With all of the bad news from Sierra Leone in the last few months I find myself using fashion to remind me of the good times and the fact that good things still come from the land that I love. I wore this gara (tie-dyed) Madam Wokie cut out dress to a wedding that I attended in London last month. I did a frantic search for a spectator hat on the morning before the wedding and in the end I felt as though I was perfectly dressed for a union of two Sierra Leonean hearts in a chapel across the pond. The combination of dress with a Mende name and the traditionally British spectator hat took me back to some of my favorite memories in Sierra Leone. During the holiday season of 1989, my parents took me to visit my family back home and my dad's older brother quickly became my favorite uncle. This was before Sierra Leone had anything to do with Ebola, before the country's minerals had ever been associated with war. My uncle was the man in those days, he had built a beautiful home attended a wedding while I was there and I just had to work a spectator hat into my outfit. I've been crazy about the spectator since Will and Kate's Royal wedding a few years back; I felt that the hats turned already stylish outfits into something regal. I wanted to wear this Madam Wokie dress and I was lucky to find a matching spectator at John Lewis in London. I found that it's true what they say about dressing for the life that you want because the wedding was nothing short of royal. The bride and groom had amazing style and I've never seen a better dressed or more lively bridal party. The whole affair made me think of tea time with one of my favorite uncles in Sierra Leone. When I visited him as a young girl, he'd take me to the fancy living room, serve tea on a nicely arranged tray and ask me if I wanted one lump of sugar or two. Then he'd sip the tea with his pinky raised and say, "you see Munje, I'm a British Mende!" (Mende is the name of my family's ethnic group). I would laugh and laugh...
