Between Conventional and Unconventional Styles:

Analysis of Dress Styles of Female Figures in Modern Nigerian Art

Abstract

Women’s social identity has been changing rapidly in Christian-dominated southern parts of Nigeria due to the influences of globalization and new media culture. This paper engages the local practice of female figures in conventional and unconventional dress styles in Nigeria. The nonconforming modern mode in reference is trousers while non-bifurcated styles primarily associated with the female gender constitute the conventional styles. The paper adopts both discourse analysis and visual analysis methods. It reveals two broad categories of Nigerian artists. The first and mainstream, beginning from Ben Enwonwu, has the general tendency to depict women in conventional female dress. The second, exemplified by Obi Nwaegbe, portrays women in trousers. This paper extends key arguments raised by my recently concluded post-doctoral fellowship project on female cross-dressing in Southeastern Nigeria. The paper hinges on the conceptual frame: the social responsibility of the artist. The argument is that the prevalence of skirts, gowns, and other purely female styles in more general art practice is based on their longstanding feminine characteristic and some moral stance. Local artists are more frequently representing them and this tends to obscure the appearance of female trousers in artworks by home-based Nigerian artists.