Tribes that Accessorize!

The Wodaabe Tribe

My drawing a the Wodaabe Tribes men

I find the Wodaabe tribe are the most obviously attractive and beautiful of the tribes I have seen. Mostly because of their textured clothing and beautiful jewellery.

During September, Wodaabe clans join together for a seasonal festival in various locations before their dry weather season.

The Wodaabe men dress up to impress the women and are judged on their beauty and dancing.

A key element of this tribe is their appearance - mostly the mens appearance to attract the women. This is so interesting due to our culture where the women get all dolled up with makeup, their hair and general appearance to attact the male attention.
All these images above are the ones which have stood out to me the most whilst researching the tribe.They all look gorgeous! Their skin is beautiful and the amount of accessories, beading, piercings is so striking! The jewellery and beading represents the love and attention which they are looking for. I can use this symbolism within my photoshoots to represent love and beauty.

The Fulani Tribe



"Woman of the Fulani tribe, West Africa, wearing ring money on her finger, nose and ears." Here her jewellery presents her fortune. I love the excessive amount of rings on her ears and in her nose... hmm ideas ideas!

Accessories, accessories! And piercings!

I have a feeling I’m going to be completed pieced and tattooed by the end of this project - Sorry Dad

A couple of accessories I have which I think may be useful…

An earing with a cuff attatchment

A feathered headband which I could add extra such as large feathers and materials to create a bold head piece

A scarf which I have bought from Primark... could be ripped and wrapped around the arms or put into the head piece or wrapped on top of the head

Chunky neclace which can be layered with other neclaces

A tribal styled bold ring from Primark.

I've done some drawings on how I could use the accessories not just for their actual purpose but for other purposes like hair decorations...

This image shows just examples of how I could use a an earring in the hair or a neclace across the forehead and the pendant in the center between her eye brows like a bindi mark which has religious symbolism.


“Couture” by Richard Kovacs
This image above is one which I found striking whilst I was looking over some blogs on fashion editorials shoots. This jewellery draped over the face looking really eye catching and can be really symbolic but also look incredibly beautiful!

This other image above includes neclaces, braclets and earrings in the hair - how I could place them e.g. hooked onto a plait or a braclet wrapped around the hair.

Below is a drawing of an image I found most exciting due to the layer of the neclaces around his neck and draping all the way down to his chest...