In Congo, most ladies pay great attention to their outfits because the looks matter here. If you want to be respected and approved of in Congo, you need a unique and magnificent-looking liputa apparel. It’s the local traditional attire made in a specific fashion. Liputa is always bright and eye-catching, never average. This Congolese traditional and modern folk clothing screams African by its vivid prints and alluring styles.
Congolese traditional attire is called “liputa”. But at the same time, it’s the name of this specific style of wearing Congolese folk clothing, even modern.
People in Congo, especially women, in general, pay great attention to their look. They are skilled fashionistas and it’s typical for the locals to dress up. And Congolese ladies know how to do it. More than that, if you want to get respect in Congo, you need to take great care with your wardrobe and always look fabulous. Average appearance and clothing is looked upon with disapproval in Congolese society, so every lady tries to make her liputa unique, colorful, and extraordinary.
The traditional liputa outfit usually consists of 4 items – a blouse, a wrap-around skirt, a wrapper, and a head tie. All of the garments are matching, made from the same bright and colorful fabric with African prints. These patterns can be very different but always multicolored and vivid.
The blouse typically has a big round neckline (sometimes off-the-shoulder), with no buttons or zippers, and decorative sleeves of various designs – puffed, flounce, cap, ruffled, plain short sleeves, etc. The skirt is traditionally long, about ankle-length, but modern liputas can be knee-length or even mini. The wrapper is worn as a sash around the waist and hips. And the headpiece is tied around the head like a typical African turban or in some other style. But modern women in Congo sometimes forgo a head tie and just wear their hair loose or braided.
Every Congolese lady has at least several unique liputa outfits in her wardrobe. And the pieces aren’t mixed with one another, like we do all the time with Western-style clothes when we wear the same top with jeans and skirts or the same jacket with different dresses, trousers, and skirts. In liputa style, the whole attire should be matching and every item created for this set only.
Woman in colorful Congolese liputa. Photographer Joe Mabel. From Wikipedia.org
There are liputa outfits for different occasions – visiting family, wedding, funeral, celebration, formal meeting, shopping, and even sports. Of course, each style and design differs from the others in cut, color, print, fabric, and so on. But the fabric is always heavily printed with African traditional patterns.
Congolese liputa is the style of traditional clothing that survives and develops beautifully in the 21st century. It is very popular among the local women, so it alters and changes along with the fashion. Modern liputa outfits look very much like contemporary clothes and often differ from original traditional ones dramatically, but the prints on the fabric always indicate the affiliation to Congolese folk culture.
