebrated Chez Julie’s latest menswear creation, stating
“for the fi rst time in the history of Ghanaian fashion, the men’s
cloth has been converted into a manageable outfi t with an open-

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to come up with a solution, hence the birth of … the Akwad-
zan” (“Something …” 1971). In addition to its simplicity, Chez
Julie’s akwadzan mimicked the fl ow and draping of a wrapped
textile, evoking the elegance and abundance of fabric oft en asso-
ciated with this form of dress. François explained that Norteye
created the tailored akwadzan “to make it easy for people to put
on the traditional cloth because you’ve seen the men, they’re
always adjusting.”12 Ghanaians were continually encouraged
to wear cloth wrappers as a sign of Ghanaian national identity,
but as refl ected in François’s comment, the wearing of woven
cloth was oft en viewed as a complicated and cumbersome pro-
cess. Th e diffi culty of wearing a wrapped textile is echoed by the
1973 Sunday Mirror instructional article “Know How to Put on
Cloth.” As the author explains, “traditionally, the cloth is the
Ghanaian attire … but to put it on the correct way is what many
Ghanaians fi nd diffi cult to do. On this page, we are introduc-
ing to Ghanaians and foreigners alike stages of putting on the
cloth” (“Know How …” 1973). Eight photographs accompanied
this article and demonstrated the proper techniques for wrap-
ping the body with cloth (Fig. 15). In contrast, the Sunday Mir-
ror columnist attested to the relative ease of wearing Chez Julie’s
akwadzan: “no more will the house be full of pre-outing crisis of
‘Oh this cloth! Or ‘I just don’t know how to manage it!’ Just slip
your ‘ntama’ or ‘Akwadzan’ over your head and you’re all set
(“Something …” 1971).

The Sunday Mirror published a series of photographs to
accompany the article on Chez Julie’s akwadzan, which dem-
onstrated the ease of donning the garment (Fig. 14). In the fi nal
image, Chez Julie’s model Big Boy is shown properly wearing
the akwadzan with the following caption: “Big Boy poses majes-
tically in the Akwadzan, which seems to have lost none of the
traditional manliness in its creation” (“Something …” 1971).
Th is comment implies that despite Chez Julie’s modifi cations to
this form of attire, the akwadzan evokes the form of wrapping a
male body in cloth and embodies the “majestic” qualities of this
historical dress that are oft en considered the epitome of Asante,
and more generally speaking, Ghanaian traditional culture. In a
photograph from François’s collection, Big Boy is shown hold-
ing the akwadzan in his hands, emphasizing Chez Julie’s inno-
vation (Fig. 16). Th e material of Big Boy’s akwadzan, a form of
adinkra cloth as evidenced by the fabric’s stamped motifs, adds
an additional layer of signifi cance to the garment. Adinkra is
primarily worn at funerals to show respect for the deceased. By
cutting and tailoring adinkra, a textile that continues to serve
as a symbol of Ghanaian culture and appropriate funeral attire,
Chez Julie was actively adapting a marker of tradition to better
represent the changing culture of Ghana and the cosmopolitan
identities of Accra’s citizens.

A second photograph of Chez Julie’s akwadzan depicts a female
model identifi ed as “Zilla” wearing an akwadzan of wax print
fabric paired with a fl oor-length skirt (Fig. 17). As François and
I conversed about Ghana’s historical dress practices, she empha-
sized that wrapping the upper torso in cloth in the “over-the-
shoulder” style was almost exclusively the prerogative of men. As
she explained, women typically wrapped the lower half of their
body in cloth, dressing their torso with a European style blouse,
an obvious reference to the historically rooted Ghanaian kaba.

13 Edith François wearing an elaborately embroidered caf-
tan of batik fabric dyed and sewn by Chez Julie, late 1960s–
early 1970s.
Photo: Unknown photographer, courtesy of Edith François.

ing for the head” (“Something for the Men Too” 1971). Th e akwad-
zan, described by the Sunday Mirror as “the men’s traditional
cloth turned into a sewn outfi t,” refers to a Ga word that implies
the dress practice of wrapping a cloth around the upper torso
(“Chez Julie” 1991:11)11 (Fig. 14). Chez Julie tailored her akwad-
zan to include a head and armhole; in addition to this “slip-over
cloth,” she created a matching pair of shorts to be worn under-
neath (“Something …” 1971).

Chez Julie created her tailored version of the akwadzan
because “she had heard a lot of complaints from men about
their inability to wear cloth in the correct way, so she decided

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14 “Something for the Men Too,” 1971, the Daily Graphic.
Photo: Unknown photographer, courtesy of the Daily Graphic archive

15 Images of Osei Asibey Bonsu demonstrating the various stages of wrapping
a body in woven fabric for the article “Know How to Put on a Cloth,” 1973, the
Sunday Mirror.
Photo: Unknown photographer, courtesy of the Daily Graphic archive

16 “Big Boy” shown with Chez Julie’s akwadzan, emphasizing the innovation of
its form, c. 1968.
Photo: Unknown photographer, courtesy of Edith François.

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Th e established and strongly gendered divisions of Ghanaian
dress do not suggest that Ghanaian women never wrap their tor-
sos with cloth in the “over-the-shoulder” style. Asante women
have been known to wear the dansinkran, an ensemble con-
sisting of wrapped cloths for the upper and lower portions of
the body. Th is form of dress, considered to be a respectful and
dignifi ed form of attire, is largely restricted to queen mothers,
elderly women, and mourners at Asante funerals (Gott 2010:13,
2009:153). Th e previously referenced 1953 Sunday Mirror arti-
cle “A Sari Style” further indicates that Ghanaian women were
wearing toga-style wrappers of cloth around their upper torsos
prior to independence; however, as an example of an interna-
tional fashion, Ghanaian women’s interpretations of the Indian
sari were likely viewed as an imported form of attire that did not
contradict or challenge Ghanaian dress practices (Fig. 7).

Th e acknowledgement that young Ghanaian women did not
regularly wear the “over-the-shoulder” style of wrapped cloth
adds an additional layer of signifi cance to Chez Julie’s female
akwadzan. By converting a form of dress broadly viewed as the
prerogative of men and elderly Asante women into a stylish
fashion for young Ghanaians, the female akwadzan served dual
purposes: it challenged notions of Ghanaian “traditional manli-
ness” and “dignifi ed respectability,” while revolutionizing and
reinvigorating established forms of culturally signifi cant dress
for a younger, female audience.

Chez Julie’s akwadzan challenged established conceptions of
female dress and appearance similar to southern Nigerian wom-
en’s appropriation of the agbada, a voluminous tunic-style gar-
ment associated with elitism and masculinity (Bastian 1996). Th e
akwadzan provided young Ghanaian women with a voluminous
and elegant silhouette that served as a signifi cant departure from
the prevailing forms of tailored blouses and dresses that domi-
nated Ghanaian women’s historical fashions (Fig. 18). Despite

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VOL. 49, NO. 3 AUTUMN 2016 african arts | 17

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the innovative nature of Chez Julie’s female akwadzan, there is
no evidence that suggests it caused controversies similar to the
ones generated by southern Nigerian women’s appropriation of
agbadas. In terms of dress, and particularly in regards to fashion,
Accra’s citizens are overwhelmingly receptive to the modifi cation
and reinvention of historical forms; this approach is best sum-
marized by former First Lady Nana Konadu Ageyman Rawlings,
who refl ected on her youthful fashions during the 1960s by stat-
ing “it was anything goes.”13 Th is acceptance of experimentation
with established dress forms allowed for Chez Julie to create both
versions of her akwadzan, which ultimately encouraged the con-
tinuation of historical dress practices by adapting the forms for
a younger audience, producing a form of fashion that resonated
with Ghanaians’ post-independence ideals of nationalism and
cosmopolitanism.

“YOU WILL WEAR IT, AND YOU’LL WEAR IT, AND YOU’LL WEAR IT”:

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHEZ JULIE’S KENTE KABA
In addition to her male and female akwadzans, Chez Julie cre-
ated an equally important kaba (Fig. 19). Due to the garment’s
inclusion in François’s series of dress photographs, the kaba
likely dates to the late 1960s. Th e garment is stylistically sim-
ple, consisting of a top with a low-cut back and a wide strip of

18 | african arts AUTUMN 2016 VOL. 49, NO. 3

17 “Zilla” wearing a female version of Chez Julie’s Akwadzan,
c. 1968.
Photo: Unknown photographer, courtesy of Edith François.

18 Chez Julie’s akwadzan as photographed for the exhibition
“Kabas and Couture: Contemporary Ghanaian Fashion” at the
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, 2015.
Photo: Randy Batista

material that forms pockets along the hemline. It was originally
accompanied by a wrapped textile, which mimicked the form of
a fl oor-length skirt. Most signifi cantly, Chez Julie constructed
the kaba from hand-woven kente cloth. François’s recollections
elucidate this signifi cance: “at one time, kente was very expen-
sive … people didn’t want to cut it, kente was precious.”14 Fran-
çois’s mother-in-law even chided her for wearing tailored kente
garments, exclaiming “Oh, you’ve spoiled your kente!” but
François rebuff ed her mother-in-law’s laments: “You know that
you will wear it, and you’ll wear it, and you’ll wear it, and it’s not
spoiled.”15 As suggested by François’s comments, she valued her
Chez Julie kente fashions because, like the akwadzan, they were

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19 Phyllis Lamptey modeling Chez Julie’s kente
kaba, c. 1968.
Photo: Photographer unknown, courtesy of Edith

François.

20 Mrs. Alice Ababio (right) wearing a dress featur-
ing strips of kente, 1958, the Sunday Mirror.
Photo: Photographer unknown, courtesy of the Daily

Graphic archives.

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article “Th e Kente Cloth and the Fanciful Blouse” was accompa-
nied by two photographs of seven Ghanaian women wearing an
incredible array of wrapped kente cloth skirts paired with peplum
blouses (Fig. 21). Th ese hybrid kaba ensembles became popular
as stylish and nationalistic forms of attire for women, particularly
for special events. Th e persistence of pairing wrapped kente with
a simple blouse indirectly suggests that Chez Julie’s tailored kente
garments, exemplifi ed by her kente kaba, were indeed revolution-
ary. Chez Julie’s kente fashions challenged the accepted forms for
wearing kente cloth, creating tailored garments that were simulta-
neously globally inspired yet distinctly Ghanaian. Although Chez
Julie was not the fi rst to experiment with kente cloth, she was the

VOL. 49, NO. 3 AUTUMN 2016 african arts | 19

more wearable than existing styles of historical dress and they
attested to her cosmopolitan identity, while invoking an imme-
diately identifi able nationalism.

Despite the insistence of her family and the Sunday Mirror’s
attribution of Chez Julie as the originator of the “kente craze,”
Chez Julie was likely not the fi rst Ghanaian to cut and tailor
kente cloth.16 Th e earliest example of an innovative kente fash-
ion was featured in the Sunday Mirror on March 16, 1958. Under
the headline “New Role for Kente,” an unknown contributor
exclaims: “a new slant on women’s fashions! Th e model, Mrs.
Alice Ababio (right), is wearing a fl ared aft ernoon dress with the
skirt and the V-neckline trimmed with strips of kente” (Fig. 20).
Th e slender width of Ababio’s kente stripes suggests that a larger
strip of kente cloth was cut to create the dynamic striping on
the skirt of her dress. Th is example illustrates that new modes
for wearing kente cloth, which served as radical departures from
its historically rooted use as a wrapped textile, were introduced
almost immediately following the country’s independence.

Although the aforementioned feature from the Sunday Mirror
attests to Ghanaians’ experimentation with cutting and tailor-
ing kente cloth during the late 1950s, the predominant trend of
the independence era was for women to wear kente as a wrapped
skirt paired with a solid-colored blouse. Th e 1958 Sunday Mirror

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21 Ghanaian women wearing kente wrappers and
peplum blouses, 1958, the Sunday Mirror.
Photo: Photographer unknown, courtesy of the Daily

Graphic archives.

22 Chez Julie’s kente kaba as photographed for
the exhibition “Kabas and Couture: Contemporary
Ghanaian Fashion” at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of
Art, 2015.
Photo: Randy Batista

fi rst Ghanaian fashion designer to create tailored garments from kente, earning her the
designation as originator of contemporary kente fashions (Fig. 22).

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHEZ JULIE AND

ACCRA’S HISTORICAL FASHION CULTURE
Accra, as the site of a complex and vibrant historical fashion culture that thrived on
originality and experimentation, ultimately cultivated the innovative designs of Juliana
“Chez Julie” Norteye. Chez Julie became the fi rst prominent Ghanaian fashion designer
to successfully revolutionize Ghanaian forms of historical dress. Inspired and informed
by Nkrumah’s nationalism, as well as her experiences abroad, Chez Julie reconstructed
the physical forms of Ghanaian textiles and dress by blending them with global fashion
trends, creating styles that preserved Ghana’s historical dress practices, while assert-
ing Ghanaians’ participation in a global fashion network. Chez Julie’s garments are the
fi rst cosmopolitan designer fashions in Accra imbued with a distinct and identifi able
nationalist infl uence. Additionally, Chez Julie’s most signifi cant fashions, particularly
her akwadzan, challenged established conceptions of gender, providing young women
new means for sartorial self-expression in post-independence Accra.

Chez Julie’s introduction and the subsequent acceptance of nationalist and cosmo-
politan designer fashions ushered in a new realm of fashion in Accra that has continued
until today. Chez Julie’s garments have earned their description as “classic” and “ever-
green,” as her innovations to Ghanaian dress have allowed successive fashion design-
ers to further reimagine historically signifi cant textiles and dress practices, ultimately
refl ecting the changing nature of Accra and its cosmopolitan citizens. Chez Julie’s cre-
ations encapsulate the power of fashion in Accra, illustrating its importance as a prom-
inent and accessible form of artistic expression that resonates with a broad swath of
Ghanaians. Designer fashions, both in Ghana and across the African continent, serve
as powerful and material evidence for the continued revision of historical practices and
cultural expressions.

Christopher Richards is an assistant professor of African art history and museum education at Brook-
lyn College in New York. His research focuses primarily on African dress, fashion, and adornment
from the nineteenth to the twenty-fi rst centuries. His fi rst exhibition on African fashion, “Kabas and
Couture: Contemporary Ghanaian Fashion,” was held at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art in
Gainesville, Florida, from February to August 2015. c.richards66@brooklyn.cuny.edu

20 | african arts AUTUMN 2016 VOL. 49, NO. 3

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Notes

References cited

“Jaguar Is not Decent …” 1955. Th e Sunday Mirror, p. 2.

1 Th e majority of early documentation refers to

her as Juliana Norteye, although she married in the
early 1960s and became Juliana Kweifi o-Okai. Despite
her name change, her family insists that most of Accra’s
citizens did not know her true name and referred to
her simply as “Chez Julie.” Due to the popularity of her
brand name and the preference of her family, this article
will refer to Juliana Kweifi o-Okai as Chez Julie.

2 Unfortunately, the Daily Graphic does not
have the resources to properly house and conserve
their extensive archival collection of newspapers and
photographs. Many of the archive’s oldest photographs
and their corresponding negatives, which date to the
early 1950s, have been destroyed by Ghana’s unrelenting
heat, hindering the quality of the historical photographs
reproduced here.

3 Th e qipao is a form-fi tting dress with short
sleeves that became popular in the 1920s among elite
and fashion-conscious Chinese women. Th e collar
of the garment is more commonly and pejoratively
referred to as a “Mandarin collar.” Th e qipao is primarily
worn by women in China and Taiwan, although similar
garments are found in Tibet and Vietnam.

Edith François, personal interview, 2012.
Edith François, personal interview, 2012.

4
5
6 Edith François, personal interview, 2012; Brigitte

Naa-Ode Kragbé, personal interview, June 2012.

Brigitte Naa-Ode Kragbé, personal interview,

7
June 2012.

8 Brigitte Naa-Ode Kragbé, personal interview,

June 2012.

9 Edith François, personal interview, 2014.
10 Bruce’s reference to the “traditional cover
cloth” likely refers to wax print fabric, which would
historically have been worn wrapped around the waist
and also around the breasts (if not worn in the more
broadly accepted kaba style). Th is can be surmised by a
photograph accompanying his article, showing a young
woman wearing two pieces of wax print fabric, one
worn around the waist, the other tied over one shoulder
in what Bruce described as a “sari” style.

11 Edith François, personal interview, 2012.
12 Edith François, personal interview, 2012.
13 Nana Konadu Ageyman Rawlings, personal

interview, 2012.

14 Edith François, personal interview, 2012.
15 Edith François, personal interview, 2012.
16 According to the Sunday Mirror, “some elderly

Ghanaians recall that the current kente craze which
involves the combination of plain fabrics and kente was
introduced way back in the 1960s under the Chez Julie
trade name” (“Chez Julie” 1991:13).

Allman, Jean, ed. 2004. Fashioning Africa: Power and the
Politics of Dress. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

“Julie—Th e Girl from Paris.” 1961. Th e Daily Graphic,
January 14, p. 15.

Bastian, Misty. 1996. “Female ‘Alhajis’ and Entrepre-
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Nigerian Clothing Practice.” In Clothing and Diff erence:
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University Press.

“Big Dress Show to Open.” 1965. Th e Sunday Mirror,
October 10, p. 1.

Biney, Ama. 2011. Th e Political and Social Th ought of
Kwame Nkrumah. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bruce, Augustus. 1956. “Can You Ride a Bike in Cloth?”
Th e Sunday Mirror, p. 1.

“Chez Julie-Caught in the Act.” 1991. Th e Mirror,
November 16, p. 13.

“Th e Eastern Look …” 1968. Th e Sunday Mirror, March
23, p. 1.

Eicher, Joanne B., ed. 1995. Dress and Ethnicity: Change
Across Space and Time. Oxford: Berg.

Eicher, Joanne, and Barbara Sumberg. 1995. “World
Fashions.” In Dress and Ethnicity: Change Across Space
and Time, ed. Joanne Eicher, pp. 295–306. Oxford: Berg.

“Glamour at Opening of New Hotel.” 1957. Th e Sunday
Mirror, January 28, p. 9.

Gott, Suzanne, and Kristyne Loughran, eds. 2010.
Contemporary African Fashion. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press.

Gott, Suzanne. 2010. “Th e Ghanaian Kaba: Fashion that
Sustains Culture.” In Contemporary African Fashion, ed.
Suzanne Gott and Kristyne Loughran, pp. 11–27. Bloom-
ington: Indiana University Press.

_______. 2009. “Asante Hightimers and the Fashionable
Display of Women’s Wealth in Contemporary Ghana.”
Fashion Th eory: Th e Journal of Dress, Body, and Culture,
13 (2):141–76.

Hansen, Karen Tranberg, and D. Soyini Madison. 2013.
African Dress: Fashion, Agency, Performance. New York:
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Hess, Janet. 2006. Art and Architecture in Postcolonial
Africa. Jeff erson, NC: McFarland.

“Jaguar.” 1953. Th e Sunday Mirror, December 21, pp. 1, 10.

“Th e Kente Cloth and the Fanciful Blouse”. 1958. Th e
Sunday Mirror, December 25, p. 13.

“Know How to Put on Cloth.” 1973. Th e Sunday Mirror,
February 28, p. 16.

“New Role for Kente.” 1958. Th e Sunday Mirror, March
16, p. 5.

Richards, Christopher. 2015. Kabas and Couture: Con-
temporary Ghanaian Fashion. Gainesville, FL: Samuel P.
Harn Museum of Art.

Roces, Mina, and Louise Edwards, eds. 2007. Th e Politics
of Dress in Asia and the Americas. Portland, OR: Sussex
Academic Press.

Ross, Doran H. 1998. Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente
and African American Identity. Los Angeles: UCLA
Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

Rovine, Victoria. 2010. “African Fashion: Design, Iden-
tity, and History.” In Contemporary African Fashion,
ed. Suzanne Gott and Kristyne Loughran, pp. 89–103.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

_______. 2001. Bogolan: Shaping Culture Th rough Cloth
in Contemporary Mali. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press.

Saillard, Olivier, and Anne Zazzo, eds. 2010. Paris Haute
Couture. Paris: Flammarion.

“A Sari Style.” 1953. Th e Sunday Mirror, December 6, p. 1.

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