History of the Fashion Industry in Ghana

Abstract

Fashion is the cultural construction of the embodiment of identities that focuses on sociocultural looks. The term ‘fashion’ dates back to the 16th century and it exemplified the social and temporal systems that influenced and drove social identities. Globally, the fashion industry employs more than half a billion people directly and indirectly and is valued at about US$ 2.76 trillion. The fashion industry first developed in Europe and then America before being global. The industry is made of four levels – the production of raw materials; the production of fashion goods by designers, manufacturers, contractors and others; retail sales, and various forms of advertising and promotion. The fashion industry in Ghana is predominately of textiles and clothing and therefore largely consists of local artisans and designers who specialise in the reinvention of traditional clothes such as kente and fugu as well as wax prints with a modern sense of touch. The fashion industry in Ghana emerged in the second half of the 20th century when the first beauty pageant was held in 1957 and the first local textiles manufacturing firm, Ghana Textiles Printing Limited was established in 1966. The study employed a mixed method approach of descriptive statistics and content analysis. A sample of seventy-seven (77) respondents took part in the questionnaire survey and the tool used for data collection was a questionnaire. Out of the 77 respondents, 33 participants were engaged in the fashion industry directly as 29 of them are into clothing. Most of the sampled respondents prefer cotton fabrics and see fashion as a means of expressing one’s inner self. Players in the fashion industry pre-financed their businesses and earn less than US$ 2,000 annually. The common types of equipment used by industry players (i.e. those who work with textile fabrics and garments) are industrial sewing machines and domestic electronic machines. The industry faces lots of challenges such as textile manufacturers inability to meet more than thirty (30) percent of local demands hence leading to heavy importation of fabrics from China, Nigeria, Indonesia and India; cheap imports, low markets because most respondents are willing to spend not more than US$ 35 a year on fabrics; lack of capital and credit facilities to acquire current and more efficient equipment, tools and materials. To solve the numerous challenges facing the fashion industry, there is the need for formal training for improving and upgrading skills and competence-based workshops; offering financial supports in the form of loans and credit facilities as well as the regular organization of fashion trade fairs, shows and exhibitions at cheaper costs to enable participation of all industry players.

Keywords: History, fashion, industry, Ghana, textiles

JEL Classification: Z10, N97, N87, N67, N37, L84