Since the dawn of the contemporary era, the African continent has been experiencing a unique trend in the quality of fashion accessories coming her way from the other continents of the world.
Today in most African nations and cities, the fashion trend is on the second handed accessories such as handbags, clothing materials, shoes, ear rings, belts and so on. African is the dumping ground of all these materials which have been used and thrown away in the western world. In Africa, these second handed material are known as “Tokumbos”.
The reason for such trend which is very commendable for many Africans is not far fetched. Most of the brand new accessories that enter the African countries are made in China. They are very inferior and of low quality. To worsen the fact, African investors request for such products to be made for them in the bid to make money. Africans generally go for cheap materials. Hence, once those cheap articles arrive, they are bought by many who are ignorant of their poor quality.
This fact above has made many people in Africa to be going for the second handed fashion accessories. A second hand Italian shoe for instance last very long more than 100 times than the fake brand new shoes which could only be worn for few months. Most of these second handed materials are even more costly than the brand new ones because of their durability. (more…)